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Women's Hockey: Regular season opens with Huskies, Friars

The women’s hockey team heads to New England this weekend to take on Northeastern (3-1-1) and Providence (5-1) in its first regular season games of the season. 

Princeton rallied back from an early deficit in its close 4-3 defeat to McGill in an exhibition last Friday. The Tigers failed to claw their way back after allowing two early goals. With this loss in mind, the Tigers do not want to repeat the mistake in their games this weekend.

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Last weekend, Princeton also fell 3-0 to Brown in an Ivy League scrimmage mini-game but had a promising 4-2 victory over Yale.

The team’s last season-opener victory came in 2003 against Connecticut, and with two losses and four tied games in the interim, a win is long overdue. 

“Both Northeastern and Providence are solid teams that work hard and have talent,” senior defender Sasha Sherry said. “They will both pose a challenge for us, and we will have to battle for all 60 minutes if we want to come home with two wins this weekend.”

The Tigers face Northeastern tonight, hoping to turn the tables on the result from last season.

“Our plan of action is to use our speed to create offensive opportunities, get a lot of shots on net, play smart but aggressive defense, and win our one-on-one battles in every zone,” Sherry said.

In their last meeting back in January, the Huskies managed a 4-0 win over Princeton at Baker Rink, and they lead the all-time series between the two schools with a 25-11-2 record, including a 13-5-1 record when hosting the Tigers.

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Northeastern also struggled against McGill in exhibition earlier this year but managed to clinch a 3-2 win in overtime. Since then, the Huskies have won three of five games on the road, including two wins against Robert Morris last weekend.

Providence has proven to be a force to be reckoned with this season, dropping only one game — its opener against Robert Morris — and the Friars are currently riding high on a five-game winning streak. In late September, the team recorded 3-1 and 6-4 victories over McGill on consecutive nights. The Friars boast a 43-8-4 all-time record against the Tigers, including a 20-3-3 mark at home. 

In recent years, however, Princeton has been closing the gap, with a much-improved 4-1-4 record over the past nine games. The score was close in the teams’ last meeting, with the Friars topping the Tigers 2-1.  

“Both opponents this weekend have a lot of talent and skill on forward,” Sherry said. “We will give them respect, but not too much. We won’t be allowing any one player to get off easy. This is an important weekend in terms of starting strong and setting the tone for our season.”

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With only two games before the start of the ECAC Hockey season, Princeton will need to reach mid-year form in order to achieve success against a pair of talented opponents.