Women's Hockey: Team opens campaign with exhibition loss

The women’s ice hockey team opened its season with an exhibition loss to McGill on Friday at Baker Rink.

Despite three goals, the team was unable to overcome a strong McGill head start and ultimately fell 4-3.

“I think we started off a little slow, and then we let in two early goals, which is not ideal, but we played well for the rest of [the game],” head coach Jeff Kampersal ’92 said. “We played well for about 50 minutes, so we will continue to try and play well for all 60.”

Despite showing up for the exhibition game half an hour late, the Canadian squad hammered out two goals within the first few minutes of the game, forcing Princeton to play catch-up for the rest of regulation.

“I just think they’ve played a lot more hockey than we have. We’ve only had four real practices, and we have some young kids who may be nervous or whatnot, so a lot of things contributed to starting slowly,” Kampersal explained.

Princeton has five new freshmen this year, resulting in a roster that is well balanced between upperclassmen and underclassmen.

Junior forward Paula Romanchuk started Princeton’s comeback thanks to an assist by sophomore forward Corey Stearns, putting the squad within a point’s reach of McGill.

Sophomore defender Krystyna Bellisario assisted junior forward Julie Johnson for Princeton’s second goal, to make the score 3-2, and senior defender Laura Martindale scored Princeton’s final goal.

Junior forward Danielle DiCesare made one last attempt for the Tigers with only three seconds left in the game, but her last-ditch effort sailed wide as the game ended.

“We battled back and we competed hard for the last two periods, and what we’re trying to focus on is consistency and competitiveness,” Kampersal said.

Princeton gained momentum after the first period and outshot McGill by nearly a factor of two in the second and third stanzas. The Tigers finished the game with a 23-20 edge in shots on goal.

The team’s regular schedule will begin with a game in Boston against Northeastern on Friday.