Women's Hockey: Mahoney, Weber net midweek accolades

The women’s hockey team will get a chance to extend its current two-game win streak when it plays Quinnipiac twice this weekend in a home-and-home series.

Princeton (6-7-1 overall, 5-4-1 ECAC Hockey) hopes to gain some ground as the team is currently in the middle of the ECAC and trailing first-place Quinnipiac (11-7-1, 7-2-1) by four points. Winning both games would not only allow the Tigers to catch up to Quinnipiac, but it would also help put their recent six-game losing streak in more distant memory.

“We have a great opportunity this weekend against Quinnipiac,” sophomore forward Sally Butler said. “Both games are huge. Quinnipiac is a strong and disciplined team. We’ll have to bring our top game to beat them.”

Butler has been a very important player for the team; she currently has seven goals and seven assists for a team-high 14 points.

“Our games against Quinnipiac this weekend are very important,” sophomore forward Denna Laing added. “A lot of us have a score to settle from our playoff losses to Quinnipiac last season, and for current ECAC standings, these games are also essential wins.”

Laing has been another very productive player for the Tigers with 13 points and an impressive plus-minus total of plus-8, second-best on the team.

“There is no secret formula to it,” Laing said of her performance. “I may be one of the people putting the puck in the back of the net right now, but that one shot couldn’t happen without the hard work from the rest of the team to get to that point.”

A more recent contributor to the team has been freshman defender Brianne Mahoney. She scored the first two goals of her college career last weekend in wins over Brown and Yale. Both goals were game-winners and enough to earn her the ECAC Rookie of the Week award.

“It feels great winning the ECAC Rookie of the Week. I was very excited to receive the honor and having my team and me recognized for a great weekend,” Mahoney said.

“All the upperclassmen really helped me and the three other freshmen really adjust to the next level of college hockey,” she added. “They have been a great support system in the past few months and pushed us to reach that next level on and off the ice.”

“From the moment we stepped on the ice we expected big things from our freshmen, and they have given us just what we expected,” Laing said. “There are only four of them but they have been strong contributors on and off the ice. Our team has suffered a lot of injuries this year, and the freshmen have done a great job to fill in the gaps.”

The Tigers’ goaltender, senior Rachel Weber, has also shown great play recently. She won the ECAC Goaltender of the Week award after allowing only one score in the two victories over Brown and Yale.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

The team needs her to continue this level of play in order to get a sweep against Quinnipiac.

“It’s an honor to be named ECAC Goalie of the Week,” Weber said. “There are a lot of great goalies in the league, so to receive that is a big honor. I have to give some credit to our defensemen as well — they’ve been playing great, so this award is a testament to their performance as well as mine.”

“We need everybody on our team to play big this weekend,” Butler said. “If we stick to the game plan, do the small things right and win our battles, we will set ourselves up to take home four points.”

“Wins in hockey are not determined by records or quality of players going in but by the heart and effort of a team during a game,” Laing added. “I hope our hearts are bigger than theirs this weekend.”