Princeton women’s ice hockey (7-4-1 overall, 3-4-1 Eastern College Athletic Conference) rebounded this weekend against the RIT Tigers (4-0-14, 0-0-6 College Hockey America), after facing two consecutive losses against St. Lawrence and Clarkson Universities. The team played in a two-game series at Gene Polisseni Center, where they swept the Tigers of New York 4-0 in the first game and 6-1 in the second. Princeton won the series for the eighth time in a row, with RIT’s last win being in 1989.
On Friday, the team’s win was a balanced effort between offense and defense, as each goal was scored by a different player and senior goalie Kimberly Newell had her first shutout of the season. Freshman forward Karlie Lund got things started in the first period, with a goal on the first power-play opportunity of the game off of an assist from junior forward Hilary Lloyd. The second goal was scored by junior defender Kelsey Koelzer, after she got the puck behind her own cage and raced up the side of the rink to score in RIT’s top-left corner. Junior forward Molly Contini came out strong after halftime, scoring the third goal of the game only 49 seconds into the third period. The final goal of the game was made by Lloyd off of an assist from Lund at the end of the same period. The New York Tigers had plenty of opportunities to score, but the New Jersey Tigers’ goalie Kimberly Newell proved too strong for them.
Orange and Black outshot RIT 42-20 in the second game on Saturday, with 19 saves from sophomore goalie Alysia DaSilva. Princeton had the momentum right from the start, with a goal from sophomore forward Kiersten Falk at only 1:42 into the first period. Junior forward Molly Contini once again scored two power-play goals in the first and second periods, while junior forward Morgan Sly also tallied two great assists. RIT's Taylor Thurston scored her team’s only goal of the weekend at 11:03 of the third. Princeton answered this with three goals in the final six minutes by senior forward Jamie McDonell, junior forward Hilary Lloyd, and Koelzer.
The Princeton Tigers hope to continue this winning momentum as they prepare to host Harvard (8-2-1, 5-1-1) at 7p.m. on Friday, and Dartmouth (4-4-2, 4-1-2) at 4p.m. at Hobey Baker Rink this coming weekend. Both games will be available to watch on the Ivy League Digital Network.