Women’s ice hockey hopes to keep streak going

The Princeton women’s ice hockey team (9-4-1 overall, 5-4-1 ECAC) is scheduled to host the Penn State Nittany Lions (4-10-4, 1-3-4 College Hockey America) for its fifth annual two-game series this weekend at Baker Rink. The Princeton Tigers are currently on a four-game winning streak, which includes their sweep from last weekend against two major conference rivals, No. 7 Harvard and Dartmouth. This week was a successful week for the Orange and the Black, as junior defender Kelsey Koelzer was honored as the ECAC Player of the Week and senior goalie Kimberly Newell was honored as ECAC Goalie of the Week. The team’s offense has been led by freshman forward Karlie Lund in the past few games, who has previously been named ECAC Rookie of the Week. With many stellar players and great team chemistry, the Tigers are striving to continue their success in this weekend’s series against Penn State and the rest of the season.

Princeton is 3-1 in the relatively new series against Penn State. Last year, the Tigers and the Lions split the wins between both games. The Tigers lost the first game 2-1, which was the team’s season opener, and came out strong with a 4-1 win the next day on the Pegula Ice Arena. Princeton is the third ECAC contender that the Nittany Lions will face off against this season. Last weekend, Penn State swept Union by matching 3-0 scores in mid-October and lost 4-2 at St. Lawrence two weeks ago, the same team the Tigers lost 3-2 to in the beginning of their season.

Penn State’s team is led by forwards Laura Bowman and Amy Peterson, who have each scored a cumulative 11 points this season. Bowman has a team high of eight goals and three assists, while Peterson has a team best of eight assists and three goals. Similar to the Tigers, the Nittany Lions also have a very strong freshman forward this season, Victoria Samuelsson, who has scored a total of seven points. Samuelsson was also honored as CHA rookie of the week for her performance against the Union Dutchmen. Penn State’s third leading goal-scorer is senior forward Shannon Yoxheimer, with a total of six points this season. Senior goalie Celine Whitlinger has a .947 save percentage and a 1.59 GAA and has been ranked CHA Goalie of the Week twice in the 2015-2016 season. For the first time in program history, the Nittany Lions tallied back-to-back shutouts against a Division I team.

The puck is set to drop at 7 p.m. at Baker Rink on Friday, Dec. 11 and 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 12. Both games will be available to watch on the Ivy League Digital Network, as well as live-tweeted by @PUTigers_Live.