Women’s ice hockey sweeps Quinnipiac, extend unbeaten streak to 10 games

This past weekend, the women’s ice hockey team (7–2–3 overall, 6–0–2 ECAC Hockey) hosted Quinnipiac (4–10–3, 3–4–1) on Friday night and then traveled that night after the game to play the Bobcats at their home in Hamden, Conn., on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers continued their unbeaten streak with a 3–2 win on Friday and a 4–1 win on Saturday. These results saw No. 6 Princeton maintain its position atop the ECAC women’s hockey standings. The Tigers moved up from their previous ranking at No. 10 in the U.S. College Hockey Online (USCHO) rankings to No. 6 as they continue their unbeaten streak. Coming into the weekend, Quinnipiac was tied for fourth place with Colgate (9–5–2, 5–2–1), who Princeton beat 6–0 before Thanksgiving break.

In Friday’s game, Princeton got two goals from junior defender Claire Thompson and a third from freshman forward Maggie Connors. Both of Thompson’s goals came off of power-play opportunities where she found herself in the high slot. Freshman forward Sarah Fillier assisted on all three goals. Sophomore goalie Rachel McQuigge had a career high of 39 saves. This beats her past career high, which she set against Colgate two weeks prior.

On Saturday, Fillier got a chance to finish the opportunities that had the Tigers’ offense had been generating netting two of Princeton’s four goals. The other two goals came from junior forward Carly Bullock and senior forward Karlie Lund. Fillier has been key to Princeton’s success so far this season despite having missed four of the games when she was playing with Team Canada. In her eight games played, Fillier has 15 points (three goals, 12 assists), only trailing Lund who has 18 (10 goals, eight assists). Fillier leads the team in assists and has the highest points per game average on the team. McQuigge did not face too much action on Saturday, seeing only 21 shots despite Quinnipiac getting an early goal. McQuigge saved 20 of those 21 shots.

Two areas that the Tigers hoped to take advantage of were its penalty power-play offense and its success at face-offs. Against Quinnipiac, Princeton capitalized on two of its four power-play opportunities. As for its face-offs, the Tigers were dominant on Friday, winning 31 of 47 and continued to win a majority of them on Saturday night, when they won 33 of 60. Fillier was again a big part of Princeton’s success, winning 17 of her 29 face-off opportunities.

Next week, the Tigers will travel to New York to play Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (5–8–4, 3–3–0) on Friday evening and Union (2–12–2, 0–5–1) on Saturday afternoon. This past weekend, RPI and Union traveled to play Harvard (4–5–1, 3–3–1) and Dartmouth (3–8–1, 2–5–8). Harvard defeated both, and Dartmouth beat Union and lost to RPI. RPI is currently tied for No. 7 with Clarkson (12–4, 3–3), and Union sits in 12th place in the ECAC. Continuing to perform well will be vital for the Tigers to stay ahead of Cornell (8–1–4, 6–1–1), which sits just one point behind them in the ECAC rankings with 13.

Links to watch live streams of the two games will be available on the Princeton Athletics website. After those games, the Tigers will have a break, before they come home to host Merrimack (10–5–2, 6–5–1) in a two-game series on Dec. 30 and Dec. 31. These are two of the three remaining non-conference games that Princeton has, the last against Penn State (7–9–2, 2–6–0) at home on Jan. 29.