They're not in yet, but they're not out yet, either.
The women's hockey team kept its hopes of making the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament alive this weekend by nabbing a much needed win. The Tigers (11-11-5 overall, 9-10-3 ECAC) held on to defeat sixth-place Providence, 2-1, Saturday but fell to fourth-place Northeastern (20-7-3, 14-5-3) the next day, 4-0. Princeton remained one spot removed from the postseason, stuck at ninth place in the ECAC.
The Tigers pulled the upset Saturday in Providence, R.I., against the Friars (18-9-3, 12-7-3) by getting back to the basics — and by trying out some new tricks, too.
"We hustled to the puck a lot and were the first ones there," freshman forward Nikola Holmes said. "And we tried new things on the power play."
Princeton was given plenty of opportunities to try out its new offensive scheme. The Tigers had six power-play opportunities and were able to convert on two of them.
Off and running
The Tigers jumped out to the lead in the second period when Holmes received a pass from senior defender Dani Holtschlag and sent the puck past Friar netminder Sara Decosta.
Off another man advantage in the third period, junior forward Abbey Fox and sophomore defender Aviva Grumet-Morris assisted on sophomore forward Andrea Kilbourne's 18th goal of the season to put the Tigers up, 2-0.
On the last Tiger power play of the game, with just two minutes, 47 seconds to play, Providence got on the board with a shorthanded goal, and the Friars were suddenly back in the game. The game ended with some controversy in front of the Tiger net, as the game-tying puck crossed the line just after the whistle was blown.
"On offense, our power plays were working," head coach Jeff Kampersal '92 said. "And we were getting bounces that we haven't been getting."
Unfortunately for the Tigers, their good fortune on the power play vanished Sunday against Northeastern, as did any hope of getting a lucky bounce.
"It was so frustrating," Holmes said. "Our shots hit the pipes three or four times."
Power outage
"I thought we played extremely well [Sunday]," Kampersal said, "but we were just tired as a team."
"We were a little tired for Northeastern," Holmes said. "We worked really hard against Providence and since we're not a real big team, we were a little tired the next day."
The weary Tigers were able to keep the Huskies scoreless in the first period, but then the floodgates opened. Northeastern got two goals in the second period, both off of Husky forward Kim Greene's assists. In the third period, after a Northeastern power play goal with 3:57 left in the game, the Huskies marched down the ice again to score 35 seconds later, icing the game at 4-0.
Freshman netminder Sarah Ahlquist had 19 saves for the Tigers, and Northeastern's Erika Silva recorded her ninth shutout of the season.
"The effort was there," Kampersal said. "Our power play wasn't working anymore."
Princeton was 0 for 6 on the power play against the Huskies.
The Tigers are still in control of their destiny, but now the task becomes even more difficult. Princeton has two more games left in the regular season, and they'll be played at home. But the Tigers' last march to the postseason will have to go through second-place Harvard Friday and first-place Brown Saturday.
Princeton just needs two points to switch spots with now eighth-place Niagara. However, it won't be easy to skim points off of either of the two visiting powerhouses.
Right now, the Tigers' goal is to take out Harvard and get their two points there.
"We have to beat Harvard," Holmes said. "We're always a little better on our first day."
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