Women's Hockey: November slide ended with perfect weekend

The women’s hockey team is back on track after a weekend sweep of Brown and Yale. The Tigers, who snapped a six-game losing streak, improved to 5-4-1 in ECAC Hockey play (6-7-1 overall) and moved up one slot in the conference standings to sixth place by beating Yale 5-1 and Brown 3-0.

The weekend wins were especially sweet for freshman defender Brianne Mahoney, who scored her first career goal against Yale (1-14, 1-7) and added the game-winner against Brown (3-5-5, 1-4-3). Mahoney, who wears the jersey number 17, netted her first goal in a game dedicated to Yale’s “White Out for Mandi” event, a fundraiser to honor former Yale skater Mandi Schwartz, who lost her battle with cancer in April. Schwartz also wore number 17.

“You could see our team had a purpose going into this weekend all week at practice, and we were able to translate this to the ice and sweep the weekend to get the four points,” Mahoney said. “Our power play has really improved, and it showed this weekend.”

The Tigers were 1-for-5 on power plays against Yale and killed all seven penalties. The special teams followed up this performance by adding another power-play goal at Brown and were once again perfect on the penalty kill.

“We were able to move the puck well and capitalize on our opportunities, which helped us in both wins because special teams is such a big part of the game,” Mahoney added.

Sophomore forward Denna Laing kicked off the scoring against Yale late in the first period, with assists from junior forwards Kelly Cooke and Alex Kinney. The freshmen then dominated the second period, with goals coming from Mahoney and freshman forward Brianna Leahy. After a power-play goal by senior forward Danielle DiCesare that Kinney described as “textbook,” the Tigers had a 5-0 lead with eight minutes left to play.

The Bulldogs — after pulling their goalie for an extra attacker in the final minutes — avoided the shutout, but could not push across more than the one goal, falling 5-1 to the Tigers.

Princeton then turned around and earned a shutout against Brown, defeating the Bears 3-0. Mahoney kicked off the scoring early in the game, followed by a power-play goal by sophomore forward Sally Butler in the first period and a goal from Kinney in the second, sealing the win for the Tigers. Cooke added two assists and senior goalie Rachel Weber made 22 saves in the shutout.

“This weekend, we did a really good job of executing in the offense zone — keeping our feet moving, cycling, picking up garbage in front of the net, taking away the goalie’s eyes, getting good zone entries and producing on the power play,” Kinney said.

Kinney also emphasized the solid week of practice leading up to the games, saying that “everyone showed up” to play.

However, she also pointed out that the power play goals this weekend came when the team had already built up a lead, so while they served to “hammer in the nail,” the power play did not win the game.

“Taking advantage of the opportunity to put the puck away on the power play will win us games in the future,” Kinney said.

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The Tigers will look to carry over their power-play momentum next weekend as they take on conference-leading Quinnipiac (11-7-1, 7-2-1) twice in two days.