Women’s hockey sweeps Yale, Brown

This past weekend, the No. 6 women’s hockey team (22–5–1, 17–4–1 ECAC) played its last weekend of the regular season hosting to Ivy League foes, Brown (3–23–3, 2–18–2) and Yale (16–13–0, 13–9–0). Princeton ended the regular season with a sweep before the ECAC Tournament begins.

On Friday against the Bears, Princeton scored first with senior defender Sylvie Wallin scoring with less than seven minutes left in the first period. Wallin was set up by her defense partner, sophomore defender Mariah Keopple, who found Wallin in the slot where she finished off the power-play goal.

Then, just after the start of the second period, sophomore forward Maggie Connors jumped on a rebound from a shot by senior defender Claire Thompson to extend the Tigers’ lead to 2–0. Brown scored next, but not long after senior forward Carly Bullock began what would be a weekend of scoring with a shot from right in front. This would be Bullock’s first of three goals on the day, giving her a natural hat-trick and helping Princeton defeat the Bears 5–1. This was Bullock’s third career hat-trick. Thompson also had a three-assist game, the second of her career.

Saturday afternoon on Senior Day, the Tigers did their seniors proud in defeating the Bulldogs 5–1. Yale scored first, but this only woke up Princeton, who responded with five straight goals to put away the Bulldogs. Sophomore forward Sarah Fillier scored first for the Tigers on a breakaway started by Bullock. Fillier scored again in the second period to give the Tigers a lead that Bullock would then extend with her first goal of the day. Bullock scored her fifth and final goal of the weekend off a rebound from a shot by first-year defender Kate Monihan. To finish off the Princeton scoring for the weekend, junior forward Shannon Griffin scored on a puck the Yale goalie could not find.

Saturday was special for several milestones that the Tigers reached. Bullock scored the 150th point of her career, the ninth player in Princeton program history to reach that number. Senior goalie Stephanie Neatby, who won both games for Princeton, got her 41st win, tying her for fourth in career wins with Roxanne Gaudiel ’06. Finally, the team tied its program season-high win total of 22 set in the 2015–16 season. In addition, the team held a ceremony recognizing its five seniors: forward Mackenzie Ebel, Bullock, Thompson, Wallin, and Neatby after the game against Yale. This group has been a part of two trips to the ECAC semifinals so far and a trip to the NCAA Quarterfinals last season. They are among the winningest classes in Princeton history with 76 wins, including three 20-win seasons.

This weekend, Princeton hosts No. 10 Quinnipiac (19–12–3, 11–9–2) in the ECAC quarterfinals. The games will be on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 3 p.m., with Sunday’s game only being played if neither team has won two games yet.