CORE STRENGTH: Princeton University women’s hockey player Corey Stearns heads up the ice in action last winter. Last Saturday, senior forward Stearns scored a goal and added three assists as Princeton topped Robert Morris 6-3 to go 2-0 in its opening weekend of action. The Tigers, who topped Rochester Institute of Technology 2-1 on Friday in their season opener, start ECAC Hockey play by hosting Dartmouth October 26 and Harvard on October 27. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

The Princeton University women’s ice hockey team didn’t have to wait long to be bailed out by freshman goalie Kimberly Newell.

Playing at Rochester Institute of Technology last Friday evening in its season opener, the Tigers labored to pull out a 2-1 victory as Newell made the difference.

“We played lousy against RIT; it was a combination of things,” said Princeton head coach Jeff Kampersal, who got 33 saves from the Vancouver, B.C. native in her debut with Gabie Figueroa scoring in the first period and Sally Butler tallying the winning goal in the third period to break a 1-1 tie.

“They had a crowd of 1,350 for their Brick City Homecoming weekend. We may have taken them lightly and they forced us into some bad plays. The goalie pulled it off for us, we knew before that Kim was good but we learned that she is really good. I give the kids credit, they came back when they had to.”

A day later at Robert Morris, the Tigers came back with a superb effort as they trailed 2-1 early the second period before pulling away to a 6-3 victory. The Tigers got two goals and two assists from senior Kelly Cooke in the victory over Colonials with classmate Corey Stearns chipping in a goal and three assists and Butler, Rose Alleva and Brianna Leahy scoring a goal apiece.

“We played much better; we didn’t deserve to be down,” said Kampersal, noting that netminder Newell came up big again as she recorded 33 saves in the victory.

“Cooke had a big shorthanded goal; she was hustling all over the ice. Corey made some big plays around the net. We need those two as well as [Alex] Kinney to be dangerous; we are playing them together. It was good overall to get two wins.”

As Princeton opens ECAC Hockey action by hosting Dartmouth October 26 and Harvard on October 27, Kampersal knows his team will need to make more big plays to get two wins this weekend.

“We need to improve in some areas; we have to worry about ourselves and our game,” said Kampersal.

“We respect both opponents. Hopefully they will both be close competitive games. Dartmouth always has good forwards; they lost some to graduation but have replenished them from recruiting. They are strong, top to bottom. Harvard has got a goalie (Emerance Maschmeyer) who is like Kim Newell and they are always strong up front.”