SENIOR MOMENT: Princeton University women’s hockey player Shannon Griffin, left, battles a Yale player on the boards last Saturday as the rivals met at Hobey Baker Rink in the regular season finale. Senior forward and team captain Griffin and the Tigers played hard in a losing cause as they fell 3-0 to the Bulldogs. In upcoming action, Princeton, now 11-13-5 overall and 9-10-3 ECAC Hockey, will be competing in the league quarterfinals where they are seeded eighth and will play at top-seeded Harvard in a best-of three series starting on February 25. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

After the Princeton University women’s hockey team fell 3-0 to Yale last Saturday in its regular season finale, Shannon Griffin was in no hurry to leave the ice.

It was the final game at Hobey Baker Rink for Tiger senior forward Griffin and long after other players had gone to the locker room, she and classmate, goalie Rachel McQuigge, hugged and chatted near the Princeton bench.

“We were both shedding a couple of tears there, it is a very emotional day for all of us,” said Griffin.

“We have been through the ups and downs helping to build this program. It is continuing to grow and women’s hockey is continuing to grow. She has been one of my best friends since freshman year so it is going to be weird not seeing her every day.”

Griffin was looking to make the most of every moment last weekend as Princeton tied Brown 2-2 on Friday before the game with Yale.

“There are so many emotions going on; it is hard knowing that this is my last weekend playing at Hobey Baker Rink,” said Griffin, a 5’4 native of Arlington, Mass. who had tallied seven points this season on four goals and three assists and now has 17 goals and 19 assists in her career.

“I have been here for five years now with the COVID year. It had been a long time coming but it flew by. I just hope that the younger girls take it all in. I am so grateful that I have gotten a chance to play here in this amazing arena and be a part of PWIH and the amazing culture that the team has.”

The emotions of the finale helped fuel the Tigers in their effort against Yale as they matched the Bulldogs in shots on goal as both teams had 23.

“Black Out Baker is one of our very special home games, it always gives us a lot of energy,” said Griffin. “We know Yale is a very good opponent and that fires us up. The team does a really good job of feeding off of each other to build a lot of energy and get it going. We had a great first period, we came out really strong. We were really proud of that. In the third period, we just kept the energy up and the spirit throughout the team. Everyone really was there to help each other.”

It has been a bumpy ride this winter as Princeton has gone 11-13-5 overall and 9-10-3 ECAC Hockey, fighting through injuries, COVID issues, and rescheduled games.

“One of our core values is being resilient,” said Griffin. “I think that is definitely one word to describe the group this year, especially with COVID and the uncertainty with postponements. You don’t know who is not going to be in the lineup and when they are going to get pulled and what not. So we have been resilient; you just come out and play and take what the day gives you.”

As a team captain along with classmate Sharon Frankel, Griffin has aimed to hold things together through the ups and downs.

“It was an honor to be voted by my teammates,” said Griffin. “I just hope to be the leader that they elected. I am here for my teammates and I am here for any coaches. The role that I wanted to take was to be the perfect middleman between them. I also wanted to show that senior year comes really quick. We have a lot of young girls so it is just making sure that they have a mentor or a leader to look up to.”

Over her years with the program, Griffin has appreciated others being there for her.

“With the teammates I have had throughout my four years, I have met some amazing people and some of my best friends that I will have for the rest of my life,” said Griffin. “Through our coaches and the team around the team, everyone is incredible in supporting us. That is going to be the biggest thing for me, not having that team and that support every day because it is a lot. It is incredible especially with the culture that the team is able to have right now. It is going to keep growing and building and I am excited for what they have to come.”

Princeton head coach Cara Morey credits the squad’s senior class with making an incredible contribution this winter.

“The seniors have been awesome, they all took a year off to be able to play this year which was really cool,” said Morey, whose senior group includes Sarah Verbeek in addition to Griffin, McQuigge, and Frankel.

“They have been the backbone of our team this year. We have been super thin, we are missing five forwards and missing some Ds. They have done a great job of keeping us positive and rallying. We have been in every single game.”

Morey liked the way her team stayed in the game against a powerful Yale team that finished the regular season at 22-6-1 overall and 16-5-1 ECACH.

“We started strong, we sat back a bit in the second, I thought they probably changed their game plan a bit,” said Morey. “We came on strong in the third, we outshot them 8-5. We are having trouble finding the back of the net which we know. I actually thought today was a really great game.”

Like Griffin, Morey believes that resilience has been the theme of the season for the Tigers.

“It has been a tough year, COVID wreaked havoc on our program with us losing players,” said Morey. “We were missing Annie Kuehl this weekend. It seems like we never had a full roster this year. There is a lot of heart and soul with these kids. They are great kids.”

In Morey’s view, Princeton is poised to give Harvard (21-7-1 overall, 16-5-1 ECACH) a great battle in the playoff matchup.

“I am excited, we always play well against Harvard,” said Morey, whose team had two narrow losses to the Crimson in regular season action. “It was a 1-0 game (on January 21) and a 2-0 game (on February 11). We can definitely take it to them. Our league this year is so tight, anybody can win.”

Griffin, for her part, is primed for a big weekend in Cambridge.

“I am from the Boston area so I love getting to go and play Harvard and having a lot of my family being able to come the game,” said Griffin. “So for me, I am very excited. I know that the girls are really fired up. Harvard is a great opponent. We really like having that underdog mentality.”