DOG DAY AFTERNOON: Princeton University women’s hockey player Dominique Cormier fires the puck up the ice in a game this season. Freshman defenseman Cormier picked up an assist in a losing cause as eighth-seeded Princeton fell 3-1 to second-seeded Yale in the ECAC Hockey semifinals last Friday afternoon in New Haven, Conn. The loss to the Bulldogs left the Tigers with a final record of 13-15-5. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

There was a lot on the line for the Princeton University hockey programs as last Friday dawned.

Coming off a stunning upset of top-seeded Harvard in an ECAC Hockey best-of-three quarterfinal series a week earlier, the eighth-seeded Princeton women’s hockey team was facing second-seeded Yale in the semis at New Haven, Conn. in an afternoon matinee.

Hours later, the 10th-seeded Tigers men’s squad was taking to the ice in Schenectady, N.Y., to play at seventh-seeded Union in the opening game of a best-of-three ECACH first round series.

In the early stages of their semifinal clash, the underdog Princeton women looked to be on the way to another upset, taking a 1-0 lead over the Bulldogs on a first-period goal by Mia Coene. But Yale answered back with two second period goals to forge ahead 2-1.

Over the last 20 minutes of the contest, the Tigers outshot Yale 8-3 but couldn’t break through, yielding an empty net goal in the waning moments of the contest to fall 3-1.

The defeat left the Tigers with a final record of 13-15-5 but the future looks bright for the squad. While Princeton is losing four seniors in star goalie Rachel McQuigge along with forwards Shannon Griffin, Sharon Frankel, and Sarah Verbeek, it will return its three top scorers this season (Maggie Connors, Annie Kuehl, and Stef Wallace). In addition, the team should get a huge lift from the return of Sarah Filler, who took a year away from college to compete for the Canadian women’s team at the Beijing 2022 Olympics and starred as it won the gold medal.

As for the Tiger men, they were looking for a fresh start in the playoffs after struggling through a disappointing regular season campaign which saw them deal with COVID issues and injuries to key players. While Princeton came into the playoffs mired in a six-game losing streak, it was heartened by having gone 8-2 in its last 10 ECACH playoff contests, including winning the 2018 championship.

In the series opener, the Tigers displayed some of that playoff magic, knotting the game at 1-1 on a second period goal by Liam Gorman and then getting a late tally by Noah de la Durantaye to draw within 3-2 with 1:15 left in the game. Princeton, though, couldn’t get any closer as it fell by that 3-2 margin.

A day later, the Tigers battled valiantly, trailing 2-0 entering the third period but ran out of gas as the Dutchmen scored three unanswered goals on the way to a 5-1 victory and a sweep of the series.

Princeton ended the winter with an 8-21-2 record but, like the women, they are returning three of their top four scorers (Ian Murphy, Spencer Kersten, and Adam Robbins) as well as star defensemen Pito Walton, David Ma, and de la Durantaye.