It didn’t take long for things to go awry when the Princeton University women’s hockey team hosted No. 8 Clarkson last Friday.

The Tigers yielded a goal 29 seconds into the contest and found themselves trailing 4-0 after the first period. Things didn’t get much better after that with Princeton falling 7-0 as their five-game unbeaten streak was snapped.

In reflecting on the setback, Princeton head coach Jeff Kampersal didn’t mince words.

“We didn’t show up to compete whatsoever,” said Kampersal. “We were bugs and Clarkson was the windshield. They basically crushed us from the opening shift on.”

As a result, Kampersal viewed the game against visiting St. Lawrence on Saturday as a referendum on his team’s character.

“Today was a test to see if we could bounce back and I think we did play hard,” said Kampersal.

While the Tigers trailed the Saints 1-0 in the early going on Saturday, they fought back to knot the contest at 1-1 on a goal by freshman forward Cassidy Tucker with 11:26 left in the first period. But St. Lawrence responded with a go-ahead goal 10 minutes later and went on to a 4-1 victory.

Although Kampersal was happy with the resolve shown by his team, he was disappointed to see his players whistled for seven penalties on the afternoon.

“We showed heart today,” said Kampersal, whose team was outshot 31-28 by the Saints.

“We need to play a little bit smarter; we need to be better disciplined. We had too many penalties.”

The Tigers surrendered two power play goals as playing shorthanded seemed to wear them down.

“The penalty killing was not good so we need to figure that out,” said Kampersal of the Tigers who dropped to 5-4-1 overall and 4-4 ECAC Hockey with the loss to St. Lawrence.

“Most teams score on scrums in front of the net on us. Somehow the puck ends up in the back of our net. We need to do a better job of clearing out and just being tough in general.

Princeton also needs to do a better job on the offensive end. “We had a couple of good chances here or there,” said Kampersal.

“I don’t know what happened; we just need to be a little bit stronger on the puck and more opportunistic.

As the Tigers look to get back on the winning track, the focus will be on being strong mentally and physically.

“They have to be tough, they have to be disciplined and they have to be competitive,” said Kampersal.

“So today, we were competitive but we weren’t very tough or disciplined. Yesterday, we were none of the three.”

Next weekend, the Tigers will need to display all three qualities in abundance as they play a two-game set on November 30 and December 1 at top-ranked and defending national champion Minnesota (15-1).

“They are incredible, they had an incredible streak there (winning 62 straight games) and it should probably get more publicity than it did,” said Kampersal.

“They are obviously very well coached and they have great players. It will be a great rink with great fans. It will be a fun atmosphere to play hockey in.”