PRINCETON, N.J. – Entering Saturday afternoon's game against No. 10 Princeton at Baker Rink, the Yale women's ice hockey team's penalty killing unit had allowed only one power play goal in the previous five games. The Tigers were able to reverse that trend in decisive fashion, though scoring on their first three power plays of the game. That helped them eventually claim a 5-1 victory, their eighth in a row.

Yale (4-10-1, 3-4-1 ECAC Hockey) was coming off a hard-luck 1-0 loss to No. 4 Quinnipiac, having outshot the Bobcats 29-20 in the defeat Friday. Princeton (13-4-1, 6-5-1 ECAC Hockey) entered Saturday on a roll offensively with 29 goals in the previous seven games, including a 6-1 shellacking of Brown Friday in which defenseman Kelsey Koelzer had a hat trick.

The first three Yale penalties of the game enabled the Tigers to keep that offensive momentum going. On the first power play Princeton defenseman Stephanie Sucharda skated in between the circles, then wristed one through traffic and past Yale junior goalie Hanna Mandl at 13:17 for a 1-0 lead. On the second one Koelzer grabbed the puck inside the Princeton blue line, skated up the right side of the ice, then fired one just past Mandl's glove and underneath the crossbar from the right circle while falling to the ice. That put the Tigers up 2-0 at 19:33 of the first.

Princeton scored again on its third power play of the day, this time at 3:55 of the second. With freshman goalie Kyra O'Brien on in relief of Mandl, a Tiger shot was blocked and fell to the ice in the slot. For a split-second players from both teams scrambled to locate the puck, and unfortunately for the Bulldogs the first person to spot it was Princeton forward Karlie Lund. She quickly poked it in to extend the lead to 3-0.

Yale got its first successful penalty kill a few minutes after the Lund goal, and the Bulldogs began building momentum after that. On a power play at 14:33 of the second, sophomore forward Eden Murray set up freshman defenseman Julia Yetman just inside the blue line in the Princeton zone. Yetman rifled a slap shot wide to the left of the net. The puck bounced off the boards directly to senior forward Hanna Åström at the post, and she knocked it over Princeton goalie Kimberly Newell's shoulder to pull Yale within 3-1.

The Bulldogs killed off another penalty at the start of the third, but at 3:19 Lund scored again -- this time via a backhander in transition -- to increase the Tigers' lead to 4-1.

Princeton, which edged Yale 4-3 when these two teams met earlier this season, then killed off a penalty with 10:37 to play to help thwart any chance of a Yale comeback. A Bulldog turnover just outside the Yale zone enabled Tigers forward Fiona McKenna to skate in and put one high past O'Brien's blocker with 49 seconds to play for the 5-1 final.

Newell, who entered the game sixth in the nation in save percentage, made 23 saves for the win. Mandl had 14 and O'Brien had six. Princeton finished 3-for-7 on the power play, outshooting Yale 25-24.

The Bulldogs were once again without junior forward Phoebe Staenz, who missed this weekend's games while preparing to represent her native Switzerland at the upcoming Nations Cup in Germany. Staenz entered the weekend tied for Yale's team lead in goals with six.

Yale hosts No. 6 Clarkson at Ingalls Rink next Friday.

Report by Sam Rubin '95 (sam.rubin@yale.edu), Yale Sports Publicity