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 Captain Jessica Snelgrove scored her first goal of the season on Friday. |
Dec. 9, 2005
PRINCETON, N.J. - The Wayne State women's hockey team (6-9-2) suffered a 5-2 road loss to the seventh-ranked Princeton Tigers (9-3-2) at Hobey Baker Memorial Rink on Friday afternoon.
Princeton's Annie Greenwood opened the scoring 2:23 into the game with her 11th goal of the season, with an assist from Kim Pearce, to give the Tigers an early 1-0 lead. It marks Greenwood's eighth goal in her last five games.
The Warriors answered at 8:48 on a power-play goal by captain Jessica Snelgrove (Tecumseh, Ont./Team Ontario), her first of the season. Freshman Amanda Hungle (Regina, Sask./Team Saskatchewan/Regina Wild) earned her first collegiate assist on the play.
After being blanked, 6-0 and 5-0, in the only two previous meetings between these schools, Wayne State found themselves tied 1-1 with a Princeton squad ranked sixth in the nation.
The Tigers continued to pressure the Warriors and goaltender Valery Turcotte (Jonquiere, Que./Royal Metabetchouan), however, and netted two more goals before the end of the first period. Pearce put the Tigers back in the lead with her fifth goal of the season at 14:18 on an assist from Greenwood, and Sarah Butsch scored her third of the year at 18:31 from Dina McCumber and Chrissie Norwich.
Princeton outshot Wayne State, 8-2, in the first 20 minutes of play.
Tarah Clark scored her second of the season to increase Princeton's lead to 4-1 at 4:05 in the second period, with assists from Sonja Novak and Marykate Oakley.
The Tiger trio came together again at the 9:02 mark, as Oakley scored her fourth of the season from Novak and Clark to make it 5-1 in favor of Princeton and force head coach Jim Fetter to bring in sophomore goalie Tiffany Thompson (Dryden, Ont./Thunder Bay Queens) to replace Turcotte.
Thompson held the Tigers in check for the remainder of the period, saving all eight shots she faced and helping the Warriors kill a Princeton power play. Through 40 minutes, Princeton had 23 shots on goal to Wayne State's 10.
Wayne State outshot Princeton, 10-6, in the third period, but the frame was scoreless until the 12:52 mark, when Wayne State posted its second power-play goal of the game. Freshman Tina Vanderhoeven (London, Ont./London Juniors/Team Ontario) recorded her second goal of the season, with assists from Sarah Campbell (Smithers, B.C./Vancouver Griffins) and Melissa Boal (Pakenham, Ont./Ottawa Raiders), to narrow the Princeton lead to 5-2, which would prove to be the final result.
Boal now has 14 assists on the season, giving her sole possession of first place on WSU's all-time rookie assists list.
Thompson made 14 saves and surrendered no goals in just over 30 minutes of action for the Warriors. Princeton starting goaltender Roxanne Gaudiel made nine saves in the first two periods to earn the victory, and freshman Kristen Young came on to make nine saves in the third period.
Wayne State scored twice in six power-play opportunities. Princeton had just one power play in the game and did not score.
The Tigers will host the Warriors for the second game of the series on Saturday, Dec. 10, at 3:00 p.m.
