By: JACK LYONS
With three goals in the final 3 minutes of play, Princeton completed the comeback against St. Lawrence for a 4-2 win on Saturday.
The scoring began with St. Lawrence, 4:42 into the game. Senior Kayla Raniwsky capitalized on a loose puck in the crease and tapped it past Kimberly Newell to give SLU the 1-0 lead.
Princeton responded 11 minutes later with a goal by Brianna Leahy that was reviewed and upheld by the referees. Carmen MacDonald made the initial save on a shot by Morgan Sly, but in a jostle in the crease. The puck came loose and fell directly in front of Leahy, who hammered it home at the 15:07 mark to tie it for the Tigers.
The second period was full of penalties, but saw no scoring from either team.
A four goal third period was required to settle the contest. First, Kennedy Marchment scored her 12th goal of the season at the 9:40 mark to give SLU a 2-1 lead. Princeton was caught on a line change by Brooke Webster, who streaked in on a breakaway, but Newell was up to the task, making one of her 39 saves in the game on the sophomore. Later in the sequence, Marchment found a puck in the low slot and fired it past Newell on the blocker side for the Saints.
The Saints held the lead for close to 8 minutes, but with time winding down, the Tigers came alive and tied the game. Hillary Lloyd fired a snapshot past a sliding MacDonald with 3:09 left in the game, completing a 2 on 1 rush and beginning the comeback.
Cristin Shanahan potted the go ahead goal for the Tigers with 54 seconds to play in the game. “Falck took the puck around the defenseman, I looked up and we made eye contact,” said Shanahan. “She fired the puck over to me and I put it home.”
Kelsey Koelzer’s empty net goal sealed the comeback for the Tigers with 20 seconds to play.
“This was a big win for us,” said Shanahan. “This team is ahead of us in the standings, and its a big two points for us.”
Princeton coach Jeff Kampersal was happy with the way his team stayed with St. Lawrence throughout the game. “We’ve been playing great up to this weekend, and our kids hung in there. We kept playing great, and we were fortunate to get a few chances at the end .”
The win propelled Princeton into a tie with SLU in the tight race at the top of the ECAC standings, but Kampersal says his squad is just thinking about the next game. “We aren’t thinking about the playoffs. We have a big weekend next weekend with Brown and Yale, and that’s what we are focused on right now.”
Chris Wells felt that St. Lawrence played well, despite the losing scoreline. “We had a good game. We had plenty of chances, the puck was on the right people’s stick.