LEADING THE WAY: Princeton University women’s hockey player Issy Wunder (No. 9) leads the celebration after scoring a goal in a game earlier in the season. Last Saturday, senior forward and captain Wunder scored two goals, including the game-winner in overtime, as Princeton defeated Brown 3-2. The win helped the Tigers clinch a tie with Yale for the ECAC Hockey regular season title as they won the crown for the first time in program history. No. 9 Princeton, now 21-8, will next be in action when it hosts a best-of-three ECACH quarterfinal series starting on February 27. (Photo by Frank Jacobs III)
By Bill Alden
Issy Wunder started her final regular season weekend at Hobey Baker Rink for the Princeton University women’s hockey team by making some personal history and ended it by sparking the program to an all-time first.
On Friday before the Tigers took on Yale, senior forward and team captain Wunder received the ECAC Hockey’s Mandi Schwartz Scholar-Athlete of the Year award which is given annually to ECACH women’s hockey player in honor of the late Mandi Schwartz, a Yale women’s hockey alumna whose battle with cancer continues to inspire the hockey community.
Wunder, a 5’11 naive of Toronto, Ontario, Cnada, who is the first Tiger to win the award that was inaugurated in 2007, was deeply touched to earn the accolade.
“It is a huge honor, also playing against Yale makes it mean even more,” said Wunder, a psychology major with a minor in neuroscience who has a 3.92 GPA and was the team’s lead ambassador for the Let Her Play campaign last year, has served as a volunteer for Reading for the Tigers, coaching Barbies at Baker, and has served as a mentor for young hockey players in Toronto. “I am just really grateful to the Schwartz family and Yale and the ECAC. When you look at the list of people who have won the award, they are all great people. I was a little surprised to hear that a Tiger had never won before. I think it means more about Princeton as a whole. We have such great culture and community here. I just happen to be the person who won it. It speaks a lot about how much we work in the classroom and on the ice.”
Needing a win over second-place Yale to clinch the first ECACH regular season title in program history, things didn’t go great for the Tigers as they fell 2-0 to the Bulldogs to end the day out of first place.
“Everybody knew the stakes in this game, Yale came out strong,” said Wunder. “I think we did our best. We let in a goal early, which is tough but we came back strong. I do think we turned the tide in the second and third period. We had them on their heels, sometimes the puck doesn’t go your way. We created chances and I am proud of us for fighting even though it didn’t go our way.”
With Princeton hosting Brown on Saturday, needing a win and a Yale loss to Quinnipiac to earn the title, Wunder and her teammates weren’t hanging their heads after falling to the Bulldogs.
“We spoke about it in the room after the game. It is disappointing and we would have liked a different outcome today, but everything is in your hands,” said Wunder. “We didn’t show up the way we needed to. I think the focus for tomorrow is just focus on us. At the end of the day there are a lot of emotions. We want to win the game, we can’t control what happens in the other games. We want to come out at 5:00 or 6:00 tomorrow after the game and know that we put our best foot forward. If things work out in our favor, that is great. If they don’t, at least we know that we tried our best.”
A day later against the Bears, Wunder put her best foot forward scoring a third period goal to put Princeton up 2-1 and then tallied the game-winner in overtime as the Tigers prevailed 3-2 and stayed alive in the title chase.
After Princeton pulled out the win, the players gathered on their bench at the rink to watch the Yale-Quinnipiac game, which also went into OT and screamed with joy when the Bobcats rallied to pull out the win and give the Tigers a share of the league title along with the Bulldogs.
Princeton and Yale finished tied atop the ECACH with 46 points with the Bulldogs getting the top seed based on the head-to-head tiebreaker. By placing in the league’s top four, No. 9 Princeton, now 21-8 overall, gets a bye into the quarterfinals and will next be in action when it hosts one of the team advancing out of the first round of the ECACH playoffs for a best-of-three series starting on February 27.
Wunder sensed that the Tigers would rebound from the loss to Yale and rise to the occasion against Brown.
“We know that we have won big games before we have come back, we have held on to leads,” said Wunder, who now has a team-high 25 goals and leads the Tigers in points with 41 and now has 144 points in her Tiger career with 68 goals and 76 assists. “We have really been in every single situation. You don’t want to lose big games but I think that every big game that we play in, whether it is a win or a loss, we learn lessons. That is the biggest thing. It sucks to lose the Ivy League championship today but we are going to remember this feeling and when it comes to the ECAC quarterfinals and hopefully the final four. We are going to remember that and know that we need to bring our best.”
Princeton head coach Courtney Kessel credits her senior group with bringing their best on a daily basis.
“I think it is an exciting time for that senior class,” said Kessel, whose Class of 2026 includes Jane Kuehl, Emerson O’Leary, Katherine Khramtsov, and Taylor Hyland in addition to Wunder. “They haven’t been at the top but I think their leadership is a big part of why we are where we are with the way they carry themselves and the ability to hold their friends accountable while still doing what’s right for the team and showing up. That group has been amazing. I was here for the first year and to be able to watch them grow as hockey players and more importantly as humans has been so nice for me. I am happy that we are doing well for them.”
Schwartz award winner Wunder epitomizes that group’s attributes.
“Issy is just a tremendous human being and the backbone of our leadership,” said Kessel. “Her ability to be a fantastic D-I hockey player, get a 3.9 GPA here at Princeton, one of the most rigorous schools in the world, and commitment to growing the community and growing the game outside; to do all of those things, it is when does she have time. It is just unbelievable what she does and what she has done for this program and for this team this year. We are really happy to have her.”
Kessel was not happy with her team’s performance against Yale.
“We lost to a great team, we got outcompeted and out-battled for 40 minutes of that game,” said Kessel. “I thought our third period was much better but it is too late. I think our nerves got to us. Effort is one thing, nerves are another so we have to be better.”
Looking ahead to the Brown game, Kessel was confident that her players give a better effort against the Bears.
“They want a home seed for the quarterfinals, that is still in reach for them so they are going to come hard,” said Kessel, who also got a goal from Rosie Klein in the win over the Bears with goalie Uma Corniea making 31 saves. “We have to come harder, we have to be ready to compete when the puck drops.”
As Princeton heads into the ECACH playoffs, Kessel is looking for her squad to recapture the mojo it displayed earlier in the season when the Tigers produced a program-record 13-game winning streak.
“We have to go back to finding our game,” said Kessel. “I think we have lost ourselves a little bit over the last few weeks. I am not sure what it is. I know school started back up. We have to win the neutral zone, keep it simple and we have got to find ways to get pucks to the net. There was not enough shots today.”
Wunder, for her part, is hoping to play as many games as possible with her classmates.
“The five of us have been together all four years; it is sad, none of us really want to go,” said Wunder. “They are my best friends, we spend a lot of time together. It is basically every day, nine months a year. We are really lucky that we get along. They are great. We all bring different things to the table. It works. It has been such a joy, they have been a huge part of my Princeton experience. I am really grateful to have had them.”