DOWN BUT NOT OUT: Princeton University women’s hockey player Jaimie McDonell skates near the boards in recent action. Last weekend, junior forward McDonell tallied a goal and an assist in a 4-1 win at Brown on Friday and scored the lone Princeton goal in a 2-1 loss at Yale, a defeat that kept Princeton from winning the Ivy League title. The Tigers, now 15-12-2 overall and 13-8-1 ECAC Hockey, will now turn its focus to ECACH playoffs, where they are seeded sixth and will play a best-of-three quarterfinal series at No. 3 Quinnipiac, starting on February 27. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

While the Princeton University women’s hockey team has consistently made the ECAC Hockey playoffs, it hasn’t been in the chase for the Ivy League title in years.

Coming into this season, Cornell and Harvard were seen as the leading contenders for the Ivy crown. Over the last seven years, the Crimson have won three league crowns while the Big Red have four as the six Ivy teams in the ECACH (Yale, Dartmouth, and Brown besides Princeton, Harvard, and Cornell) wage their annual battle on a second front.

But as Princeton headed into its final weekend of regular season action with games at Brown last Friday and at Yale a day later, the Tigers were on the verge of their first Ivy crown since 2006. Princeton stood at 6-1-1 in Ivy action with Harvard having ended up 8-2, meaning that the Tigers held destiny in their hands as two wins would clinch the title.

Princeton head coach Jeff Kampersal credited his team’s Ivy run to a focus on consistent effort.

“Nobody gave us much respect and nobody expected us to be in the position that we were,” said Kampersal. “We had a different process to the season and they were consistent with it. We wanted to give a 60-minute effort all out.”

On Friday at Brown, the Tigers were a little inconsistent at the outset as they fell behind 1-0 in the second period but righted the ship with four unanswered goals in skating to a 4-1 victory.

“We may have been too amped up in the game against Brown,” said Kampersal, who got two goals from sophomore forward Morgan Sly in the win with junior forward Jaimie McDonell chipping in a goal and an assist and freshman Emily Achterkirch tallying the other Tiger goal.

“This is a resilient team and they found a way to win. Once we got that first goal it was comforting; it was nerves more than anything in the beginning.”

On Saturday, the Tigers suffered a nerve-wracking defeat as they fell 2-1 at Yale, moving to 15-12-2 overall and 13-8-1 ECAC Hockey.

“The next day we were really geared up to play against Yale, we played a much better game,” said Kampersal.

“We played really well in the first period. We outshot them 9-4 and had a couple of good scoring opportunities. They got a goal on a defensive breakdown.”

While Kampersal was disappointed by the result, he had no qualms with the effort he got from his players.

“We battled back and forth all game long; Yale’s forwards are feisty and quick,” said Kampersal.

“We scored in the second period and then they scored in the third on a delayed penalty. They made one more play than we did. Their goalie made big saves, our goalie made big saves. Our kids gave everything they have; that game wasn’t lost through lack of effort. It was a good hockey game, it just didn’t go our way and that is a bummer. It is a bummer not to reach the goal that we had.”

The Tigers got a big weekend from emerging star McDonell, who tallied Princeton’s lone goal in the loss to Yale.

“Jaimie has been a workhorse all year; she has been consistently great, handling the back end and leading the break out,” said Kampersal. “We had a sickness going through the team and we needed her to step up even more this weekend.”

Turning its attention to the ECACH playoffs, where Princeton is seeded sixth and will play a best-of-three quarterfinal series at third-seeded Quinnipiac (24-7-3 overall, 15-5-2 ECACH) starting on February 27, the Tigers will need to step up to beat the Bobcats.

“They are very well coached; they are disciplined and don’t take a lot of penalties,” said Kampersal, noting that Princeton lost 2-0 and 3-1 to Quinnipiac in the regular season matchups between the foes.

“They are deep, they have three to four lines and a good goaltender. I don’t think we have won there in five or six years. This is the time for us to do it. We respect them but we are not afraid of them. We just need to play a good, solid brand of hockey. If we are opportunistic, we will be in good shape. We have to be at our best.”