What to watch for: QU faces Princeton in weekend set

What to watch for: QU faces Princeton in weekend set

By Mark Spillane, QBSN Staff Writer

The Quinnipiac Bobcats women’s ice hockey team will face the Princeton Tigers not once this weekend, but twice. First the Bobcats visit Princeton’s Hobey Baker Rink tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Then the two teams will travel back to the High Point Solutions arena for the second contest. The two games will mark games number 16 and 17 in series history with the Tigers leading with a record of 10-3-2.

Quinnipiac (11-7-1) comes into this game riding a five game winning streak, including an overtime victory over rival Yale last Saturday. Princeton (6-7-1) enters with their own two game win streak after also defeating Yale and Brown last weekend, in which they outscored the Bulldogs and Bears by a total of seven goals. In each game, they got off to a fast start, scoring six of their eight goals in the first two periods of play. Quinnipiac has done much of the same, scoring first in three of their last five victories, comebacks coming against Boston College and Yale.

The Tigers has been led this year by three sophomore forwards, Sally Butler, Denna Laing, and Olivia Mucha. The young trio has combined for 17 of the Tigers’ 33 goals, with each of them having double-digit point totals. Butler leads the way with 14 total points, seven goals and seven assists.

Courtesy: quinnipiacbobcats.com

Sophomore Kelly Babstock (Mississauga, Ontario), not surprisingly, has led Quinnipiac, this year, but another Bobcat has gone unnoticed lately. That player has been junior Breann Frykas (East St. Paul, Manitoba). The former Wisconsin Badger has recorded a point in each contest during the five game win streak, tallying two goals and three assists, including an assist on the game-tying goal against Yale last weekend. Frykas has certainly been a main contributor to the Bobcats’ offense of late and has helped fuel the strong team play. This should come as no surprise as nine of her 10 points this season have come in Quinnipiac’s 10 wins, with just one point coming in the Bobcats’ seven losses.

Key For the Tigers:

Princeton needs a good game out of senior goalie Rachel Weber (Hudson, Wisc.). In the Tigers six wins, Weber is allowing an average of just one goal per game, while allowing an average of 3.5 in their seven losses.  The Tigers also need to limit the shot totals for the Bobcats. In those six wins, they’ve held opponents to approximately 23 shots per game, compared to 29 per game in the losses. Weber has been generally strong this year with the ECAC’s fifth best save percentage, but she will need help from her defense against the strong Quinnipiac offense.

Key For the Bobcats:

Quinnipiac needs Frykas, and junior defender Regan Boulton (Brandon, Manitoba) to stay hot. Everybody knows about the offensive prowess of Babstock, and of course the Bobcats need to utilize her skills against the Tigers, but like Frykas, Boulton has been flying under the radar. She has tallied four points during the five game winning streak, including two in last Saturday’s win against Yale. These are the kinds of performances that the Bobcats need from players other than Babstock on the offensive end to contribute to wins. It will also be interesting to see if Coach Rick Seeley decides to use both of his goalies, junior Victoria Vigilanti (Woodbridge, Ontario) and freshmen Chelsea Laden (Oakville, Minn.) this weekend, or if he will stick with just one for both contests.

Last Meeting:

The last time these two teams met, Quinnipiac defeated Princeton, 2-0, on Saturday, February 26, 2011 during the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals, earning the program's first-ever playoff series victory.