NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale women's ice hockey team fought back from two early deficits Friday night at Ingalls Rink, taking a 3-2 lead early in the third. But Princeton then staged a comeback of its own, scoring twice in the final 16 minutes to come away with a 4-3 win in the ECAC Hockey conference opener.

A tough break for the Bulldogs led to Princeton's first goal. A shot by Tigers forward Kiersten Falck was blocked by Yale freshman defenseman Julia Yetman, but the puck bounced right to Princeton defenseman Stephanie Sucharda, who was wide open at the top of the left circle. She blasted a slap shot past Yale junior goaltender Hanna Mandl for a 1-0 lead at 8:12 of the first.

Yale's penalty killing unit went to work twice late in the first, and it paid off for the Bulldogs. During the first penalty kill Yale allowed just one shot, which Mandl stopped. Then, during the second penalty kill, the Bulldogs knotted the game with a short-handed goal. A pass from sophomore defenseman Kara Drexler got the play started, as she fed junior forward Hanna Åström deep in the Yale zone and Åström took the puck out of the zone before feeding it ahead to junior forward Phoebe Staenz at the Princeton blue line. Staenz drove towards the right circle before cutting in front of the net and sliding a perfectly placed pass back to Åström, who knocked in her first goal of the year. The teams went into the first intermission tied at one.

Princeton (3-0-0, 1-0-0 ECAC Hockey) re-took the lead halfway through the second period on a goal by defenseman Kimiko Marinacci, but it did not take Yale long to respond. After senior forward Jamie Haddad set up sophomore defenseman Mallory Souliotis for a shot that was blocked and hit off the glass behind Princeton goalie Kimberly Newell, senior forward Janelle Ferrara retrieved the puck near the left post and tossed it in front of the net -- where it promptly hit off a Princeton player and went in for the game-tying goal at 10:24.

The Bulldogs' penalty-killing unit shined again later in the period. Junior forward Gretchen Tarrant deflected a Princeton pass out of the zone, and that wound up creating a pair of scoring chances for sophomore forward Emily Monaghan. While neither resulted in a goal, the Bulldogs spent the majority of the final seconds of the penalty kill with the puck in Princeton's zone. The two teams skated into the second intermission tied 2-2.

Princeton nearly took the lead with a short-handed chance less than a minute into the third when forward Hilary Lloyd grabbed a loose puck in front of the net with Mandl out of position, but Lloyd shot wide. The Bulldogs got a brief 5-on-3 after that, and then capitalized once they had a 5-on-4. Senior defenseman Kate Martini sent the puck down low to Staenz in the right circle, and she sent it across for junior forward Krista Yip-Chuck for the go-ahead goal.

This time it was Princeton's turn to fight back, and defenseman Kelsey Koelzer answered with  a nice individual effort to get around two Yale defensemen and stuff the Tigers' third goal past Mandl at 4:17 of the third.

Yetman knocked down a shot in front to finish off another Yale penalty kill with 11 minutes left in the game. The teams were skating 4-on-4 five minutes later when Newell made one of her best saves of the game, getting out her right leg to kick away a shot by Souliotis.

Princeton went back ahead with 3:37 to play when Mandl got a piece of a shot by forward Fiona McKenna, but not enough to prevent it from popping over her shoulder and falling over the goal line. The Bulldogs pulled Mandl for an extra skater in the final minute but were unable to get the equalizer. Newell finished with 23 saves, while Mandl had 27.

Yale (0-2-0, 0-1-0 ECAC Hockey) hosts No. 5 Quinnipiac Saturday at 4:00 p.m.

Report by Sam Rubin '95, Yale Sports Publicity