Fit to Be Tied

From now until the end of February I'll be focused on one of my more curious obsessions, the Princeton women's ice hockey team. Actually, the obsession pretty much exists year-round, but gets kicking hard when the school year starts and the practices begin (yes, I even observe some practices). The season itself began on Friday night with the Tigers hosting Boston College, and then on Sunday hosting Quinnipiac. Both games ended in a tie.

This is my eighth season attending these games. In all that time I have missed two home games (the last one five years ago) so I'm pretty much a maniac on this subject. I never played hockey--I don't even know how to ice skate--but I enjoy watching hockey in person because it's fast and exciting. The women's game does not allow checking, so passing and strategic play are far more important. And, with the intimacy of the spectators to the game, it's easy to strike up acquaintanceships with the coaches and players. I'll never forget the first time I had a chance to speak to the coach, Jeff Kampersal. I had gone up to the University of Connecticut to watch them play. He recognized me from the many games I had watched and came over and said hello. You don't get that kind of stuff from a major league sport.

For a couple of years I covered the team for USCHO.com, a college-hockey web site. Haven't done that for a couple of years because the site has not had a women's editor, but I'd be ready to do it again. It was fun playing sportswriter (it was a completely voluntary gig).

As for this year's team, well, the two ties have left completely different after-tastes. Boston College is a top-ten team, so to come away with a tie in Princeton's first game (a lot of teams have a few games under their belt--the Ivy League always starts later) was a positive sign. But the tie against Quinnipiac was a letdown, because Princeton dominated the game and should have won easily. The Tigers lost a lot of scoring to graduation, and this team has had a history of winning with defense and goaltending, not tending to get a lot of scoring.

I'm not sure I'll get to any road games this year, as I'm trying to maintain some fiscal sanity, but there will be twelve more home games from now until the end of February, and hopefully some home playoff games in March. It's been a lot of fun for me over the last seven years.