Men’s and Women’s Hockey Take Turns with Exciting Baker Rink Performances

Princeton men’s and women’s hockey have risen in the standings this year with record-breaking winning streaks.

The men’s team won its first nine games at home, a first in the 103-year history of Hobey Baker Rink, en route to an 11-4 start. Meanwhile, a 13-game winning streak — the longest in the nation at the time — propelled the women’s team to a No. 7 national ranking in late January, its highest since the end of the 2019-20 season.

In both cases, new leadership helped set the tone. First year women’s coach Courtney Kessel inherited a talented roster and led Princeton to the top of the ECAC with its 17-4 record. Kessel, an assistant coach from 2019-23, returned to Princeton after a two-year stint coaching the Boston Fleet of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

“She’s done an incredible job. I don’t know how many first-year coaches have broken the program record for win streaks,” captain Issy Wunder ’26 said. “She treats us like adults, which everyone really respects.”

Wunder, who plays left wing, has scored nearly a goal per game with 21 goals in her first 22 games. But it was a highlight-reel assist that may have been her most notable play of the season.

In overtime against ECAC rival Quinnipiac on Nov. 20, Wunder skated deep into the Bobcats’ zone with the puck when a hard check knocked her flat on the ice. In one motion, Wunder swung her stick from that prone position and sent a perfect cross-ice pass to linemate Mackenzie Alexander ’28, who fired a one-timer into the net for the game-winning goal.

Kessel saw that play as a key moment for the team’s ability to win close games.

“You can’t play scared to lose. You’ve got to play to win, and that’s a mentality,” she said. “The mindset heading into third periods is we’re going to win this game.”

Wunder echoed that sentiment. “Sometimes in the past we’ve gotten blown out by some of these ranked teams that now we’re skating with [and] beating,” she said. “Once you can gain the confidence — like, ‘Oh we’ve done it once, why can’t we do it again’ — that definitely helps.”

The one-two scoring punch of Wunder and Alexander has contributed significantly. They have played on the same line with Emerson O’Leary ’26 for the past two seasons, and the chemistry shows.

“They’re special players, just the way Izzy sees the ice, the way she can move the puck, and her reach is so long,” said Kessel. “It’s been nice to have coached her when she was a first-year here and now seeing her be our leader and use her voice has been a really cool transition.”

Speaking of Alexander, Kessel added, “I can’t believe she’s only a sophomore. I hope she plays in the Olympics one day. I think she has the ability to do that. Just her explosiveness, her shot, everything. She’s the total package.”

For the team, Wunder thinks the sky is the limit. “We want to win an ECAC championship. We want to make it to the Frozen Four,” she said. “I have a lot of confidence in this group, and I’m hoping we can make something special happen.”

Kai Daniells ’27’s five-goal game against St. Lawrence was the first by a Tiger men’s player since 1962.

Shelley M. Szwast

Second-year men’s head coach Ben Syer also has something special percolating. His team’s record-breaking start at Baker Rink, after six straight losing seasons, enabled Princeton to briefly take first place in the ECAC and achieve a national ranking.

A longtime assistant with perennial powers Cornell and Quinnipiac, Syer has brought high energy to Princeton and given the team a spark, according to its leading scorer, Kai Daniells ’27.

“He really knows the recipe in this league, so it’s easy to follow him and trust his lead, and everyone’s really bought in so far,” Daniells said.

On the ice, Daniells has provided two of the season’s most memorable moments. In a 7-4 November win against St. Lawrence, he scored a record-tying five goals, a feat not achieved by a Tiger since 1962.

“I was able to get one at the end of the second [period], got the building rocking a little bit, and then they all just started piling in,” Daniells said. “It was one of those nights where everything was going right. Definitely a night I’ll remember for a long time.”

In a 3-2 January win at Baker Rink against No. 18 Harvard, Daniells scored the game-winning goal with 2.9 seconds left. The goal came after Daniells won a faceoff in the Harvard zone and then turned around to deflect a Kai Greaves ’28 
shot into the net.

In addition to Daniells, Syer pointed to senior leadership and strong play from forwards David Jacobs ’26 and Brendan Gorman ’26 as factors in the team’s development.

Meanwhile, former Princeton players are taking notice. “This year I’ve left a lot more tickets for alumni,” Syer said with a smile.

He added that he would love to match the Princeton basketball teams’ sustained consistency and admires the job Kessel is doing with the women’s hockey program. “We do talk a fair bit,” he said. “I have joked we’re just trying to keep up because they keep winning.”