Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week

Chen leads PHS girls’ ice hockey to victory

By: Justin Feil
   As a freshman, Vicki Chen told Princeton High girls’ ice hockey coach Matt Becan that she was a defenseman. He used her on offense and the rest, as they say, is history.
   Chen was the leading scorer for the Little Tigers as a freshman. She led the team in scoring again as a sophomore. And last year, she made it three straight seasons as PHS’ top scorer. Along the way, Chen has had her share of hat tricks, and even had some four- and five-point games. But she never had a game like last Wednesday’s against Princeton Day School.
   Chen is again leading the PHS squad in scoring this season, and is doing so thanks to what may go down as her greatest scoring achievement.
   Last Wednesday, Chen opened the Little Tigers scoring against Princeton Day School in the first period, but that only cut the Panther lead to 2-1 before PHS fell behind, 3-1. After a scoreless second period, Chen brought PHS within a goal 55 seconds into the third period with her second goal of the game. Her third goal of the game tied it less than one minute and a half later and her fourth goal on the night gave the Little Tigers the lead barely another minute and a half later though PDS fought back to force overtime.
   "When you’re playing, you’re not thinking about how many goals you have racked up," Chen said. "You just go for it, and carpe diem. When I scored the fourth one, it was like, ‘All right, now we’re winning.’ I looked at it from the team perspective. When we started overtime, I did think it would be cool if I scored in overtime."
   Chen did just that, delivering her fifth goal of the game with 1:28 to play to give the Little Tigers their first win over PDS in two years.
   Vicki Chen is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
   "It’s a once in a lifetime thing," Chen said. "I’ve never even gotten four."
   It’s quite an accomplishment for the player who may be the most accomplished to suit up for the Little Tiger girls.
   "This ranks at the top of the list," Becan said. "Vicki has always been a hero on our team. This is an example of her heroism coming out.
   "Her leadership on our team has been outstanding for us. This is one her best performances. She once scored two goals in the final minute for us to tie it (in the 2002-2003 season). There’ve been a whole lot of great plays. This is another example of how she can take control."
   Chen showed both her talent and versatility in Wednesday’s five-goal outpouring. She used her speed to create three of the chances, also followed her own stopped shot for a goal on a rebound, but has no doubts which of the five was her best goal.
   "I was taking it to the net and somehow I fell," she said. "I kind of pulled the puck toward myself and got it around the goalie. That was crazy. That was the best goal. I scored off my stomach."
   Chen has the ability to score a number of ways. The stomach shot was something new. Usually she settles for the more conventional tallies.
   "I have pretty good speed," she said. "When I get the puck and take off, it sometimes ends up being a breakaway."
   It’s a tribute to more than her speed. Becan notes that Chen has other attributes that help make her the team’s best goal scorer.
   "Vicki has good vision on the ice," he said. "She’s able to feel gaps. She is good at finding ways to feel her way through the defense. They’re not real breakaways. She just looks for a way around or through the defense and then she’s in alone.
   "She seems to have so much confidence with the puck. She has great vision when to go and she can see a path to follow to get from end to end. It almost seems like she has it planned out."
   Chen credits her most intense off-season of hockey with her development into an even bigger threat offensively this season. Instead of resting on her past seasons as leading scorer, she went out to get better.
   "I’m a lot different," she said. "I think I’m a lot better. The main reason is self-confidence. Over the summer, I went to a camp. The camp is in Canada, and there were a lot of Olympic players there. It was good for learning the basics again. I basically told myself I was a good player and I realized I was. I would say I’m faster. I went to some big camps."
   Chen was happy to score any way possible against PDS, a team that had won the last four meetings with the Little Tigers. Having such a strong game against the Panthers made the moment that much better and far more memorable than most of her other highlights.
   "We only beat them once in my high school career," Chen said. "We haven’t won since my sophomore year. It’s like you never miss something until you’ve had it. Once we beat them, we knew we could win. And when we lost to them before, it felt worse than if we’d never won and had always lost to them. So it’s always really emotional and nerve-wracking when we play PDS. They’re right in Princeton. They’re our rivals."
   And the fact that Chen was able to come up with a five-goal performance against a solid team like PDS made the night that much more impressive.
   "PDS is a very strong team," Becan noted. "We have not been able to knock them off in a while. For her to come through like that was tremendous for her and for the team."
   It’s a performance that won’t likely be forgotten. Not by PDS, not by the Little Tigers, and not anytime soon by Chen.
   "It’s kind of hard to believe," she said. "I can’t believe I did that."