Men's Hockey: In home rout, hat trick by Ammon is key

A hat trick, 13 goals and 87 shots over the weekend solidified a powerful offensive performance for the men’s hockey team as it rolled over University of Massachusetts Lowell in a weekend doubleheader.

Princeton (8-5 overall, 6-3 ECAC Hockey) hosted the River Hawks (2-14-2) on Friday and Saturday at Baker Rink. The Tigers defeated UMass Lowell 5-2 the first night and 7-2 the following day.

Princeton was quickly challenged by UMass Lowell at the beginning of Friday’s game. The River Hawks scored an early goal three minutes into the match.

Princeton was slow to respond, but freshman forward Jack Berger put in Princeton’s first goal of the night. The Tigers quickly found themselves trailing again when the River Hawks found the net at the start of the second period to push themselves over the Tigers 2-1.

It seemed like time was running out for a Princeton rally until midway through the third period, when senior forward and co-captain Matt Arhontas found some luck and put Princeton back into the game. Arhontas’ pass to the right side of the goal bounced off a defender and went into the net to tie the game.

A minute later, freshman forward Andrew Ammon scored his first goal of the year and gave Princeton its first lead of the night when he took a lead pass from senior defenseman and co-captain Taylor Fedun to score a breakaway goal.

Ammon extended the lead soon afterward by scoring from the backside of the goal on a power play with five minutes left in the game.

Ammon completed the hat trick when senior forward Kevin Lohry won a battle to the puck and handed it off for a shorthanded empty-goal net in the final minute for the Princeton win.

After his successful Friday night, Ammon has five points on the year and a shooting percentage of .158, the second highest on the Princeton squad.

“Ammon can really fly out there, so it’s good to see him use his speed and score some goals,” senior defenseman Cam Ritchie said.

Ritchie explained that Ammon’s performance was a result of the freshmen becoming more comfortable with the rest of the team.

Saturday’s rematch was a completely different story for the Tigers.

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Freshman forward Matt Farris drew first blood 2 minutes, 26 seconds into the first period and was followed four minutes later by a quick shot into the right side of the net by junior defenseman Derrick Pallis.

UMass Lowell answered Princeton’s two goals on the next drive when Matt Ferreira broke through the Princeton defense and scored to bring the game to 2-1.

Senior forward Mike Kramer gave Fedun a quick outside pass, which he quickly shot into the back of the net to extend the Princeton lead.

Princeton never gave the River Hawks a chance to rally, scoring five goals over the next 15 minutes to put the game safely out of reach. Farris and Pallis scored a second goal during the streak, and sophomore forward Rob Kleebaum eventually joined them by putting two into the net during the third period. UMass Lowell was only able to answer with a single goal and eventually fell 7-2.

Overall, the game was a strong step forward for the Tigers. “We’ve really just started slowly playing the way that we are supposed to,” Ritchie said.

Despite the performance over the weekend, Lohry explained that the offense still has room to improve.

“There wasn’t really a flow to the game, and we had a lot of penalties,” Lohry said. “We still need to work on not getting so many penalties and staying out of the box as well a few hiccups in our defense.”

After this weekend’s games, freshman goalie Sean Bonar now has 108 saves for the year and a save percentage of .947, the highest in ECAC Hockey.

Princeton will have two weeks off before taking the ice again in the UConn Hockey Classic on Dec. 29–30.