Men's Hockey: Prier nets 1st win amid opening-week struggles

After a tough weekend at the Ivy Shootout, the men’s hockey team opened up ECAC Hockey conference play last week with middling results. The Tigers lost their conference opener to No. 19 Quinnipiac before bouncing back and securing their first win of the season at Harvard. On Saturday, the Tigers finished a busy week with a 5-3 loss to conference-leading Dartmouth. Despite a sub-.500 record, Princeton has seen its underclassmen contributing in droves and its special teams play heating up.

As per recent tradition, the Tigers (1-3-1 overall, 1-2 ECAC Hockey) opened play against Ancient Eight foes before starting the ECAC season. Before officially becoming known as the Ivy League Shootout, Princeton dominated this first weekend, winning five of six games in three seasons. In the past two years, however, the Tigers have struggled under the official moniker and have yet to record a victory. With Ivy League bragging rights on the line, the squad battled to a 2-2 tie with No. 9 Yale (2-1-1, 1-1) and dropped their second game 3-2 to Brown (2-2, 1-1).

In an exciting second period against the Bulldogs, which saw all of the goal-scoring action, junior forward Rob Kleebaum and junior defenseman Michael Sdao both notched their first goals of the young season while sophomore forward Jack Berger picked up a pair of assists. With a 2-2 tie entering the third period, the Tigers could not find the back of the net in the final stages of the game despite dominating the shot count 9-3. Sophomore goaltender Sean Bonar turned away all five of the shots he saw in the overtime period to hold on for a tie.

An unusual sequence of events doomed Princeton the following afternoon. Freshman defenseman Tom Kroshus tripped a Bears’ skater, and after Brown goaltender Mike Clemente made his way to the bench for an extra attacker with the penalty looming, the Bears scored to take a 2-1 lead. Though a goal scored during a delayed penalty call usually wipes the penalty away, the referees still decided to have Kroshus serve his two-minute minor. The Bears’ power play made the Tigers pay again as they jumped to a 3-1 lead with the man advantage. The two-goal deficit was too much for the Tigers to overcome despite a goal by senior forward Brodie Zuk.

With the campus mostly empty due to fall break, Princeton returned to Baker Rink to host Quinnipiac (7-3-1, 1-1-1) in the ECAC Hockey conference opener. The game started off dirty as two Bobcats picked up five-minute majors. Only a few minutes after he scored the first goal of the game, Quinnipiac forward Russell Goodman was ejected for a hit to the head of a Tiger player. Unfortunately for the Tigers, the Bobcats killed off the five-minute advantage and added a shorthanded goal of their own to go up 2-0. A third goal early in the second frame was enough to ensure a Quinnipiac win.

Head coach Bob Prier, still searching for his first win, must have focused on improving the special teams play in practice, because the Tigers quickly figured out their power play issues and immediately turned the man advantage into a legitimate threat. Harvard (0-1-1, 0-1-1) took only four penalties in its Friday night matchup with Princeton, but even that was too many, as Princeton netted three goals in those opportunities, including the eventual game-winner. In all, the Tigers peppered Harvard goaltender Steve Michaelek with a total of 38 shots, evenly spread out among the three periods. Sophomore forward Eric Carlson recorded five of those shots, hitting the netting with two as the Tigers’ first multi-goal scorer of the season. Sdao also buried his third of the year against Harvard.

The man advantage continued their hot streak the following day against Dartmouth (3-1, 2-0), this time at a respectable .250 percentage. Dartmouth took eight penalties in the game, three of those on the fans in attendance for throwing tennis balls on the ice as per Big Green tradition, though neither of the Tigers’ two power-play goals came on those delay-of-game calls. In the first minute of play, Kleebaum beat Big Green goalie Jason Mello, and it seemed like the game would be a high-scoring affair as the Big Green tied the game only two minutes later. Down 4-2 late in the third period, Kleebaum’s second goal of the game gave the Tigers some hope of a comeback, but Mello stood tall and Dartmouth won 5-3.

Early in the long season, the Tigers’ 1-2 conference record is good enough to sit in a seven-team tie for fourth place in the ECAC Hockey league. The squad will have to continue its special teams play and find more consistent scoring when playing five-on-five as two more conference heavyweights will visit Baker Rink this weekend. One of those foes is St. Lawrence, which defeated the Tigers last season in the ECAC Hockey tournament and returns on Friday night.