Men's Hockey: Regular season closes with rematch ahead

Condon finished Friday’s game with 38 saves, 22 of which he stopped in the second frame. Bulldog Nick Maricic finished the game with 26 stops overall. Bonar made several close saves on Saturday night as well; he stopped 34 in his first start since Feb. 11, while Brown’s Mike Clemente saved 26.

Princeton traded goals with Yale (13-13-3, 10-10-2) in its first game of the weekend as sophomore forward Andrew Calof shot from the right circle with no defender in the way of the net. The Bulldogs opened up a 2-1 lead toward the end of the first frame. The two teams scored back-to-back once again in the middle of the second period, but only Yale would score twice in the third, earning a 5-2 win over the Tigers.

Yale captured its first power-play goal at 3:20 of the first frame when Antoine Laganiere took a feed from Brian O’Neill along the boards near the Tigers’ blue line. O’Neill skated around Princeton’s defensemen — sophomore Jeremy Goodwin and freshman Aaron Ave — and then sent the puck back to Laganiere, who slipped past Condon from the slot.

Ave prevented an attempted Yale clear just two minutes later and kept play in the Tigers’ offensive zone. The puck landed on Calof’s stick with a pass from junior forward Will MacDonald, and Calof put it past Maricic on the glove side, tying the game 1-1 at 4:52.

The Bulldogs snatched the lead again at 16:51 during a scramble on Princeton’s doorstep. O’Neill shot the puck off Condon’s pads, and it hung at the crease until two Yale offensemen poked at it. Gus Young got a stick on it and opened the Blue’s lead to 2-1 before the first intermission.

Princeton ramped up its forecheck in the second and turned its penalty kill into the second draw. Calof got a breakaway from the right boards to the blue line. Anticipating the defense’s reaction on the far side, Calof waited for an empty slot and sent the puck low stick side past Maricic. Sophomore defenseman Kevin Ross and Ave earned the assists on the 11:28 goal.

The 2-2 score would last just two minutes. Nick Jaskowiak picked off senior captain Marc Hagel’s pass and sent the puck to O’Neill. O’Neill skated in alone and tucked it five-hole at 13:28, beginning Yale’s lead, which it maintained for the remainder of the game.

Despite playing three-on-five hockey at the end of the period, the Tigers blocked further Bulldog attempts to up their margin. After the hosts killed off a hooking call on Hagel, officials called Ross for tripping, giving Yale 76 seconds of 5-on-3 at the end of the period. The Tigers successfully killed both penalties, and Condon made several successive stops without allowing another goal.

Princeton’s offense was on point at the start of the third period, but Maricic prevented the Tigers from tying the game for a final time. Laganiere took his second goal of the night at 14:47 off a rebound as junior defenseman Michael Sdao tried to clear the puck from the slot. Laganiere one-timed past Condon’s glove. Anthony Day scored Yale’s last goal less than four minutes later on an empty net. Condon took the bench for an extra attacker at 18:29, and Day was able to fire the puck into the net from center ice, clinching the 5-2 final score.

The Tigers skated to an exciting finish on Saturday night, however, as they scored two goals in the last two minutes of regulation play, dragging Brown (8-16-5, 5-13-4) into overtime. The teams ended the game in a 2-2 draw with the Bears finishing last in the ECAC Hockey standings as a result.

With Bonar looking on from the Tigers’ bench, freshman forward Tyler Maugeri got Princeton on the board 32 seconds after Brown took a 2-0 lead on Chris Zaires’ power-play goal. Junior forward Rob Kleebaum capped one of Princeton’s many comebacks this season, scoring the game-tying goal with 57 seconds remaining in regulation.

Brown maintained possession and took the majority of shots in the early going of the first frame, but the Bears received four penalties in the first 12 minutes, allowing Princeton to slowly gain the advantage. Penalties on Jimmy Siers and Massimo Lamacchia at 4:08 and 4:37 gave the Tigers an extended two-man advantage, but Princeton failed to find the back of the net during the 91 seconds of five-on-three hockey.

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Ryan Jacobson would put Brown on the scoreboard first at 10:58 in the second period after Bobby Farnham retrieved a loose puck in the neutral zone. Goodwin lunged to block the pass, but Farnham skated up the right side and sent the puck to Jacobson, who slid it past Bonar.

The Tigers’ best shot at tying the game came a minute after Brown’s 1-0 lead, when MacDonald and Calof faced netminder Mike Clemente two-on-one. Brown’s defense recovered and cleared the puck, sending it back into the Bears’ offensive zone. Hagel pressured Clemente shortly after, when he almost top-shelved the puck stick side.

Brown would grab the next goal at 17:38 of the third on its fifth power-play after a penalty on sophomore forward Andrew Ammon. Zaires skated to the top of the right circle and sent a screened shot past Bonar.

In an effort to regain some kind of momentum, Princeton pulled Bonar for an extra skater with just 2:05 remaining in regulation. The decision was effective, as the Tigers put themselves on the scoreboard 15 seconds later. Hagel won a faceoff and transferred the puck to Calof. Senior defenseman Derrick Pallis got on the blue line to fire a shot, and Magueri deflected Pallis’ shot into the cage at 18:10.

Bonar took the bench once again after he blocked a close shot from the crease. Pallis retrieved the puck from the boards and sent it to the left point, where Sdao redirected the pass to Kleebaum. Kleebaum tied the game 2-2 with 57 seconds remaining, forcing the teams into overtime.

Princeton had numerous opportunities to win the game in overtime, particularly when it forced Clemente to dive on a save with 29 seconds remaining. However, the Tigers fell short of carrying their third-period momentum into overtime.

The Tigers will face Yale once again in New Haven beginning on Friday, March 2. The two teams will play three successive games in an ECAC First Round best-of-three playoff series.