With their 4-1 win over Harvard in the ECAC title game last Saturday, the No. 13 Tigers (21-13-0 overall, 14-8-0 ECAC) earned an automatic berth in the NCAA regionals, where they will play in Madison, Wis., this weekend for the chance to compete in the Frozen Four and, ultimately, the national championship game. Princeton will face No. 3 North Dakota (26-10-4) on Saturday and, should it win that game, the winner of No. 4 Denver (26-13-1) versus No. 17 Wisconsin (15-16-7) on Sunday.
The Tigers, as the fourth seed in the four-team regional tournament, must play against the top seed, the Fighting Sioux, but senior forward Kyle Hagel said that neither the details of the seeding nor the team’s specific opponent particularly matters.
“The bracket may have us seeded as underdog, but that isn’t important,” Hagel said. “It’s a single-elimination tournament where any one of those 16 teams can beat any opponent on any given day. The title is up for grabs.”
Still, a Princeton victory over perennial powerhouse North Dakota would have to be considered an upset. Though the Fighting Sioux did not win the conference championship in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA), they had the best overall team defense, allowing just 1.77 goals per game, and the second-best overall team offense, averaging three goals per game.
The North Dakota roster also features several highly regarded NHL prospects, headlined by star scoring forward TJ Oshie, a first-round pick of the St. Louis Blues in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. Oshie, a junior, led his team in scoring with 41 points, including 18 goals, good enough for fifth in the WCHA in points and third in goals. Oshie will be joined on the Fighting Sioux attack by Ryan Duncan, winner of the 2007 Hobey Baker Memorial Award as the best player in college hockey, and Chris VandeVelde, an Edmonton Oilers prospect.
Manning the North Dakota net will be rock-solid JP Lamoureux, who led the WCHA in both save percentage (.934) and goals-against average (1.65). Lamoureux, like Oshie and junior Tiger forward Lee Jubinville, was named a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award this season.
“North Dakota should expect a battle. They are incredibly talented and well balanced, but we feel like we have the opportunity to show a lot of people that we can skate with one of the best teams in the nation,” senior defenseman and captain Mike Moore said.
The Tigers and Fighting Sioux have met only twice before, in 2000 and 2002, with North Dakota winning both games. Princeton is also 0-2 all-time against Wisconsin, but it defeated Denver, 4-1, in a 2005 game that featured seven current Tigers, and holds a 2-2 all-time record against the Pioneers. Nevertheless, Hagel said that his team’s lack of familiarity with its opponents this weekend won’t be a factor in the way it approaches the games.
“Obviously the WCHA teams that we will be facing play a little differently from the ECAC teams that we see most often throughout the year, but the only thing we can control is the product that we put on the ice. We don’t change the way we play for anybody,” Hagel said.
Hagel noted that other differences between regular season play and the NCAA tournament include the size of the ice surface — the games will be played on an Olympic-sized rink, which is slightly bigger than the rinks Princeton is used to — and the significantly larger stage, as the tournament garners nationwide attention and will be played in venues capable of holding up to 15,000 spectators. Of course, Hagel and his teammates relish the chance.
“It isn’t every year that you get to go to the tournament, so when you get there you have to take your shot,” he said.
Both Moore and Hagel agree that though simply making it into the tournament was a major accomplishment, the Tigers won’t be the kind of team that’s just happy to be there.
“I don’t think anybody on the team would be completely satisfied unless we reach our ultimate goal of winning a national championship,” Hagel said. “We don’t feel like we are finished yet.”
For live updates on the game, visit our blog at sidelinedispatches.blogspot.com beginning tomorrow at 2 p.m. EST.
Original URL: http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/03/28/20585/