Men's Hockey

With a game-winning goal 33 seconds into overtime of game two, sophomore forward Andrew Calof brought the men’s hockey team off of the brink of elimination and into a third game of its first-round series. But the Tigers’ reprieve lasted only 24 hours, as Yale led start to finish for a 7-3 victory in Sunday’s deciding game. Princeton was eliminated in the first round of the ECAC Tournament for a third straight year.

“Get the biscuit in the basket,” sophomore goaltender Sean Bonar said.

“Put the fish in the cooler,” defenseman and Bonar’s classmate Kevin Ross said.

Put the puck in the net. That’s what the men’s hockey team plans on doing often against Yale in a three-game series in New Haven this weekend. The series opens up what the Tigers hope to be a deep run in the ECAC Hockey tournament, for which they are the 11th seed of 12 teams.

Returning from a crucial road win against Rensselaer this past weekend, the men’s hockey team skates onto Baker Rink for its final pair of games in the 2011-12 regular season. Princeton (8-13-6 overall, 6-11-3 ECAC Hockey) will host league opponents Yale and Brown on Friday and Saturday, respectively. The Tigers last faced this rival pair on the road in early January, when they edged the Bears in a 3-2 overtime win in Providence but fell to the Bulldogs 6-2 the next night.

Despite one individual’s near record-breaking performance against No. 8 Union and a victory at Rensselaer, the men’s hockey team is no longer mathemetically in the running for home-ice advantage in the first round of the ECAC Hockey tournament. Princeton can still face nearly any opponent in the opening series, but it will have to do so as the visiting squad.