M. hockey earns two points with Clarkson, St. Lawrence ties

Man-up and man-down situations are supposed to be important in hockey. But they're not supposed to be this important.

In a wild opening weekend to its Eastern College Athletic Conference schedule, the men's hockey team tied both Clarkson (2-1-2 overall, 0-1-1 ECAC) and preseason favorite St. Lawrence (2-2-2, 1-0-1), 4-4, on consecutive nights. But more than any one team in particular, it was the power play and other shorthanded situations that determined the flow of play throughout the weekend.

The laundry list of stats from the first period of Saturday's game against St. Lawrence tells the tale. Just 18 seconds into the game, the referees called the first penalty. After stepping out of the box following a two-minute visit, sophomore defenseman Neil McCann returned only 20 seconds later with another penalty. Princeton suffered a stretch of 4:34 killing penalties, and most of that time was in five-on-three situations. The two teams combined for 13 penalties and both teams played at full strength for only 8:03 of the first stanza. Each team netted its first goal of the game while up by two men.

"From the first drop of the puck, the refs obviously hit us with a call," head coach Len Quesnelle '88 said. "That set the tone of the game."

Of the eight goals netted by Princeton and the Saints, seven came on the power play. But it was the eighth and final goal that made the difference for the Tigers. Even though the score came at even strength, Princeton may have had yet another man advantage.

Seventeen minutes into the third period, the two teams made a line switch and the Tigers caught St. Lawrence off guard by leaving two players on the ice. As senior right wing Chris Corrinet stepped onto the ice, he slapped a loose puck to sophomore blueliner Trevor Beaney in the middle of the rink. In the confusion of the line change, Princeton may have had an extra player on the ice at the time Corrinet entered the play — a penalty that would have stopped the Tiger rush in its tracks.

Fair play

The whistle did not sound, however, and Beaney gave the puck back to Corrinet as he streaked past the changing Saint line for a breakaway. Corrinet flipped a high wrist shot past the glove hand of Saint goalkeeper Sean Coakley to tie the game at four.

On the previous night against the Golden Knights, Princeton again netted three power-play goals out of four, but it was Clarkson that made the comeback to tie the game at four.

After junior left wing Brad Parsons put the Tigers up 4-3 with less than three minutes left to play in regulation, the Golden Knights pulled goalie Shawn Grant to take the six-to-five advantage on offense. With the man-up situation, Clarkson unleashed a shot that junior goalkeeper Dave Stathos saved, but it deflected over his shoulder only to land behind him in the crease. Stathos, two defensemen and one Golden Knight forward converged upon the loose puck and in the confusion, the tying goal slid into the back of the net.

Though Stathos gave up eight goals on the weekend, his performance was brilliant as he stopped 77 shots during the two games — more than a few of those in five-on-three situations, rebounds and breakaways.

"Stathos was just taking pucks out of thin air," Quesnelle said. "He gave us a great [performance]. He just needed some sticks around him."