A look at the overall record of the men's hockey team is not encouraging for Tiger fans. Currently riding a six-game losing streak, five of which were non-conference affairs, Princeton sits at 5-9-3 — one of the worst overall records in the Eastern College Athletic Conference.
A quick glance at the ECAC standings, however, shows that the Tigers are in third place with a respectable 4-4-2 conference record that gives them 10 points. Conference standings are the only ones that matter for postseason seedings in the ECAC tournament.
The Tigers return to the friendlier confines of league play tonight at home against Harvard and tomorrow against Brown before taking the next two weeks off for exams. The layoff makes this weekend's results all the more important, since Princeton wants to move into the break with momentum that would come from a couple of wins.
"I think the whole team is looking forward to getting back to league play," head coach Len Quesnelle '88 said. "In the past few seasons we've made our move in this part of the season."
In the rough
The Tigers' rough patch against non-conference foes came as a result of the stingy competition Princeton scheduled. The Tigers tested themselves over break as they battled three nationally ranked teams and played in one of the country's top end-of-the-year tournaments — the Badger Showdown in Milwaukee.
"I think the rewards from the competition might show themselves towards the end of the year," Quesnelle said.
In that tournament, the Tigers lost 6-3 to host Wisconsin in the first game before almost riding the shoulders of sophomore goalie Nate Nomeland to victory against defending national champ North Dakota in the second game. Nomeland made 60 saves in the 5-4 Tiger loss.
"That was a great game for Nate in terms of confidence," Quesnelle said. "We're only going to travel as far this season as our goaltending takes us."
While that goaltending tandem of Nomeland and junior Dave Stathos started off the season hot, they have cooled off recently, and the starter has been pulled in three of the last six Tiger contests.
The recent shakiness at the position manifested itself in the Tigers' back-to-back losses against Bowling Green this past weekend in which the Tigers gave up 13 goals in the two-game series.
Whoever is the starter in tonight's game against the league-leading Crimson (8-7-1 overall, 7-3-1 ECAC) will have to forget the failures of the break and get back to early-season form.
"Harvard has some good forwards and always has good team size and speed," Quesnelle said.
Heading up the attack of the surprising Crimson are brothers Dominic and Steve Moore, who are the top two Harvard scorers with 21 and 18 points, respectively.
Triple threat
For the Tiger offense, senior forwards Chris Corrinet, Shane Campbell and Kirk Lamb must return to prominence and take control early for the home ice to be an advantage.
While the Crimson has exceeded preseason expectations, Brown has fallen short. The Bears recorded their first ECAC win of the season last weekend against a struggling Union team and travel into an ECAC weekend with a winning streak for the first time this season.
"We can't afford to look past anyone now," Quesnelle said. "All the teams are too close together that we have to play hard every night.
"If you come out and compete and be thorough every game you'll do well in this league and get results regardless of the size and speed of the players."
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