Men's hockey's weekend split ends eight-game losing streak

It was crunch time for the men's hockey team. Going into their first game after a three-week layoff, the Tigers had the unenviable task of trying to end an eight-game losing streak against the Eastern College Athletic Conference's top team.

Over the course of a month from December into January, Princeton suffered through its worst stretch of games in recent memory, losing close games to good teams and blowouts to lesser opponents. With the puck always bouncing the wrong way, the pipes always jumping in front of shots and the good breaks never going their way, the Tigers entered the three-week down period with nothing but frustration.

Thus when Princeton (6-12-3 overall, 5-7-2 ECAC) stepped onto the ice in St. Lawrence's Appleton Arena on Friday night, it had two options: give up and possibly stumble into the playoffs or stand tall and turn around a season that was spiraling down the drain.

Only one minute and 23 seconds into the game, senior center Ethan Doyle drew first blood with his fourth goal of the season. The message was clear: the Tigers were not going to finish the season lying down. Three periods later, Princeton claimed a 6-4 win over shocked St. Lawrence (11-9-4, 8-3-3). The Tigers appeared to be on the upswing.

"It was a great feeling in the locker room," head coach Len Quesnelle '88 said. "It's been a while since the members of this team have been able to feel good about themselves."

But then they encountered an overpowering Clarkson (13-8-3, 8-4-2) team that muscled them back to the ground in a 6-1 shellacking that was almost enough to make the Tigers forget about their performance the previous night. The long losing streak was over, but the tangible sense of impending doom was still there as Princeton has only eight games to regain a consistent level of play for the playoffs.

"We have to come together for these final eight games," Quesnelle said. "Everything we're good at, we need to bring it all to the table every night."

Senior forward Shane Campbell did just that on Friday night. Starting with Doyle's goal, the game essentially turned into a competition between Campbell and Saint forward Mike Gellard. After Campbell assisted on the initial tally, Gellard responded with a power-play goal. Less than five minutes later. Campbell then closed out the period with his first goal of the game to give Princeton a 2-1 lead at the end of the stanza.

The senior continued his scoring touch in the second period, assisting on junior defender Dave Schneider's fifth goal of the season before giving the Tigers their largest lead of the game, 4-1, with his 10th goal of the season and second of the night. Not to be outdone, Gellard would score two more power-play goals — one in each period — before the game was out. Final results: Campbell four points, Gellard three; Princeton 6, St. Lawrence 4.

The following night possessed an entirely different tone for the Tigers, but not the Golden Knights. Fresh off a 6-0 blowout of Yale the previous night, Clarkson almost repeated the feat against Princeton. Four first-period goals sent the Tigers reeling. Princeton did not get anything started in the Golden Knight defensive end. While Clarkson was keeping sophomore goalkeeper Nate Nomeland off balance with 16 shots in the period, Princeton could only muster five.

"You never know what you're going to get after exam break," Quesnelle said. "It's tough to start off with the northern road trip. [Against Clarkson], we weren't as mentally sharp as we were on Friday night."

The lone highlight of the evening came at 8:42 in the final period, when senior center Kirk Lamb threaded the puck between the pipe and Golden Knight netminder Mike Walsh's right arm. The goal not only prevented the shutout, but also ended Walsh's streak of 112 minutes and 12 seconds of shutout play.

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Princeton goes back into action this weekend with a pair of ECAC games against Cornell and Colgate. The Big Red is the highest ranked ECAC team in the national polls at No. 13.