After going winless in the last two weekends of play, the performance of the men's ice hockey team this weekend was an improvement, if only a small one.
Despite losing Sunday's match up against Dartmouth, 5-2, the Tigers showed poise in their 5-4 victory against Vermont Saturday night. Though they have posted just a 1-3 record in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, good for a tie for ninth-place in the league, the season's play is too early to count the Tigers out as of yet.
Saturday night, Princeton hosted Vermont in its home opener in front of 1,588 fans. A major theme of the night was firsts for the Tigers. Not only did Princeton get its first win of the season, 5-4, in its first home game of the season, but it did so largely due to the efforts of its freshmen, many of who tallied their first points as Tigers in the victory.
Freshman forward Neil Stevenson-Moore opened up the scoring for Princeton at 17:43 of the first period - some 16 minutes after Vermont scored its first goal on a power play - with a power play goal of his own, on a rebound off senior defenseman David Schneider's slapshot from the point.
The Tigers seemed to run away with the game during the second period, opening up a 3-1 lead. Junior forward George Parros started the second-period scoring with a wrister from the right circle at 4:03.
Stevenson-Moore's freshman linemate, James Fitzpatrick, then scored his first goal as a Tiger off a rebound created by a Stevenson-Moore blast.
The third period was a see-saw battle. Vermont's Bryson Busniuk scored two goals in a span of ten seconds just five minutes into the period to even the game. Junior forward Trevor Beaney then scored from just outside the crease for the Tigers at the nine minute mark, also his first goal as a Tiger, off a pass from the left corner by junior linemate Scott Prime. Just two minutes later, though, the Catamounts answered with the equalizer.
With the game going back and forth, Stevenson-Moore took control. After assisting on Princeton's third goal with a rocket from the point, Stevenson-Moore figured he might try the same shot again. Skating along the boards, he crossed the blueline and fired a slapshot that ricocheted off Vermont keeper Shawn Conschafter and hit the back of the net.
"I saw him cheating a bit," Stevenson-Moore said, "so I beat him to his stickside."
The game wasn't a done deal from there. In the final seconds Vermont, up a skater after pulling Conschafter, attacked the Princeton net. After firing a flurry of shots that senior goalie Dave Stathos saved, a backhander by a Vermont forward was able to beat Stathos, only to be met by the post. The puck darted back out to Stathos, who covered it to preserve the win.
In Sunday's game against Dartmouth, the Tigers jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead but then were barraged with five unanswered goals. In the contest, sophomore forward Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer scored his first goal of the season, while freshman forward Mike Patton scored the first point of his career with an assist. Stathos faced 38 shots in the first 40 minutes of play. After giving up five goals, he was replaced by junior Nate Nomeland at the start of the third period.
"We were outworked and not mentally prepared to measure up to Dartmouth's speed and intensity level," head coach Len Quesnelle '88 said.
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