For two periods and 13 seconds, the men's hockey team matched Northeastern play for play.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, hockey games last a full three periods. And after the first 13 seconds of the final period, it was clear who was in control of the game.
The Huskies (6-6-2 overall, 2-4-1 Hockey East) handed Princeton (2-7-0 overall, 2-4-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference) yet another loss last night at Baker Rink, 3-1.
At the beginning of the night, it looked as if the sputtering Tiger offense might actually come to life.
Taking a cross-crease pass from defensive linemate senior Matt Maglione, senior captain David Schneider slipped the puck past Northeastern goalkeeper Keni Gibson to give Prineton a 1-0 advantage.
Schneider's goal — the 16th of his career — moves him into a tie for second place with Steve Shirreffs '99 for all-time goals scored by a defenseman.
Schneider's goal would not be enough to ignite the Princeton offense and the defense did not protect the lead.
With just over two minutes remaining in the second period, junior Tiger goalie Nate Nomeland faced a barage of shots from the Huskies. Left wing Mike Ryan was able to control one of the deflections just inside the left face-off circle and put the puck past Nomeland for the tying score at 18:19 in the second.
"It was tied 1-1 going into the third," Schneider said. "All we had to do was win the period."
"We should never give up a goal in the first two minutes of a period, or the last two minutes," head coach Len Quesnelle '88 said.
13 seconds into the third period, Huskies' center Jason Guerriero scored the game winner from the right side, with Willie Levesque and Ryan recording the assists.
Northeastern would score once more before the end of the game; Levesque netted the puck at 14:12 with the help of a teammate screening Nomeland.
While the Tigers feel that this game was something of an improvement from the recent 6-1 loss at Yale, the combined 9-2 score over the last two games is still demoralizing.
"You get impatient," Schneider said. "The worst thing is that right now guys aren't giving their best effort all the time."
With senior forward Brad Parsons missing his eighth straight game because of injury, the offensive production has been almost non-existent.
"We're a team that's going to make our share of mistakes," Quesnelle said. "But our offense isn't scoring enough to make up for those mistakes."
The Tigers continue their homestand this weekend with ECAC opponents Colgate Friday night and Cornell Saturday night.
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