Men's hockey takes on Cornell, Colgate in key ECAC weekend

As men's hockey returns to Eastern College Athletic Conference action this weekend against Cornell and Colgate at Baker Rink, the Tigers have their work cut out for them.

The most commonly mentioned problem on the team this season has been the lack of scoring.

With the young team struggling on offense, much of the scoring burden has been carried by seniors David Schneider and Dave Del Monte.

Missed opportunities have haunted the Tigers throughout the first few games, a fact lamented by Schneider after Tuesday's loss to Northeastern.

"We're getting our chances," Schneider said. "If you watch the game tape against Yale from Nov. 20 we out-chanced them in the third period. They had three chances to score, but us, we're not scoring and that's another problem."

Cornell (6-2-0 overall, 3-1-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference), Princeton's opponent on Saturday night, has no such offensive production problems. Or at least USA Today does not think so. After the Big Red's triumph over Boston University, 4-2, they moved up to No. 9 in the national poll.

Friday night's opponent, Colgate (3-8-0, 2-2-0), is currently on a three-game losing streak. Since its last win against Brown on Nov. 16, the Raiders have been trying to win one for their coach, Don Vaughan, who is in the hunt for his 100th win in ECAC play.

The Tigers, however, need not worry so much about their opponents. This weekend will prove to be a challenge against themselves.

Throughout the season, they have been plagued by inconsistency in the quality of their play. Before Thanksgiving, Princeton pulled out an overtime win against Yale at home, then travelled there over the break to get crushed 6-1.

This problem can be attributed to one thing:

"Stupid mistakes," Schneider said. "The guys have to understand that they cannot happen."

Head coach Len Quesnelle '88 could not agree more with Schneider's analysis.

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"We're a team that is going to make our share of mistakes," he said. "But when you have a hard time scoring goals to make up for those mistakes - we have to be even tighter defensively as a team."

Colgate at least may provide the Tigers with more than enough opportunities to compensate for their mistakes. The Raiders have given up 20 goals in their last three games with losses to Harvard, 6-1, Merrimack, 9-5 and Mercyhurst, 5-2.

The story against the Big Red may be far different, however.

Despite Princeton's five-game unbeaten streak against Cornell at Baker Rink, the Big Red comes to town as the early season overachievers in the ECAC.

Picked to finish third behind Harvard and Clarkson in the pre-season coaches' poll, Cornell has exceeded expectations by beating top-10 teams like the Terriers to earn its position as the ECAC's sole top-15 squad.

The goalkeeping situation is also not as stable for Princeton as it has been in the past.

While senior Dave Stathos is still the clear number one starter, junior Nate Nomeland has seen time on the ice recently, most notably in a stong performance against Northeastern.

"Nate's worked hard," Quesnelle said. "He's worked hard for the opportunity to play."

Look for Cornell's goal, on the other hand to be sealed up tighter than a brick wall. Freshman Dave LeNeveu earned ECAC goaltender of the week honors last week for his performance against Boston.