Despite inconsistency, men's hockey remains near top of ECAC

While inconsistency has plagued the men's hockey team throughout the first part of the season, it still remains near the top of the Eastern College Athletic Conference standings.

Princeton (4-9-0 overall, 4-6-0 ECAC) is tied with Clarkson at No. 4 in the conference with eight points. Ahead of the Tigers are three Ivy League teams who tend to be Princeton's perennial rivals: Harvard, Yale and Cornell.

After the Tigers' game with Rensselaer last Saturday, they began a much-needed 20 day vacation from play. They will resume their season on Dec. 28, when they host Notre Dame.

Although Princeton is still in the running in ECAC competition, without an established offensive force, the Tigers will not be able to move up in the ranks to challenge the teams ahead of them.

A bright spot in the offense has been freshman forward Neil Stevenson-Moore.

After scoring the game-winning goal against Vermont in November, he was named ECAC Rookie of the Week. He has three goals on the season, holding the second place spot on the team along with senior forward David del Monte and junior defenseman Trevor Beaney.

The team's leading scorer is junior forward George Parros with four goals.

Yet it is scoring that has been the team's greatest weakness. Princeton's opponents have outscored the Tigers, 48-24.

The problem is not that Princeton's opponents have had twice as many opportunities; Princeton has only been outshot 453-354.The problem is that the Tiger defense has allowed opponents higher-quality opportunities — better shots from better locations.

The Tigers' defense has also struggled this season, not because it lacks talent, but because the team is on defense for most of the game.

The cornerstone to any defense, power play or otherwise, is the goaltender. Senior Dave Stathos has anchored the team with a save percentage of .901.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, his goals against average of 3.55 is simply too high for a team that averages only 1.85 goals per game.

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Without an offense that can take some of the pressure off the defense, the Tigers continue to crumble. The penalty kill, a unit that should be relatively strong given the talent that Princeton has on defense, has been a sore spot for much of the season.

Princeton's opponents have had fewer opportunities on the power play, but they have been far more efficient with the extra man.

Overall the team has been called for 56 penalties in conference play, and nine of those chances have been turned into goals by the other side.

Princeton, on the other hand, has scored only four goals in 60 power play situations. The discrepancy between the special teams play, particularly within the ECAC, is a major reason for the Tigers' scoring deficit.

Even with all of the problems and the inconsistency that have marred the first part of the season, the Tigers have exceeded expectations.

Picked to finish as low as eleventh in the ECAC, the team can take some pride in the fact that it sits in a tie for fourth, only one point behind Cornell; the Big Red moved up one spot in the national polls this week, from ninth to eighth.

The Tigers also trail conference leader Harvard by four points; two more wins over this early season stretch and Princeton could be a contender for the conference title at this point.

A full collegiate hockey season is played out over a long time, however, and mistakes are magnified as time goes on.

Princeton may be close to the top now, but the team clearly needs to use the next 20 days, before they take on Notre Dame in Trenton, to address its major problems before the season slips away.