The big dogs came to Baker Rink this weekend, and it wasn't pretty.
The struggling men's hockey team hosted Harvard and Brown this weekend in a showcase of the Eastern College Athletic Conference's elite — the Crimson and Bears are ranked Nos. 1 and 3, respectively, in the latest ECAC standings.
One-hundred-twenty minutes and two losses later, it was apparent that Princeton (1-12-0 overall, 1-9-0 ECAC) has a long way to go before it can hope to compete successfully with the top teams in the conference.
Friday brought a showdown with No. 1 Harvard (9-3-0, 9-2-0), a chance for Princeton to gauge what kind of potential its season might have despite the slow start.
No power
The Crimson opened the scoring at 12 minutes, five seconds of the first period with a shorthanded goal off a screen of sophomore goaltender Trevor Clay.
After another goal put them up by two, the Crimson once again used their special teams to put one past the Princeton goaltender.
Just under three minutes into the third period, Harvard's Tyler Kolarik beat freshman goaltender Eric Leroux high to his stick side for a power play goal.
The Tigers were finally able to get on the board after Tom Cavanaugh extended the Harvard lead to four on a delayed penalty.
Shingles
Junior forward Chris Owen scored his first goal of the night when he roofed a shot over Harvard goaltender John Daigneau at 12:20 of the second period.
After another Crimson goal, Princeton quickly answered back with freshman defenseman Seamus Young's first goal of his career only 31 seconds later. Just as the Crimson had done in their first goal of the game, Young used a screen to get the puck past Daigneau and cut the lead to 5-2.
The margin was narrowed even more 2:02 later when sophomore forward James Fitzpatrick fed a streaking Owen in the neutral zone. Owen carried the puck into the Harvard end before cutting sharply into the middle and beating Daigneau with a wrist shot to bring the game within two with 7:32 remaining.
That was as close as Princeton would get, however, as the Crimson used an empty-netter with only 47 seconds remaining to put the game out of reach, 6-3.
Saturday against Brown (5-5-1 ECAC), the Tigers found themselves in an unfamiliar situation. Instead of falling behind and letting the game get out of reach early, it was Princeton who was on top, 2-0, in the second period and challenging the Bears to come back. But come back they would, as Brown scored five unanswered goals to win the game, 5-2, and stop a five game winless skid.
The Tigers used their power play to get on the board first midway through the first period. Freshman forward Sebastian Borza received the puck at the right point and sent it across the blue line to junior defenseman Matt Maglione at the left point. Maglione ripped a shot past Brown goaltender Yann Danis to give the Tigers the lead, 1-0.
Ready to rumble
The two teams played about evenly for the remainder of the first period, and the Tigers came out of the locker room for the second fired up.
Owen won the opening face-off and drew it back to junior defenseman Steve Slaton. Slaton sent the puck across the ice to sophomore defenseman Jesse Masear, who gave it back to Owen at the blueline.
After skating into the Bears' zone and putting a move on a Brown defender, Owen fooled Danis with a high wrist shot only nine seconds into the period and put the Tigers in the unfamiliar position of being up by two goals.
The situation would soon change, however, as Brown cut the lead in half at 10:57 of the second period when Shane Mudryck went top-shelf on Clay.
Gordian goal
The Bears then knotted the score at two apiece with Adam Saunders' power-play goal only three minutes later. After Paul Esdale added one more goal, Brown took a 3-2 lead into the second intermission.
The Bears were not willing to settle for a slim one goal lead, however, and they scored only 14 seconds into the third period to go up, 4-2.
Pascal Denis completed the comeback at 13:22 when he collected a pass from teammate Les Haggett inside the blue line and blasted it past Clay.
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