M. hockey looks to RPI to regain confidence

With a record of 3-20-0 overall and 2-14-0 within the Eastern College Athletic Conference, the men's hockey team must look for silver linings wherever it can find them in an increasingly darkened sky.

One such place may be in the team's games this weekend at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Union College.

Much of Princeton's limited success this season has come against RPI (9-19-2, 3-11-2). Two-thirds of the Tigers' wins have been at the expense of the Engineers, and they hope that the goodwill of the gods will once again be with them as they visit Achilles Rink tonight.

Princeton recorded its first win of the season at home against RPI on Nov. 16 when sophomore goaltender Trevor Clay led his team with 42 saves.

The Tigers never trailed in the 4-3 victory and were bolstered by two goals from sophomore forward Neil Stevenson-Moore. Princeton also received points from two juniors — forward Dan Hursh and defenseman Matt Maglione.

Clay made headlines again in late December when his 41 saves provided the edge for the Tigers in another 4-3 win over RPI. This time Princeton found itself down a goal early but fought back for three straight goals and a lead that the team would cling to tenaciously.

"I think you'd have to say that Trevor Clay was the difference in both of those games," head coach Len Quesnelle '88 said.

"There's no one specific thing that the team has done when we've played them; it's just all come together for us and our goalie played great both times."

Princeton and RPI represent the bottom of the barrel for the ECAC. The Tigers have only four points in the standings are ranked No. 12 out of 12 teams. The Engineers have not done much better, as they have a scant eight points and are in 11th place in the league. The parity of competition between the two teams plus the Tigers' record of success against RPI seem to portend good things for Princeton.

The Tigers have not had quite as much success against Union (12-12-4, 8-6-2).

The Dutchmen, ranked No. 4 in the ECAC, came to Baker Rink on Nov. 15 in what was the only action between the two teams this season.

Union jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the Tigers could put a point on the board. Princeton finally broke through with a one-timer by Hursh after the Tigers had controlled the puck for much of the third period, but it would not be enough as the Dutchmen added an empty-netter en route to a 4-1 win.

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Although Union controlled play in much of the first game between the two teams, the Tigers can by no means be counted out.

Since then, the Dutchmen have played RPI twice — losing once and tying once. They have also lost to No. 2 Harvard — who the Tigers beat — and dropped a game to No. 1 Cornell by six goals, three more than the number by which Princeton fell.

With such mixed signs as these, the Tigers have been concentrating on improving the fundamentals in their own game rather than structuring practices around what other teams may do.

"We're clearly at the point right now in our season where we need to refocus and get back to fundamentals," Quesnelle said.

Parros echoed his coach's call for the team to start games strong.

"We're focusing on staying steady throughout the period," Parros said. "A lot of guys were getting into trouble and panicking at the beginning and ends of periods, and that was hurting us."

More specifically, the Tigers have spent time this week working out the kinks in their power play.

"We've had a lot of work on the power play this week. Last weekend [against Clarkson and St. Lawrence], we had a lot of opportunities but we didn't convert and that hurt us."

Princeton converted only one out of its six power play opportunities against Clarkson and two of 10 the following night against St. Lawrence.

If the Tigers follow their game plan this weekend, they may find that the sun has broken through the clouds just enough to salvage a disappointing season.