M. hockey loses to Union, finds hope with tie to RPI

The way the men's hockey team has dominated Rensselaer this season, it probably wishes it could play the Engineers (9-19-2 overall, 3-11-2 Eastern College Athletic Conference) more often. But the Tigers could not maintain their momentum and lost the following day to Union.

By tying Rensselaer at 2-2, the Tigers maintained their three-game unbeaten streak versus the Engineers. In two previous encounters, Princeton (3-21-1 overall, 2-15-1 ECAC) defeated Rensselaer 4-3 both home and away.

The Engineers were the perfect opponent for a Tiger squad that had recently struggled to play consistent hockey for a full 60 minutes. In the opening minutes of the game, the Tigers were fierce, going after every loose puck as if their lives depended on it. The result was that the Tigers drew first blood against an opponent for the first time in weeks.

The first goal of the game came courtesy of junior forward Mike Patton at four minutes, 47 seconds into the first period. The Princeton goal was a thing of beauty, a string of passes that set up a wide-open Patton for the score.

Senior forward George Parros took control of the puck deep in the zone and then fed junior defenseman Steve Slaton who was positioned at the far point. Seeing an opening in the Rensselaer defense, Slaton skated towards Engineer netminder Nathan Marsters, who over-committed to Slaton's side of the ice. Just when Marsters appeared badly out of position Slaton slid a pass to Patton who was all alone in front of the goal. Marsters had no time to react and was left shaking his head as Princeton got on the board first.

Although the Engineers were unsettled early on, they managed to get the equalizer 39 seconds before the end of the first frame.

Four and a half minutes into the second period Rensselaer struck again, this time on a shorthanded situation. For the remainder of the second frame the Tigers pushed hard for an equalizer of their own but to no avail.

Been there

At the start of the third period Princeton found itself in a familiar role, down by a goal heading into the final 20 minutes of play.

Unlike other occasions, however, the Tigers did not let the Engineers off the hook in the game's closing moments.

Late in the third it appeared as though fate was against Princeton when freshman forward Patrick Neundorfer hit the post on a two-on-one. Fortunately, seconds later junior defenseman Matt Maglione saved the day when his skidding wrist shot from the far point found the back of the net.

The goal occurred after the Tigers won a face-off in the offensive zone. Following the face-off, sophomore forward Tommy Colclough controlled the puck and had the presence of mind to slide a pass over to Maglione.

Maglione's goal sent the game to overtime where the deadlock could not be broken.

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Princeton's other road game this weekend did not go as well as the Tigers would have liked. Union (13-13-4 overall, 9-7-2 ECAC) upended Princeton Saturday evening by a score of 6-2.

The game started off on a good note for the Tigers as Patton notched a critical power-play at 10:20 in the first period. Freshman forward Dustin Sproat assisted on the play by providing Patton with a solid pass from the corner.

But Union answered less than a minute later, tying the score at 1-1.

Two minutes into the second period the Dutchmen took the lead with a power-play goal, and added another at 6:58.

Things continued to spiral out of control for the Tigers when Union lit the lamp just over a minute into the third period, extending its lead to 4-1.

Princeton eventually got back on the scoreboard at 14:36 when junior forward Chris Owen skated end-to-end and beat Mayotte with a wrist shot for his team-high 14th goal of the season. But Owen's goal was not enough and the Dutchmen scored two more times, making the score 6-2.