M. hockey to skate against St. Lawrence and Clarkson

Familiarity breeds contempt.

The men's hockey team understands the meaning of this old adage quite well. Having just hosted St. Lawrence and Clarkson two weeks ago, to the tune of two losses, the Tigers are preparing this weekend to travel to upstate New York and take on the two schools again.

A heated rivalry

"Clarkson is one of the teams we have the most heated games with," sophomore Neil Stevenson-Moore said. "Personally they are the team I hate the most, and therefore enjoy playing the most."

Princeton will first try to prevent history from repeating itself against St. Lawrence (8-18-4 overall, 5-11-2 Eastern Conference Athletic Conference).

Two weeks ago, at Baker Rink, the Saints skated away with a 5-2 victory.

Princeton (3-21-1, 2-15-1) played from behind the whole way, as the Tigers found themselves down, 2-0, after goals by St. Lawrence's Josh Anderson in the first period. After the Saints put one more score on the board early in the second, Princeton began to claw its way back when sophomore forward Mike Patton scored a second-effort goal with his team on a two-man advantage. Less than three minutes later, junior forward Chris Owen converted another power play, to bring the Tigers within one.

That was as close as Princeton would get, however, as St. Lawrence tallied twice more in the third period to put the game out of reach.

"Against St. Lawrence, I thought we outplayed them, but were not able to put the puck in the net," Owen said. "Scoring on our opportunities has been one of our problems this year. It seems as though when we are outplaying a team, we have not been able to get the lead and bury them."

Missed opportunities have been a theme for the Tigers throughout the season, and certainly contributed to their loss to St. Lawrence.

Princeton was afforded 10 power plays in the game but only managed to convert two, for a 0.20 power play percentage. The Saints' opponents have an overall .230 power play rating, so the Tigers only did slightly worse than St. Lawrence's opponents have averaged overall. With 10 opportunities, however, the Tigers would have liked more than two goals to show for it.

The not-so Golden Knights

Against Clarkson, the story was much the same. The Golden Knights (11-17-1, 8-9-1) capitalized on opportunities to score early in the game while Princeton was slower to get going, which leading to a 5-0 Tiger deficit after one period and ultimately to a 7-3 loss.

"In the Clarkson game, we did not start well and before we knew it, the game was 5-0," Owen said. "I think we were prepared to play, we just didn't make the simple plays and made too many crucial mistakes. It seemed that every time we made a mistake, they capitalized on it."

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Owen, Stevenson-Moore and senior defenseman Trevor Beaney recorded Princeton's goals in the game.

Owen and Stevenson-Moore will each need to play a pivotal role this weekend if the Tigers are to break out of their offensive slump. Owen leads the team with 14 goals and five assists, while Stevenson-Moore sits in fifth place on the team with six goals and three assists. Patton, junior defenseman Matt Maglione and freshman forward Dustin Sproat round out the Tigers' top five scorers. All will also need to contribute for Princeton to win this weekend.

But converting on opportunities is not all that is needed. For the Tigers, the mantra remains the same — focus on the fundamentals. Rather than tailoring their practices to the teams that they will face, the Tigers have been getting back to basics and fixing the little things that, when taken together, make the difference between a win and a loss.

"I think at this point in the season, we just need to worry about our own play and eliminate the big mistakes that are costing us goals," Owen said. "This weekend, we need to catch the break that we have not gotten this year, by scoring a big goal when we really need it or preventing a goal in one way or another. This team has that ability and hopefully it comes out in the next few weeks."