Men's hockey fails to complete sweep of Yale

The men's hockey team was subjected to the hostile atmosphere of Yale's Ingalls Rink, fraught with inhospitable and uncouth Yale fans and the school's raunchy and rowdy band, on Saturday evening. Overwhelmed by the plethora of white and blue, the Tigers (3-7-0 overall, 3-5-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference) fell to the Bulldogs (3-7-0, 3-5-0) by a disappointing 5-3 score.

Coming into the game, Princeton had won three of its last five games, including a 3-0 defeat of Yale on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving Break.

The team had surprised skeptics with several impressive wins, held the No. 4 position in ECAC standings, equaled its total wins from last season, and eclipsed its number of league wins from last year. The Tigers have not won a Saturday game so far this season, however, and have allowed an average of 5.2 goals in those five losses. This game merely prolonged that frustrating streak. After Tuesday's masterful performance by sophomore goalie Eric Leroux in which he earned his first career shutout, Yale finally figured out how to beat him. Although Princeton outshot the Bulldogs in the first period, 11 to six, it was Yale who commanded the scoreboard.

Leroux was beaten by two upper corner, mirror-image slap shots from the left and right faceoff circles: one zipped over his stick-side shoulder, the other over his glove-side shoulder.

At 18 minutes, seven seconds of the opening frame, the Tigers finally made their mark on the scoreboard. As senior defenseman Matt Maglione brought the puck up the left side of the ice and tried to set up the power play attack from behind the net, he spotted junior forward Neil Stevenson-Moore open in the slot. Although the shot lacked velocity, the puck had just enough momentum to slip under goalie Josh Gartner's pads.

The second period was painted purely in orange and black. Energized by its late first period goal, Princeton dominated play with effective forechecking and clean stick-to-stick passing. The Bulldogs had no real counter for this enhanced Tiger effort, and the Yale band peppered Leroux with more cheap shots than the team could manage real shots. Princeton was only able to capitalize once in the frame, however, with the tying goal coming on a two-on-one rush at 15:49. Freshman defender Daryl Marcoux drew the Bulldog defender into the Tiger zone, then tipped the puck up through the neutral zone to junior forward Mike Patton, streaking up the left side of the rink. Princeton forced the lone defender to commit and then threaded a pass to sophomore forward Patrick Neundorfer on his right, directly in front of the crease. Before Gartner had a chance to react, Neundorfer one-timed it into the back of the Yale net.

Looking for revenge from the pre-Thanksgiving loss, the Bulldogs would not tolerate a mere tie. They stepped up their play in the third and attacked Leroux with more vigor than they had managed up to that point.

"We let down between periods," Stevenson-Moore said. "We were glad to get it tied up, but then we became too complacent. We should have been able to capitalize on more of our chances."

At 9:02 in the third period, Yale took the lead and never looked back. The Bulldogs scored the eventual game-winner at 15:44 of the period on a power play. Leroux lost his stick as he made a diving save. Unable to grab the stick resting only inches away, he faced a flurry of shots with only his body to deflect them. Bulldog forward Jeff Hristovski finally took advantage of the extreme angles Leroux was forced to play, found an opening and rocketed a shot from the goalie's right side.

Princeton fought back within striking distance with just over two minutes remaining off Stevenson-Moore's second goal of the game. He received a quick pass from behind the net from freshman forward Darroll Powe and shot a missile through traffic into the right side of the net.

The Tigers were stymied in their own zone for most of the final minute and were only able to push the puck up the rink in the last 20 seconds. When they pulled Leroux to gain the extra attacker, the result was an empty-net goal for Yale with .2 seconds remaining.

"Yale is a talented team, and we didn't take the necessary steps to get fully mentally prepared," Stevenson-Moore said. "It's hard for any team in the last minute to get out of their zone, but we should have capitalized earlier and not even gotten to that point."