As Melville writes in Moby Dick, "Shipmates, on the starboard hand of every woe, there is a sure delight; and higher the top of that delight, than the bottom of the woe is deep." For the men's hockey team, the woe they desperately want to avoid is the specter of the cellar of the Eastern College Athletic Conference standings. Unless Princeton emerges from this weekend series against Dartmouth (9-7-7 overall, 7-4-5 ECAC) and Vermont (6-19-4, 4-13-1) with solid wins, the ignominious designation of cellar-dweller will belong to the Tigers (5-19-1, 5-12-1).
The Catamounts have occupied the ECAC basement for the entire season and would be more than thrilled to sublease this dubious distinction.
Friday's foe, Dartmouth, has been a model of consistent inconsistency. While its hot and cold play has allowed the team to maintain its hold on positions in the top half of the league, it has failed to live up to preseason expectations. Although the Big Green has proved itself worthy, with hard-fought wins against Brown, Cornell and Princeton, it also has fallen short against less skilled opponents like Union and Vermont. This mercurial level of play has been achieved despite the team's immense talent.
Success for Dartmouth has been drawn from the combination of a pervasive, sniper mentality that drives their freewheeling team and the stability of a solid goaltender. Forwards Lee Stempniak and Hugh Jessiman are lethal both on rocket shots from the blue line and on chances garnered from crashing the net for rebounds. Most of the Dartmouth goals in the previous game against Princeton came from the Tigers' inability to prevent the Big Green from camping out in the slot. Although Dartmouth enjoys a slight size advantage, Princeton will need to drastically improve its physical inside presence to compensate for this Big Green strength.
On Saturday, the Tigers will face a very different Vermont team than the one they beat earlier this year. Not only does Princeton have to overcome the Catamountss late-season momentum — they are coming off their first two road wins of the season — but the team also has to counter the emotional significance of Vermont's last home game of the season. Catamount senior Jeff Miles has the extra incentive of accumulating six more points to finish his collegiate career in the school's top 20 in that respect. However, while the night will belong to the seniors, the Vermont team as a whole is still fairly young. This was extremely evident in their early season, as the Catamounts went winless in their first twelve games. They lacked solid team leadership, suffered from extreme defensive lapses and were consistently outshot and outscored in every period.
Goalie Travis Russell has been a major reason behind Vermont's recent success. In the past weekend's sweep of Clarkson and St. Lawrence, he stopped 64 of the 65 shots he faced. In the past six games, he has recorded an impressive .950 save percentage, and his solid play has earned him ECAC goalie of the week and National Player of the Week honors.
While the Catamounts cruise into the weekend with confidence, the Tigers do not enjoy that same luxury. They are winless in their last 11 games, and although they have displayed impressive stretches of skill they have not been able to prolong that intensity for an entire 60 minutes of play. Unless they desire to hit a season nadir, Princeton must put forth an exceptional effort this weekend.
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