M. hockey crushed by struggling Yale

Stringing together two wins over the same weekend has been impossible for the men's hockey team this year. Apparently, it is never meant to happen.

Facing the winless Yale Bulldogs (1-9, 1-7 Eastern College Athletic Conference hockey league) over the holiday break in the annual Thanksgiving home-and-home series, the Tigers (4-5-1, 4-4-0 ECACHL) seemed poised to sweep their first weekend of the year and break .500 for the first time this year. Tallying a 6-3 win on Tuesday night despite playing sub-par hockey made a Saturday victory seem all but inevitable. But it was just not to be.

The Bulldogs got off to an early lead four minutes and fifty-five seconds into the contest when Joe Zappala recovered a rebound off of Princeton junior goalie Eric Leroux. Christian Jensen added Yale's second goal of the period when he received the face-off drawback from Brad Mills with just under a minute left in the first. Mills won the drawback and fed the puck directly to Jensen who put it in the net on a light wrist shot that was deflected on its way to past Leroux.

The Tigers certainly had opportunities in the first. They out shot the Bulldogs 16 to 10 in the opening period, but Yale goaltender Matt Modelski stopped all 16 to keep Princeton off the board, including a great save late in the period to keep the margin at one. The more telling statistic, however, may be the Tigers' coming up empty on three power plays. Skating for six minutes against a shorthanded Yale yielded nothing more than four shots on goal.

"In the first period, we played really well," junior Patrick Neundorfer said, "but we came into the locker room at intermission down 2-0. Some of us might have gotten a little discouraged and we might have let up a little bit." Entering the second down two, the Tigers looked to even it up. But things were not going well for Princeton on Saturday night. The Tigers turned the puck over in their own zone 1:09 into the second and Yale's Mayer took advantage to score his first of the night, extending the Bulldog lead to three.

Over 15 minutes of scoreless play ended when a Matt Craig shot bounced off Leroux and right into the stick of Jeff Hristovski who sent the puck into the goal. The goal put Yale up by four and the game all but out of reach of the Tigers.

Though the Tigers once again out shot Yale by 12 to 10 in the second, Modelski kept his shutout alive. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, received some assistance from sloppy Princeton passing, with both their goals in the period coming directly off of Tiger turnovers.

The last Bulldog goal of the period prompted Princeton head coach Guy Gadowsky to pull Leroux and replace him with sophomore goalie B.J. Sklapsky.

The third brought more of the same from Yale. Jensen and Zappala both scored goals to extend the Bulldog lead to six. Princeton freshman Erik Pridham, however, ruined Modelski's bid for a shutout 9:51 into the period. The goal was his first of the season.

Yale made the score 7-1 with eight seconds remaining when Bill LeClerc scored on an empty goal.

Ironically, the victory was the largest margin for the Bulldogs since 2002, when they beat Princeton by six.

Modelski, who played over 49 of his 60 minutes holding onto a shutout, ended the evening with 36 saves.

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But in a game that saw nearly every bounce go the Bulldogs' way, Princeton never got its act together. They heeded coach Gadowsky's prodding to limit penalties, but it was not nearly enough.

"We just didn't play as well in the final two periods as we did in the first," said Neundorfer. "We have to work on playing three solid periods of hockey no matter what happens."