Princeton faces two conference opponents

In its final two games before the exam break, men's hockey will be tested against Clarkson and St. Lawrence at home this weekend in the midst of a six-game homestand. At No. 7 in the conference, Princeton hopes to use this weekend to climb back to .500 in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League.

"This isn't a bad place to be," head coach Guy Gadowsky said, referring to his team's ECACHL standing.

The Tigers (5-10-1 overall, 4-6 ECACHL) first face Clarkson (5-12-2, 1-5) Friday night at Baker Rink. Princeton is 3-2-1 on home ice this season and a measly 2-8 on the road. The silver lining on the Tigers' mediocre record is that nine of their final 13 games are at home.

The Golden Knights are resuming ECACHL play after a month-long break in which they went 2-3-1 in non-conference play. Clarkson's only league win this season came against Dartmouth, a team Princeton beat soundly, 3-0. The Golden Knights are currently ranked No. 11 in the league.

The Tigers certainly do not have history on their side in this matchup, having gone winless against Clarkson for the last 13 contests, but this season has been a completely different story for Princeton hockey. The Tigers have already equaled their win total from last season (5) with 13 games still remaining in the regular season.

Clarkson has struggled this season, with its strong goaltending saving it several nights. Junior goalie Dustin Traylen, who has started 13 games this season, has put up an impressive .923 save percentage while giving up just over two goals per game in league play.

Princeton, on the other hand, has let in four goals per game. Offense is the team's strength, and they will try to play to that hand in this weekend's games.

"We tend to focus on playing our game and making them adjust to what we're doing," junior forward Dustin Sproat said. "[Gadowsky] emphasizes quick puck movement, transition, solid back-checking and offensive intensity."

In the second game of the weekend, the Tigers face a greater challenge in St. Lawrence (9-9-1, 3-4-0), a team tied for eighth in the ECACHL. The Saints are 2-3 in their last five games, including a 4-1 loss at Brown. Princeton beat Brown, 5-1, earlier in the season. St. Lawrence, however, has racked up a few impressive wins, including victories over Miami, Michigan State and Maine.

The contest against the Saints will most likely be an offensive battle. The overall offensive output of both teams is nearly identical, but the Tigers are more efficient with their shots, scoring 49 goals on 471 shots (10.4 percent) compared to St. Lawrence's 53 goals on 659 shots (eight percent).

"The things that we did to win at the beginning of the year [are the things we need to do now to win]," sophomore forward Grant Goeckner-Zoeller said. "Driving the net hard to create scoring chances and outshooting our opponent [are key]."

Princeton's offensive proliferation is due in large part to leaders Sproat and Goeckner-Zoeller, both of whom have registered 21 points on the season. Sproat is the team's leading scorer with 11 goals on 35 shots. Goeckner-Zoeller's 16 assists lead the team.

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The team has to produce offensively in order to earn a win against the tough St. Lawrence squad, against which the Tigers are just 15-47-6 all-time. Princeton is 3-1 when outshooting its opponents, but a winless 0-6 when netting two goals or fewer.

Power plays will be crucial for goal scoring. Nearly half of the Tigers' 49 goals have come on the power play, on which it has capitalized over 23 percent of the time — 30.8 percent in ECACHL play. These numbers make Princeton's power-play unit the second best in the league and third best in the nation, behind UMass-Lowell and Cornell.