Princeton ties, loses in upstate NY

Despite an impressive defensive showing from the men's hockey team during their two-game road trip to northern New York, highlighted by 74 saves from junior goaltender Eric Leroux, the Princeton offense failed to present anything close to the same intensity. The Tigers tied St. Lawrence, 4-4, on a late goal and lost to Clarkson, 3-1.

"I thought even as a team we showed a lot of improvement this weekend," Leroux said. "We were down to four defensemen all weekend [due to injury]."

Princeton (6-15-2 overall, 4-10-1 Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League) snapped both a seven-game conference winless streak and a two-game winless streak on Friday night against the Saints (13-12-2, 7-7-1).

Junior forward Patrick Neundorfer opened the scoring at 13 minutes, 47 seconds in the first period as he deflected a shot from junior forward Dustin Sproat past the St. Lawrence goalie for his ninth goal of the season — a power play goal. Neundorfer also registered his 20th point of the season with the goal.

The Saints evened the score late in the second period when Colin FitzRandolph one-timed the puck past Leroux, a goal that resulted from a Tiger turnover. The two teams combined for 49 shots through two periods of play, but the scored remained knotted at 1-1.

The third period started with a frenzy as both teams scored a combined four goals in 3:34. Junior forward Mark Masters started the scoring just past one minute into the third with his second goal of the year, giving Princeton a temporary lead.

St. Lawrence then took its first lead of the night at 3-2 just over two minutes later as T.J. Trevelyan scored two goals in 11 seconds.

Sproat, both the team's and the league's scoring leader, padded his point total (30) as he tied the game at three on a breakaway goal with 16 minutes to play in the game. Only once before, in 1987-88, has a Princeton player led the ECACHL in scoring for a season. Leroux assisted on the goal, earning the first point of his career.

Trevelyan put the Saints back on top, 4-3, midway through the third period, scoring a hat trick in the process.

Luckily for the Tigers, junior forward Sebastian Borza scored his fifth goal of the season with four minutes to play in regulation, tying the game for good at 4-4 and sending the game to overtime.

Neither team scored in the overtime session despite seven total shots on goal. Leroux finished with 42 saves in the game, and the Saints remained unbeaten in the series between the two schools.

The following evening against Clarkson proved to be no better, as the Knights outshot Princeton. Despite managing to score only one goal, the Tigers are not worried about their offensive output.

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"Offensively, we have been strong this year," Leroux said. "Lately, our power play has dipped a little, but it is still among the best in the league. It is not goalscoring that is our concern."

Princeton scored in the final minute of the first period to break the 0-0 tie, courtesy of sophomore defenseman Daryl Marcoux's second goal of the season on a pass from Borza.

Clarkson was quick to tie the game at 1-1 when Mark Arciero scored at the 2:41 mark of the second period. Then, with less than five minutes remaining in the second period, the Knights' power-play unit scored what was to be the game-winning goal, giving Clarkson a 2-1 lead. The Knights outshot Princeton through two periods, 24-17.

Despite 10 shots on goal in the final period, the Tigers could not solve the Knights goaltender, Dustin Traylen. Princeton was scoreless in the period, and Clarkson padded its stats with an empty-net goal with one second remaining in the game. Leroux had 32 saves in the loss.

Down the stretch, Princeton must find a way to play its best — in all aspects of the game — for the complete 60 minutes.

"The focus for us is just going to be putting together a consistent effort," said Leroux, "and try to be the team that we have been for parts of game for an entire game."