St. Lawrence crushes Princeton in first round

Junior forward Dustin Sproat, playing in his final game as a Tiger, put forth an impressive farewell effort on Saturday night. He scored two goals in the third period to tie the second game in the best-of-three series. The men's hockey team could not support that offensive output with a defensive stop, however, and Princeton's season came to an end with a disappointing loss.

The Tigers (8-20-3 overall, 6-16-2 Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League) dropped two straight games to St. Lawrence (17-17-2, 11-12-1) on the Saints' home ice in the first round of the league playoffs. On Friday night, Princeton was on the losing end of a 7-0 shutout. The following night, the Tigers concluded their season with a 4-2 loss.

St. Lawrence came out firing right from the onset of the game, outshooting Princeton in the first period, 22-10. On an early power play, the Saints' forward Max Taylor took advantage of a screen to slide the puck just past junior goalie Eric Leroux. Fourteen minutes, 49 seconds into the period, St. Lawrence tacked on its second power-play goal of the night when forward John Zeiler rebounded forward Mike Zbriger's shot past an out-of-position Leroux.

The Saints put the game out of reach in the second period, as they scored three goals in just over five minutes. The first of the three, 9:18 into the frame, prompted head coach Guy Gadowsky to pull Leroux in favor of sophomore goaltender B.J. Sklapsky. But the Tigers had no answer for the offensive onslaught they faced. Sklapsky gave up his first goal of the night just under two minutes after he had entered the game.

Two goals in the third period pushed the final score to 7-0. Seven different Saints contributed to the scoring. Princeton was outshot by an overall margin of 48-23. Leroux gave up three goals and made 25 saves while Sklapsky gave up four and stopped 16. St. Lawrence's Mike McKenna made 23 saves in the winning effort.

On the following night, St. Lawrence picked up right where it had left off on Friday, outshooting the Tigers, 24-6, in the first period. But unlike the previous night, none of the Saints' shots found a way past Leroux. Unfortunately for Princeton, none of its shots found the mark either.

The Tigers' best scoring opportunity came during a power play early in the second period when a clearing shot was sent in front of St. Lawrence's net. No Princeton skater could reach it, however, and the Saints' defenseman Matt MacDonald beat them to it and cleared it to an open forward Kyle Rank. Rank was left with a one-on-one opportunity against Leroux, on which he easily capitalized. The goal, 3:24 into the period, put St. Lawrence up one.

Early in the third, the Saints' forward Josh Anderson scored and gave his team some breathing room.

But ECACHL scoring leader Sproat soon spoiled St. Lawrence's series shutout. Princeton's assist leader, sophomore forward Grant Goeckner-Zoeller, dished the puck to Sproat on his first goal 7:59 into the third period.

Sproat scored his second goal of the night with 6:23 remaining, recovering a rebound following a shot from freshman forward Landis Stankievech and knotting the door-die game for the Tigers at two.

The teams skated for over four scoreless minutes. But as has been the case all year, the Princeton defense was unable to match its offense's momentum. MacDonald got his second and most important goal of the night with just 1:52 remaining to put the Saints on top. St. Lawrence's scoring leader, forward T.J. Trevelyan, scored his first goal of the series on an open net with 41 seconds remaining, nailing the coffin on the Tigers' season.

Leroux's tremendous play on the night resulted in a career-high 52 saves, keeping Princeton in the game the whole time despite being outshot, 56-20. McKenna had a strong showing as well, with 18 saves and only two goals allowed.