Men's hockey head coach Guy Gadowsky has a way of turning programs around — and that's exactly what he did with the Tigers last year.
After rolling through the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Hockey League tournament in 1998, Princeton had fallen into a state of malaise. The down period culminated with a five win season during the winter of 2003-04. To kick-start the program again, Director of Athletics Gary Walters '67 hired Gadowsky from Alaska-Fairbanks, where he had garnered a reputation for turning the program around both on and off the ice.
In Gadowsky's first season at the helm last winter, Princeton eclipsed its win total of the previous year just over halfway through the season, finishing with eight victories. The offense opened up, the Tigers scored more goals, and different players found their niches.
Now that the Tigers are out of the ECACHL basement, Gadowsky finds himself with a new task: turning them into contenders.
"A goal of ours from right off the hop was to get more offensive production and pressure — to lead to a lot more goals and a lot more shots on net," Gadowsky said.
Princeton fans certainly responded to the intensity — more than 2,000 of them packed Baker Rink for games toward the end of the season. Granted, NHL owners and players were too busy fighting among themselves to play any games, so that league wasn't pulling fans away from collegiate competition. But Tiger hockey was exciting again, and there was a reason to show up to the game.
Now that the team has had a year of experience with the new system, the games should be even more of a draw. Senior forward Patrick Neundorfer has always been the vocal and emotional leader of the team, and he earned captain duties last season as a result. This season, he'll have to be an offensive leader as well. He showed he has the capability to put up points by posting a hat trick in the second game of the season last year and did his best to keep up with senior scoring phenom Dustin Sproat for the remainder of the season. But now that Sproat has exhausted his eligibility, Neundorfer will most likely draw the bulk of opponents' defensive attention. He'll have to be that much better.
Gadowsky, of course, won't put all of the pressure on Neundorfer to put up Sproat-like numbers. That role will have to be filled by the team as a whole.
"It is going to have to be done by committee. You can't just fill the shoes of Dustin Sproat," Gadowsky said. "He was the leading goalscorer in the league."
Assisting Neundorfer, so to speak, will be junior Grant Goeckner-Zoeller, who finished second in the point column last year. The forward demonstrated his knack for making plays last year by racking up 26 assists to lead the team. He'll probably be called upon to do some more scoring of his own. He and junior forward Darrell Powe, who has shown strong commitment to the team in the off-season, will be essential in insuring that there is no drop-off in offensive production.
Now that the offense has been rejuvenated, Gadowsky understands that it is time to begin to focus on defense. As a unit last year, it was far from perfect. The defense relinquished seven goals to then-winless Yale and gave up two in the last two minutes to drop another game.
"I look forward to establishing high standards and [working on] some of the more trench-like aspects of the game," Gadowsky said.
The trick will be to maintain the fast-paced, open offense that the team — and fans — grew accustomed to last year without sacrificing its ability to stop teams coming the other way. Senior defender Seamus Young, sophomore defender Mike Moore, and junior forward Brett Westgarth emerged last year as guys able to take on the crux of that responsibility.
Backing them up as goalie will be either senior Eric Leroux or junior B.J. Sklapsky. Though Leroux emerged as the premier goaltender midway through last season, Gadowsky insists the job is once again up in the air.
"There is a battle, and I don't mind that," Gadowsky said. "Last year Eric Leroux took the reins and showed that he was the number one guy. Right now it's who plays the best."
Sklapsky saw playing time in the exhibition against Waterloo last Friday, and Gadowsky said he liked what he saw. For now, having two viable options is not a big concern.
"We want to go with the goaltender that will win the game. Once the season starts, we want to go with the hot guy," Gadowsky said.
Now that the offense has made a 180, it's time for the defense to turn things around. But then again, Gadowsky is pretty good at doing just that.
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