Men's hockey goes north for first ECACHL road weekend

After splitting its games the past two weekends, the men's hockey team looks to push its record over .500 this Friday and Saturday on the road as when it faces Union and Rensselaer in upstate New York.

The seventh-ranked Tigers (2-2 overall, 1-1 Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League) are looking to rebound from last Saturday's 2-1 loss to Harvard. Princeton has yet to string together two consecutive victories on the young season. The Tigers can point to an inability to take advantage of their power-play opportunities as one of the reasons for their .500 record.

"As seen in the first few games, the refs are calling a lot of penalties, so special teams will be key this weekend," senior captain and forward Patrick Neundorfer said. "Our penalty kill has been doing well, but we would like to capitalize more on our power plays."

In the team's first four games of the season, Princeton has only converted on just under 13 percent of its power-play opportunities, scoring four goals on 31 power-play shots. However, due to the Tigers' ability to kill a power play, the team's opponents have fared even worse, scoring only two power-play goals on 57 shots.

Princeton will also look to get more shots on net this weekend while on the road. The Tigers have been outshot in all four games this season. As the team's record would indicate, however, this has not hurt the team as much as one would expect. As the old adage goes, it is not necessarily the number of shots taken but the quality of those shots. Against Notre Dame, Princeton scored a season-high five goals with just 13 shots.

"This week in practice we have been working on moving the puck quickly in transition when the opposing team is changing lines or turns the puck over," Neundorfer said. "We have also been working on making smart plays in the offensive zone in order to minimize our turnovers and generate offensive pressure."

Union (3-4-1, 0-2), the Tigers' first opponent of the weekend, has been a streaky team thus far this season. The Dutchmen dropped their first two games before rebounding to go unbeaten in their next four. Last weekend, however, the team regressed as it was swept by St. Lawrence and Clarkson. Union's most notable win of the season came against UMass-Lowell.

Over the years, Princeton has a record of 17-12-4 against Union, but it has struggled away from the friendly confines of Baker Rink, amassing a .500 record against the Dutchmen. The Tigers last faced Union on the final weekend of last year's regular season — a contest that resulted in a scoreless tie.

On Saturday night Princeton meets Rensselaer (4-4-1, 0-1-1), a team that it swept last season. The Engineers have defeated Michigan Tech, Boston University and Northwestern in non-league play this season. In its first two league games last weekend, Rensselaer lost to St. Lawrence and tied Clarkson.

Defensively, Princeton will look to contain both squads' speedy forwards.

"Every team in this league has at least two or three really skilled forwards that can put the puck in the net," junior defenseman Daryl Marcoux said. "We have to make sure we're taking away their space by forechecking hard, keeping a tight gap and keeping our sticks on the puck."

Last weekend, for the second straight weekend, three Tiger defensemen — senior Brian Carthas, sophomore Mike Moore nd junior Brett Westgarth — were able to get on the scoresheet due to this quick puck movement through the zone.

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"Moving the puck quickly cannot be stressed enough," Marcoux said. "This will be key to our quick transition, which will catch their team flatfooted and cause odd-man rushes in our favor."

These games this weekend can also make a statement to the media and coaches that picked Princeton to finish in 10th place in the league. Union and Rensselaer just happen to be the two teams that were picked to finish eighth and ninth, respectively.