Men's hockey lackluster power plays result in two losses

The power play was not the only thing that gave the men's hockey team difficulty this weekend. Princeton contended with an uncharacteristic display of lethargy in upstate New York, as it was swept by Union and Rensselaer. The Tigers (2-4 overall, 1-3 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Hockey League) lost to Union, 6-2, and Rensselaer, 4-1. Princeton now sits in 10th place in the league.

"We came out a little slower than we normally do," junior goaltender B.J. Sklapsky said. "We did not have that tenacity that Princeton hockey is all about."

On Friday night against the Dutchmen (4-4-1, 1-2-0), the Tigers, down 4-2 at the beginning of the third period, found themselves with a prime opportunity to hack away at Union's lead. Princeton could not capitalize on back-to-back five-minute majors, however. The Tigers had more than seven minutes of power-play time as a result of the penalties. During that span, Princeton also had two minutes, six seconds of a five-on-three opportunity. Unable find the back of the net, the Tigers allowed Union to gain momentum and later put two more goals on the board without earning any for themselves.

"We just didn't really shoot the puck [on the power play]," Sklapsky said. "When you shoot the puck, there is an 80-percent chance of scoring on the power play. We were just passing the puck around."

The first period was played evenly, as both teams had 12 shots on goal. The Dutchmen, however, found the back of the net on two of those, while the Tigers failed to score at all.

At 12:22 in the first period, Union's Jason Coyle scored his sixth goal of the season when he fired a shot past Sklapsky. Later in the first, Union added its second goal when Jonathan Poirier beat Sklapsky on a shot over his shoulder on a two-on-one advantage. The Dutchmen's two first-period goals were the first first-period goals allowed by Princeton this season.

The Tigers finally showed signs of life in the second period, with Freshman forward Lee Jubinville scoring his first collegiate goal during a power play off a feed from junior forward Darroll Powe, putting Princeton on the board, 2-1. Less than a minute and a half later, the Tigers evened the score when junior forward Kevin Westgarth punched in a rebound off junior defense Brett Westgarth's onetime shot that was initially blocked.

Though the offense had rallied to tie the game at two, the defense left much to be desired. Union scored two goals in the second period to enter the second intermission with a 4-2 lead.

"In the second period, we took it to them for a while," Sklapsky said. "But [in the end], we did not compete for a full 60 minutes."

After holding Princeton scoreless during its two major penalties early in the third, Union used the momentum to score twice more in the period. Coyle capped the scoring late in the third period on a five-on-three opportunity.

Sklapsky made 24 saves in the loss, while Union's goaltender Kris Mayotte stopped 28 pucks. Both teams had 31 shots.

The following night against Rensselaer (6-4-1, 2-1-1), Princeton found itself in a power-play kill situation, its third of the game, at 8:22 in the first period. The Engineers scored to establish a 1-0 lead that lasted until the third period.

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At 1:06 in the third period, freshman [position] Brett Wilson scored his first career goal for the Tigers, tying the game at one.

The contest remained tied until seven minutes later when Rensselaer tacked on two more goals in the period on breakaways. Jonathan Ornealas, who scored both of those goals, was given a breakaway pass on the first goal and scored on a rebound attempt on the second goal.

Already leading 3-1, Rensselaer's Keith McWilliams added a meaningless empty-net goal with less than a minute to play.

"We did a really, really good job on the penalty kill," Sklapsky said. "It was the best penalty killing that I have ever seen here in my three years."

Princeton's senior Eric Leroux had 31 saves in the loss. The Engineers goaltender, Mattias Lange, made 28 saves.

"Tenacity, more than anything, [contributed to the losses this weekend]," Sklapsky said. "We weren't ready to go out and compete for a full 60 minutes. We will have a lot of battle drills in practice this week and be ready to go next weekend."

The Tigers will look to bounce back next weekend when they visit Clarkson and St. Lawrence in another upstate New York trip. Both teams rank in the top five in the league.