Princeton splits pair with Chargers

The men's hockey team took advantage of a plethora of penalties to down Alabama-Huntsville 4-0 on Saturday night, redeeming a 4-2 loss recorded the previous night.

Either the athletes were working out some pent-up aggression from the previous night, or the refs were clamping down on the aggression in Saturday's penalty-ridden contest. Regardless, the result was 28 power plays, totaling 56 minutes. Princeton (4-10 overall, 3-9 Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League) was able to convert on two of the Chargers' 16 penalties, while its defense killed all the power-play opportunities that Alabama-Huntsville (6-5-1, 2-2-0 College Hockey Association) had.

"The team played really well," said junior forward Grant Goekner-Zoeller, who was the leading scorer for the Tigers with three points in the game. "We were able to do a lot of things that we were trying to do going into the weekend, such as getting a lot of shots to the net and playing aggressive in order to dictate play the way we want to."

Princeton's first goal came at 14 minutes, 25 seconds in the first period. Sophomore forward Landis Stankievech swept up a rebound off a shot by sophomore forward Keith Shattenkirk. This goal, which made the score 1-0 in favor of the Tigers, turned out to be the game-winner.

After shooting only eight times in the first period, Princeton showed much more ferocity in the second frame, firing off 21 shots. Only one of these shots found the back of the net, however. The Tigers' second goal came at 9:20 in the second period on a power-play opportunity. Goeckner-Zoeller set the goal up when he passed the puck to freshman forward Brett Wilson. Wilson circled around the back of the net and fed the puck to senior defender Seamus Young at point. Young quickly fired a shot that found the back of the net for his second goal of the season.

Adding insult to injury, Princeton tacked on two more goals 48 seconds apart late in the third period. Goeckner-Zoeller, scoring his team-leading sixth goal of the season, made the score 3-0, with assists from junior forward Kevin Westgarth and sophomore defender Kyle Hagel.

The final goal of the game came from senior defender Brian Carthas, his third of the season. Goeckner-Zoeller and Westgarth both picked up assists as well.

"Recently we've been close a lot going into the third period," Goeckner-Zoeller said. "We've had a couple of leads that we let slip away. We wanted to make sure that we didn't let that happen again on Saturday. That's something we talked about before the third."

Senior goaltender Eric Leroux recorded his fifth career shutout and first of the season with 27 saves on the night. Alabama-Huntsville goaltender Jordan Erickson had 34 saves.

Charging past the Tigers

Saturday's victory for the Tigers stood in stark contrast to the meltdown they experienced the previous night. Despite jumping out to a 2-0 lead Friday night, Princeton was unable to hold the Chargers at bay.

The Tigers commanded respect throughout the first period, subjecting goalie Scott Munroe to an onslaught of 25 shots during the frame. Freshman forward Brett Wilson finally slipped one by Munroe at 16:39 on a Princeton power play. The goal, assisted by Westgarth and Young, was Wilson's fourth of the season.

Wilson scored another power-play goal at 6:48 in the second period after picking up the rebound of a Westgarth shot. Goeckner-Zoeller also had an assist.

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From that point on, however, Alabama-Huntsville goaltender Scott Munroe repelled every attempt the Tigers made to score while his team completed the comeback. The Chargers' first goal came at 13:59 in the second when forward Grant Selinger recovered his own rebound and slid it home to make the score 2-1. The score remained the same through the end of the second period.

Princeton fell apart late in the third period. With just over six minutes left in the game, Alabama-Huntsville forward Brett McConnachie scored with a wrist shot through traffic that found an upper corner of the net to even the game at two.

Three minutes later, the Tigers found themselves behind after Charger forward Todd Bentley put away the game-winning goal after recovering the rebound of a blocked shot from forward Dominik Rozman. The fourth goal came on an empty-net score by defender A.J. Larivee.

After just facing three shots on net in the first period, freshman goaltender Thomas Sychterz finished the game with 22 saves. That total seemed paltry when compared with the 48 saves that Munroe was forced to make against the extremely aggressive Princeton offense.

The Tigers are off until after Christmas and will next play Dec. 30 when they visit two-time defending national champion Denver.