Ratcheting up intensity in OT

There are few moments in sports that warrent as much anticipation and heart-palpitation as the final minutes of a tied game. Hockey is no exception: In those last ticking seconds, every player must balance his play between furiously crashing the net and playing the necessary composed defense to keep the opposition out of the goal.

Goalies wait for the wave of the hand calling them to the bench to make room for another scorer on the ice. Players shift quickly, hoping to keep their legs as fresh as possible with the game continually on the line. Coaches and players alike must not only focus on the game in the moment, but also on the possibility that when the buzzer sounds, the scoreboard will remain even and another period will begin.

But what, other than the obvious, makes an overtime different from any other period? When the clock begins again, what changes inside a player's mind to alter performance and endurance in one final push to win? The strategies and mindsets of each team facing overtime varies, but the sense of urgency with the time running down is universal, felt by every member of each team.

In their first five games of the season, the men's hockey team (1-3-1 overall, 0-2-0 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Hockey League) has seen four overtimes, an overwhelming statistic for any squad. In the first overtime they faced, the Tigers showed that their pre-season training had truly paid off.

While McGill controlled the puck for the majority of the game and certainly overshadowed the Tigers in terms of physical presence, Princeton persevered and skated around the Martlets, forcing the puck away from the boards and corners and keeping the pace high. Princeton's speed and agility counteracted McGill's size and the Orange and Black proved the importance of a key component in any successful overtime: legs.

The team with legs — meaning fitness and endurance — will, almost without exception, win in overtime. As with most sports, the endurance and fitness of a team has a direct and undoubted effect on the outcome of the game. Especially in hockey, where quick bursts of speed and sprints up and down the ice make or break the game, a team that maintains its fitness will usually emerge victorious.

Princeton proved exactly that against McGill. By the end of the third period, the Tigers were still changing fresh forwards and defensemen onto the ice while the Martlets' forward lines were beginning to slacken. Added to the stress of overtime, worrying about fitness can became an issue. Princeton ultimately was able to simply pass the puck around the Martlets.

While speed and endurance are two key contributors to an overtime win, there is a more salient factor that creates unique strategizing and planning in overtime: sudden death.

The momentary nature of overtime requires an entirely different mindset from regulation play. In the 60 minutes of regulation time, any goal scored can be matched, a team can keep its head in the game and battle back to respond to any goal scored.

In sudden death overtime, however, a single goal ends the game. Everything thus hangs on each shot, with each drive to the net potentially being the decisive one. This makes for a definite change in intensity. Teams at the very end of its rope will attempt to battle back in overtime, an almost definite loss resulting from the inability to do so.

The Tigers have had recent difficulties with this necessary shift in intensity. While it has been able to successfully keep the pace of the game at their level, Prineton has needed to make the jump to playing in the overtime mindset. Against Union last Saturday, while the Tigers were held shot-less in overtime, Union only managed one attempt — the one shot that won the game.