Season of just-misses continues with two close losses

Affectionately referred to as "the sin bin," the penalty box is indeed the hockey hell to which sinners on skates are condemned as punishment for their misdeeds.Fortunately for the players, a minor penalty garners only a maximum two-minute sentence instead of one lasting for all eternity, but the resulting power play for the other team can lead to a crucial goal that leaves the shamed offender repenting, albeit too late.

The men's hockey team (1-6-1 overall, 1-5-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League) should be pretty sorry after throwing a well-attended housewarming party for the sin bin during its two games this weekend. The team was whistled for a total of 18 penalties and scorched for five power-play goals in losses against No. 12 Cornell (6-2-0, 4-2-0) and Colgate (4-7-2, 1-4-1).

It was straight from the bonfire and onto the ice for the Tigers on Friday night, facing the Big Red at a packed Baker Rink complete with a lively Cornell band to complement the arena's organ music, creating an electric atmosphere.

"It was great," senior forward Darroll Powe said. "We love that game every year because it's good to see a packed house and people excited about Princeton hockey."

The Big Red scored two power-play goals and added one at even strength to go up to 3-0 at the end of the second period.

Princeton dominated the third period, firing 12 shots on goal to Cornell's three and spending most of the period in the Big Red's end. The Tigers finally got on the board early in the frame when freshman forward Dan Bartlett capped a pretty passing play by firing a shot past Troy Davenport.

Two minutes later, Princeton pulled within one when sophomore forward Lee Jubinville deflected a point shot from senior defenseman Brett Westgarth into the net on the power play.

"We turned it on in the third period," Jubinville said. "We were all over them."

With the outcome suddenly in doubt, the final 10 minutes of the game saw the energized Tiger attack swarm the Cornell net in wave after wave of desperate offensive fury, but the shots just weren't finding their way in, getting blocked by the Big Red defenders, saved by the goaltender or fired wide altogether, and the game ended 3-2 in favor of Cornell.

The Tigers had a shot at redemption the following night when the Raiders came to town. It became clear almost immediately that the winner would be the team with stronger penalty killing.

The officials seemed dead set on playing as little five-on-five hockey as possible, and by the end of the night the teams had 23 minor penalties combined. Interestingly, the game didn't even feature much dirty play or heavy hitting; in fact, the hardest hit of the night came when Powe accidentally nailed his own teammate, Jubinville.

"We were both chasing the puck and kind of turned into each other at the last second," Jubinville said. "I didn't really see him coming. [Powe] joked later that it was his best hit all year."

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Princeton took the first two penalties of the night within 30 seconds of each other, setting Colgate up for a five-on-three that it wouldn't let go to waste, as senior goaltender B.J. Sklapsky was hung out to dry on a pointblank wrister that put the Raiders up 1-0 early.

Not long after, the Tigers responded with a power-play tally of their own when Westgarth sent a slapshot from the point that was deflected by Powe and through the legs of Colgate goaltender Mark Dekanich.

The Raiders took the lead for good later in the first period on another five-on-three power play. Another score with a two-man advantage late in the second period put Colgate up by two, while a garbage goal in the front of the net as a Princeton penalty expired gave the Raiders a comfortable 4-1 advantage.

The most the Tigers could do in the third was get one back on the power play when senior forward Grant Goeckner-Zoeller lifted a shot into the upper-left corner.

Dekanich shut them down the rest of the way, playing well by making 49 saves for the win. Sklapsky, the victim of three five-on-three goals, also played a solid game despite taking the loss.

A record of one win in eight games is getting increasingly disturbing, but Powe sees no reason to panic.

"We have a game plan and we're going to stick to it. We just need to make some minor adjustments. Obviously, staying out of the penalty box is one of them."