Tigers start season with tie, three losses

While most Princeton students spent fall break off campus serving their community, exploring the world or sitting at home watching reruns of "Cops", the men's hockey team plunged headfirst into its 104th season with four games over a nine-day stretch. Maybe it was better that so few students were around to pay attention: The Tigers failed to win any of those games and now must dig themselves out of a 0-3-1 hole (0-2-0 Eastern College Athletic Conference Hockey League).

Blown leads, failed comebacks, and last-minute heartbreakers were the norm for the embattled Princeton squad, which began the season with a 3-3 tie against Bentley (3-3-1) but lost its next three games against Bentley, Rensselaer (3-1-3, 1-0-1) and Union (3-3-2, 1-1-0) each by a score of 4-3.

"We've played good enough hockey to win," senior forward Kevin Westgarth said. "Obviously it's been very disappointing to come away with what we have so far."

At the Tigers' Oct. 27 season opener in West Orange, N.J., an eager Princeton team shot out of the gate and led 3-0 midway through the game, but after freshman starting goaltender Zane Kalemba was replaced at the halfway mark by sophomore Thomas Sychterz, the Falcons swooped in and got on the board with a power-play marker to begin their comeback.

Sychterz and the Tiger defense were then able to stave off the Bentley attack for most of the third period until they surrendered two quick goals in a span of 53 seconds in the closing minutes of regulation. Neither team could finish the other off in the sudden-death overtime period, and the game ended in a tie.

The score between the two teams was settled the following night at Baker Rink in the second game of the two-game series. Playing before its first home crowd of the season, Princeton jumped out to an early 3-0 lead for the second time in as many days with a trio of power-play goals that put the Tigers up by a seemingly comfortable margin of three.

Cue the opponents' comeback. A smorgasbord of Princeton penalties let the Falcons back into the game, ultimately spelling doom for the Tigers.

Bentley capitalized on two second-period power plays to draw within range and finally completed the comeback with a third power-play goal midway through the third to even the score.

In a game whose fate had so far been determined exclusively by special teams, it was the game's first even-strength goal that ultimately determined the victor. With about seven minutes left in regulation, Tom Dickhudt corralled a dump-in and punched it past senior goaltender B.J. Sklapsky for the eventual game-winner.

Having learned a thing or two about coming from behind, the Orange and Black took its 0-1-1 record to Troy, N.Y., on Nov. 3 to face Rensselaer, poised to mount a comeback of its own.

The Tigers again got off to a good start, opening the scoring in the first period on a fluke goal from behind the opponents' net by freshman forward Cam French, but the Engineers responded with two quick goals.

A determined Princeton squad then launched 17 shots in the second to Rensselaer's five, but the Engineers still managed to escape the period with a 3-2 lead.

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Princeton dominated play in the third period, outshooting RPI, 11-1, and finally broke through with a game-tying tally off the stick of Westgarth with 39.9 seconds showing on the clock and the goaltender pulled for the extra attacker, sending the game into overtime.

Despite having momentum in their favor, the Tigers ultimately couldn't harness the momentum to produce a win. Seth Klerer dashed Princeton's hopes of victory with a garbage goal with just 16 seconds left in the game, sending the Tigers packing to face Union the following night still winless and frustrated.

At Schenectady, N.Y., Princeton overcame an early 1-0 Dutchmen lead to find itself up 2-1 entering the third period after sophomore forward Lee Jubinville stuffed in his own shorthanded rebound to tie it and senior forward Grant Goeckner-Zoeller converted a pass on the power play to take the lead.

Union countered in the third with two quick goals to regain the lead, but then in the final 10 minutes Jubinville struck again to send the game into overtime.

Once again, the Tigers couldn't come up with a final push to put them over the top however, as the Dutchmen's Olivier Bouchard slipped a shot past Sychterz 1:06 into the extra frame to win the game for Union.

Despite three tough one-goal losses and a tie that should have been a win, the players aren't second-guessing themselves.

"Obviously we're disappointed, but we've been playing well for times and need to just do it for 60 minutes," Goeckner-Zoeller said.

Or 65. Overtime hasn't been kind to Princeton, and Westgarth acknowledges that the team needs to start stepping it up in the closing minutes to put opponents away for good.

"All the games have been close, we just need a better killer instinct. We've felt like we did enough to win, we just need to do it more thoroughly to get the two points," he said.

So far, those two points have proved just too elusive for the Tigers, who currently sit last in the ECACHL standings and next face St. Lawrence (4-3, 2-0) Nov. 10.