The men's hockey team is five matches into the season, and so far the only team able to beat Princeton has been Princeton, in an intrasquad scrimmage. Having already defeated Trois Rivieres in a preseason exhibition game, the Tigers (3-0-0 overall, 2-0-0 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Hockey League) swept through all four of their Fall Break opponents — including another exhibition win — en route to their first 3-0 regular-season start since 1979.
Leading the way was the newly formed forward line of juniors Brett Wilson and Lee Jubinville and sophomore Cam MacIntyre. The trio has been on an absolute tear, combining for an incredible 21 points in just three regular-season games.
"Together we bring different things to the table that have been working so far," Wilson said. "Cam has good size, he plays a physical role and has a good shot. Lee has good speed, and I see myself in more of a playmaker's role."
The regular season schedule began with a 6-2 non-league win over Yale (1-1-2, 0-0-2) on Oct. 26. Junior forward Brandan Kushniruk scored Princeton's first goal of the year five minutes in, and the 1-0 lead held up until the second period, when the Bulldogs tied it.
That Yale equalizer gave way to a five-goal barrage during which the Tigers just couldn't seem to shoot without scoring. MacIntyre responded just three minutes after the Yale goal to put Princeton back on top, and his goal was quickly followed by goals from sophomore defenseman Jody Pederson and sophomore forward Dan Bartlett.
MacIntyre, who was named ECACHL Player of the Week for his efforts, then tacked on two more, all in the second period, for the hat trick and a 6-1 lead. The Bulldogs mustered another goal in the third, but the five-goal deficit was too much to overcome, and Princeton skated away with a 6-2 victory to start its season off on the right foot.
Saturday afternoon, the Tigers took on the Ontario Institute of Technology in an exhibition matchup in New Haven, Conn. Junior Thomas Sychterz and freshman Alan Reynolds split a shutout in net as their teammates scored five at the other end to coast to an easy 5-0 win.
Returning north a weekend later to open ECACHL play at Cornell (1-2, 1-1) on Friday, Princeton built on its early season momentum and scored a major morale boost by beating the Big Red on its own ice, 3-2, for its first win in Ithaca, N.Y., since the 1994-95 season.
"The seniors really wanted to win one at Lynah Rink," Wilson said of Cornell's home ice. "It's kind of symbolic of our team and the turnaround we've had the past few years to go into a rink like that and win."
Jubinville scored a power-play marker in each of the first two periods, but Cornell responded each time, and the score was tied at two heading into the closing minutes of regulation.
With just under four minutes remaining, the big line of Jubinville, Wilson and MacIntyre came through again. Jubinville stole the puck and hit MacIntyre with a pass that MacIntyre wristed five-hole, staking the Tigers to a 3-2 lead. Sophomore goaltender Zane Kalemba protected his cage the rest of the way for a 26-save win.
"[Kalemba]'s been awesome for us so far in net," Wilson said. "When you're getting goaltending like we're getting, it's a big confidence boost this early in the season, knowing we're not going to have to score six goals every game to win."
Kalemba's weekend supply of goaltending heroics was still not quite depleted, much to the chagrin of Colgate (3-4-1, 0-1-1). In a 2-0 Tiger win last Saturday afternoon, Kalemba stymied all 13 Raider shooters to pitch a 25-save shutout, his first career collegiate goose egg and third win in three starts.
The Princeton offense did its job against Colgate as well. Sophomore forward Mark Magnowski, third on the team in goalscoring last season, finally got his name on the scoresheet this year with eight minutes, 48 seconds to go in the opening period. MacIntyre closed out the scoring late in the same period when Jubinville found him in front for his fifth goal of the young season.
If the first three weeks are any indication of what lies ahead, Tiger fans are in for one heck of a season. Princeton may well overcome the loss of many of its key players to graduation and increase its overall win total for the fifth straight year.
Wilson, for one, is still wary of getting too cocky.
"We know it's early in the season and we still have a long way to go," Wilson said.
When nobody else seems to be able to, the last thing the Tigers would want to do is beat themselves.
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