Homestand makes statement

Freshman defender Cam Ritchie’s third goal of the season had barely trickled into the net Friday night when a Brown defender smashed his stick on the ice in frustration. The goal tied the score at one, but the Bear defender already knew what the rest of his teammates were soon to realize and the Yale Bulldogs would to find out the following evening: The 2007-08 Princeton Tigers are for real.

This weekend’s two victories, 3-2 over Brown (3-16-4 overall, 3-10-3 ECAC Hockey) and 4-2 over Yale (10-9-4, 6-6-4), brought the No. 19 Tigers’ ECAC winning streak to three games and catapulted Princeton (14-9-0, 11-5-0) to second in the league standings.

Less than two minutes after Ritchie’s third-period goal Friday night, Princeton took the lead for good on a power-play goal from sophomore forward Mark Magnowski.

Following a failed attempt just 11 seconds into the man advantage, sophomore forward Dan Bartlett controlled the puck below the net. Bartlett slid the puck to the left of the crease, where Magnowki fired a quick shot past the unsuspecting Brown goalie.

Princeton opened its lead to 3-1 with 10 minutes, one second left in the game, when junior forward Lee Jubinville raced into the offensive zone and found junior forward Brett Wilson trailing the play for Wilson’s ninth goal of the year.

The goal capped a six-minute span in which Princeton scored all three of its goals, effectively putting the game out of reach.

Both teams were scoreless in the first period, with Princeton outshooting Brown 11-7. Though the Tigers were dominating the game, they stayed patient, refusing to deviate from head coach Guy Gadowsky’s gameplan.

“We try not to change anything about our strategy during the game,” sophomore forward Cam MacIntyre said. “If we’re aren’t having success, it usually means that we aren’t executing according to plan.”

Brown opened the scoring in the second on a rebound with 3:23 left in the period. The Bears also scored late in the third period but were unable to net the equalizer.

Sophomore goalie Zane Kalemba, who recently established himself as the team’s number-one netminder, was stellar in the win, recording 26 saves for his 11th win of the season.

“Zane has been phenomenal,” said MacIntyre, who is currently second on the team with nine goals. “We’re all pumped about the way he has been playing and are more than confident in his abilities.”

The game also saw a return to the tough, physical play that Princeton exhibited earlier in the season. Brown struggled to control possession in the Tigers’ defensive zone, as the Princeton backcheck proved too much to handle. Against the Bears, Ritchie led the team with a goal and an assist.

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The following evening, Princeton took on Yale, whom the Tigers have already beaten twice this season. Unlike in the game against Brown, Princeton came out fast against the Bulldogs, netting the game’s first goal just 1:07 into the contest.

“Getting an early goal like that is huge,” MacIntyre said. “One of the biggest things that we need to work on is starting games with the intensity with which we finish them. We started slow against Brown, and luckily we recovered, but getting that goal against Yale really set the tone for the game.”

The Bulldogs tied the score 7:45 into the first period, and the score stayed knotted at one heading into the second. Yale fired 16 shots in the first frame to Princeton’s 10, but Kalemba was once again excellent, and the defense did a great job clearing the shooting lanes so that he had unobstructed views of the puck.

In the second, the Tigers once again hit a hot streak that iced the game. With 11:34 left in the frame, Princeton took the lead on a goal from Wilson, assisted nicely by a quick pass from Jubinville.

“These streaks are usually a product of grinding away and keeping momentum,” said MacIntyre, who missed the game against Yale with a mild concussion. “If you keep going hard, the opposing team eventually breaks down. Against Brown we viewed it as just a matter of time, and against Yale we got hot at the right time.”

Less than three minutes later, Princeton scored again. After a few rebound hacks and a huge scramble in front of the Yale net, the puck slipped out to the stick of senior forward Kyle Hagel, who buried it for his second goal of the year.

Just 17 seconds later, the Tigers opened the lead to 4-1. On a play very similar to Hagel’s goal, the Tigers got players in front of the net, and after a few shots were blocked in front, senior forward Landis Stankievech was able to put it away. The three-goals-in-three-minutes barrage was enough to chase Yale’s starting goalie.

Princeton once again upped the intensity, finishing hits and getting down to block shots, and Yale did not have an answer. The Bulldogs scored on a fast break with 4:44 left, but besides that goal, their scoring chances were limited.

The two wins certainly help in the standings. Of all the plusses to take away from last weekend, however, perhaps the biggest is the team’s vastly improved confidence.

“When you are confident, you tend to capitalize on your opportunities,” MacIntyre said. “We are getting production from a lot of different guys — 21 of the team’s 22 skaters have points — and that distribution is tough to defend. If we keep getting production from every line, we are going to stay a very dangerous team.”

The two wins helped Princeton leapfrog Cornell — who lost to Clarkson on Friday — into a second-place tie with Quinnipiac. The Tigers are away next weekend at Harvard and Dartmouth.

Hopefully for Princeton, Friday night won’t be the last time the Tigers see a defender smash the ice in frustration.