Hot streak halted with two road ECAC losses

Princeton (17-12-0, 15-4-3) opened the weekend Friday night against Clarkson in Potsdam, N.Y. In a game fitting of the two top teams in the ECAC, the Tigers and Golden Knights traded the lead three times, with neither team leading ever leading by more than one.

“[The Clarkson game] was a real tough loss,” senior defenseman Mike Moore said. “There were some bounces and some calls that didn’t go our way, but we’re not going to make excuses. We just need to learn from the game and move forward.”

The Golden Knights opened the scoring 13 minutes, 31 seconds into the first period, but Princeton was quick to respond. On a power play less than two minutes later, freshman forward Matt Arhontas redirected a shot from sophomore forward Dan Bartlett for his fifth goal of the season.

Two minutes after Arhontas’ goal, the Tigers capitalized on a shorthanded breakaway to take a 2-1 lead. Junior forward Lee Jubinville blocked a dump-in from a Clarkson defender and sped away untouched into the offensive zone, where he beat the Goldden Knights’ goaltender high on the glove side. It was Jubinville’s 37th point of the season.

Clarkson scored once in the second, and Moore added a wrist-shot goal with less than a minute left in the period, but the game was decided in the final frame, when the Golden Knights scored two unanswered goals to seal the 4-3 victory.

If the ECAC playoffs go according to seeding, Princeton will see Clarkson again in the finals, and though Clarkson has won both meetings this season, the Tigers are excited at the prospect of seeing the Golden Knights again.

“We would love to play Clarkson again,” Moore said. “To prove yourselves, you always have to take on the league’s best teams. We know that we’re going to have to work hard to get there, but we are excited about the chance.”

Saturday afternoon, the Tigers travelled to St. Lawrence, where Princeton has not won in more than seven years. That drought was not destined to end this weekend, as the Tigers fell 3-2. They opened the game hot, however, dominating play and taking an early 1-0 lead.

Eleven minutes into the first period, sophomore forward Cam MacIntyre dug the puck out of the corner and fed a nice cross-ice pass to Moore, who beat the Saints’ goalie for his fifth goal of the year. Jubinville also recorded an assist to push his point-scoring streak to eight games.

The Tigers opened the lead to two goals less than a minute into the second period, when senior forward Brett Wilson notched his team-leading 13th goal of the year. On the power play, sophomore defensemen Jody Pederson and Brad Schroeder passed the puck between the points before Pederson fired a shot on goal. Fighting for position in front of the net, Wilson knocked down Pederson’s shot and backhanded the puck into the net.

Princeton was unable to hold the lead, however. The Saints scored twice in the second period and netted the game-winner with just 5:18 left in the third.

“It is always tough to play coming off a hard-fought loss,” Moore said. “We certainly were not overconfident heading into the St, Lawrence game — we knew they were better than their record.”

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The two losses, though not the optimal way to end the season, did nothing to take away from what the Tigers accomplished this season. Princeton retained its second-place standing in the ECAC and for the first time in school history will have a first-round bye in the league tournament.

Off for two weeks before they play again, the Tigers will use this time to get healthy, stay sharp and prepare for the playoffs.

“We earned this bye, and we are going to use it to our advantage,” Moore said. “We have some guys who are banged up, and our number-one priority will be getting them healthy and getting the team back to what we have been doing for the past eight weeks.”

As for these losses, Moore says that if anything, they be a good lesson for the Tigers.

“We are going to take these two games and learn from them,” Princeton’s captain said. “Yes, we had some bad breaks, but we know that those happen in the playoffs, and we cannot let that affect us. We need to fight through the adversity and work as hard as we can.”

The Tigers will next play in a three-game ECAC Quarterfinals series on March 14, 15 and 16 (if necessary) at Baker Rink. As of now, the opponent is unknown, but the Tigers are focusing mainly on their own game.