Men's hockey team wins ECAC tournament

With three minutes, six seconds left in Saturday’s ECAC championship game between the No. 15 Tigers (21-13-0 overall, 14-8-0 ECAC Hockey) and No. 16 Harvard (17-13-4, 12-7-3), Tiger junior forward Brett Wilson walked out in front of the Harvard net and after faking a pass to the point, fired a slow slap shot on goal.

The shot hit a skate in front of the net and found its way under Crimson goalie Kyle Richter’s pads, giving the Tigers a 3-1 lead. Three minutes and an empty-net goal later, the game ended. Princeton had taken Harvard down 4-1 and was ECAC champion.

The Tigers rushed onto the ice, forming a mass of white around sophomore goalie Zane Kalemba, who made a spectacular 35 saves on the evening. But before the team was given the ECAC Championship trophy, the All-Tournament team and Most Outstanding Player were announced, and unsurprisingly, Kalemba was awarded both honors. Senior defenseman and captain Mike Moore and freshman forward Kevin Lohry joined Kalemba on the All-Tournament team.

“Truthfully, I have never seen a performance like this,” said head coach Guy Gadowsky of Kalemba’s tournament play. “That’s the best goaltending I have ever seen … Zane was phenomenal, but there is not one of our guys who was surprised by what he can do, especially in high-pressure situations — it just does not get to him. He’s been doing it all year.”

The game began with fast-paced action at both ends, but Princeton drew first blood, scoring 5:04 into the first period on a shot by Moore. With a number of bodies in front of the net, Moore fired a wrist shot that hit a skate and careened past Richter.

In their match against Colgate, the Tigers struggled mightily at getting bodies in front of the opposing goalie. Saturday, they had a man in Richter’s face almost all night.

“[Getting players in the shooting lanes] was a huge difference,” Gadowsky said. “Colgate did such a good job defending the rush, and obviously that wasn’t how we wanted to play the game. Today we committed to it a little more, and the results speak for themselves.”

Princeton continued to apply pressure in the first but was unable to beat Richter again. As they have been all tournament, the Tigers were stellar defensively. Kalemba made 13 saves in the period, and his defenders did a great job of clearing the shooting lanes and blocking shots. Of those saves, only three were legitimate scoring opportunities, and Princeton blueliners blocked seven shots in the opening period.

The Crimson came out in the second and immediately matched Princeton’s first-period intensity, but solid defense and more stellar goaltending kept the score 1-0.

“[Kalemba] has been this good since the first day I met him,” Moore said. “Every game, every practice. He is so calm, and he builds confidence in the net for us … He’s a leader, and he deserves everything that he got today.”

Midway through the period, when it seemed as though the Crimson had taken control, the Tigers struck again. Battling on the boards, Moore got the puck to senior forward Landis Stankievech, who fired a slap shot from the top of the left circle. Richter appeared to stop the shot, but it trickled through his pads and into the Harvard net for a 2-0 Tiger lead.

“I looked, and there wasn’t really anybody in front of the net,” said Stankievech, who was recently named the ECAC Student-Athlete of the Year. “I was the last guy up, so I threw it at the net. … I thought Richter caught it, and I thought it was going to be a whistle, but then everybody started cheering. … I was just happy to see it go in.”

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Starting the third, the Crimson was battling not just the scoreboard, but recent history as well: On the season, Harvard was 0-9 when trailing after two periods, and Princeton was 15-1 when leading after two.

The Crimson, however, was quick to cut into the lead. Fifteen seconds into the period, freshman defenseman Taylor Fedun was whistled for elbowing, and on the ensuing power play, Harvard drew to within one. The goal ended Kalemba’s scoreless streak at 3:09:59 — an ECAC tournament record.

Princeton, however, refused to panic, and with the calm and poise of a team that has been here before, the Tigers continued to play their game. They backchecked, they charged the net, they blocked shots, and they cycled the puck deep, all the while taking precious time off the clock.

Late in the period, with the score still 2-1, Princeton capitalized on a power play to put the game away for good. Wilson’s goal, assisted from behind the net by sophomore forward Cam MacIntyre, reopened a two-goal lead for the Tigers and forced Harvard to pull its goalie in a last-ditch effort to get back into the contest.

Princeton, however, was not done scoring, and with 1:22 left in the game, sophomore forward Mark Magnowski iced the game with an empty-net goal. Battling a Crimson defender at the offensive blue line, Magnowski won the puck, spun around and fired it into the Harvard net.

“It was a fantastic game,” Gadowsky said. “I’m very happy, not just because of the championships, but mostly because the season continues. We get to go back to the rink with the same group of guys, and this is the best part [of this victory].”

Yesterday’s NCAA tournament selection announcement surprisingly placed the Tigers in the Midwest region. Princeton will face the No. 1-seeded University of North Dakota in Madison, Wis., next Saturday at 2 p.m. Moore, however, didn’t care where his team ended up playing next weekend, just that the Tigers get to keep skating.

“We’re excited to be going back to the rink on Monday,” said Princeton’s captain on next weekend’s contest. “We haven’t thought about it at all. … We were concentrating on this game [against Harvard], and we are going to enjoy this ECAC title.”