Men's Hockey: Forward returns to spark offense

The pivotal conference showdown against No. 5 Cornell was delayed for more than an hour after the bus transporting the men’s hockey team broke down on its way to Ithaca, N.Y. Despite the problems this presented for the team, Princeton (17-6-0 overall, 11-5-0 ECAC Hockey) rallied for a thrilling 2-1 victory over Cornell (15-4-4, 10-3-3) in front of a crowd of more than 4,000 spectators. The win over the Big Red capped what had already been an exciting weekend in New York for the Tigers. Friday night, they edged out Colgate (8-15-5, 3-10-3) by a 3-2 score in overtime behind a goal from sophomore defenseman Cam Ritchie.

“Guys were stretching on the bus on the way to the [Cornell] game. When we got to the rink, we had just an hour until the puck dropped,” Ritchie said. “It was a good exercise in mental toughness, which is one of the things we have focused on this year.”

Princeton entered the weekend trailing the Big Red by three points in the ECAC standings. A loss to Cornell would have put the Tigers five points behind with only six regular-season games remaining. Late in the third period, it seemed that this would be the case, as Princeton trailed 1-0 with less than a minute to play. Then, in the span of 18 seconds, lightning struck twice.

With 36 seconds left in the third period, junior forward Cam MacIntyre banged home a pass from senior forward and assistant captain Lee Jubinville to knot the score at one. With the game seemingly headed for overtime, Princeton clinched the victory 18 seconds later when, off an odd-man rush, sophomore forward Taylor Fedun fired a shot through the legs of Cornell goalie Ben Scrivens.

“They had one play where a few of them got caught too low, and we were able to get an odd-man rush,” Fedun said. “I’m not sure how it happened. The puck popped out of the side of the net, and I was able to slam it home.”

MacIntyre’s goal against Scrivens, one of the best goalies in the country, ended the Tigers’ 119-minute scoreless stretch against Cornell. In the two teams’ first game in November, Scrivens blanked the Tigers in a 1-0 win for Cornell.

This time, however, MacIntyre was in the lineup for Princeton. The Tigers’ third-leading scorer a year ago had played in just three contests prior to this weekend. His return to the lineup sparked a previously stagnant Princeton offense.

“They controlled the first period. In the second and third periods, we started getting our game going better and getting more shots on net,” Ritchie said. “We felt like it was a matter of time before we would score. In the last minute, we pulled [junior goalie Zane Kalemba]. We thought we scored a goal, but the ref waved it off. Then we were able to get a tying goal … after having the one goal waved off.”

Princeton’s slow start to the game could be attributed to having only one hour to warm up for the game. In the first period, Cornell had a 15-6 advantage in shots, but it was unable to put the puck past Kalemba. That changed 10 minutes, 20 seconds into second period, when Big Red forward Blake Gallagher scored on a power play. This would be Cornell’s only goal against Kalemba, who capped another solid weekend with 26 saves on Saturday.

“Zane was the same as always,” Ritchie said. “He made the really big saves when we needed it and was a steady presence back there for us.”

At Colgate, Kalemba was largely responsible for keeping the Tigers in a game in which the rest of the team struggled. Princeton jumped out to a 1-0 lead only 16 seconds into the game after junior forward Dan Bartlett scored his seventh goal of the season. The Tigers extended their lead to 2-0 when junior forward Mark Magnowski put in his team-leading 10th goal of the season 3:31 into the second period.

Following Magnowski’s goal, Colgate controlled most of the play and scored twice to tie the score at two, sending the game into overtime. In the extra period, Princeton’s work on the power play during practice this week paid off when Ritchie scored his first goal of the year.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“We worked on power play a lot this week. One of the things we talk about is getting the puck to the net and letting our forwards create screens,” Ritchie said. “It was a really good face-off by … Magnowski. [Sophomore forward] Kevin Lohry set up a really good screen, and the puck managed to get through [Scrivens’] legs.”

In the games against Cornell and Colgate over the weekend, Princeton re-established the up-tempo hockey behind the team’s impressive start to the season.

“We wanted to get back to the things that made us successful. We focused on getting pucks on the net, driving to the net,” Ritchie said. “We want to force other teams to play at our tempo. I think we got back to that.”

The Tigers face eighth-place Clarkson at home Friday night and sixth-place St. Lawrence at home Saturday afternoon.