Men's Hockey: MacIntyre nets game-winner over Dartmouth in OT

The men’s hockey team kept fans on the edge of their seats over the weekend, playing two overtime games at Baker Rink. Princeton (3-2-1 overall, 2-1-1 ECAC Hockey) defeated Dartmouth, 2-1, on Friday night and played to a 3-3 tie against Harvard the following day.

“I thought the Dartmouth game — we did what we wanted to do. Against Harvard, even though we were up after two periods, I didn’t think we played very well,” head coach Guy Gadowsky said. “All in all, I think we did some things that we needed to address from the weekend before, but we obviously found out we have some more work to do.”

After missing much of last season with a nagging back injury, senior forward and co-captain Cam MacIntyre made sure his first goal of the season was one to remember. In the first shift during overtime, MacIntyre stole the puck in his defensive zone, skated up the ice past two Dartmouth defenders and beat goalie Jody O’Neill to give Princeton a 2-1 win over the Big Green (0-4-0, 0-4-0).

“Cam adds confidence, and he’s obviously a great player. He gives confidence to a team. He’s just a physical presence with great hands,” Gadowsky said. “The overtime goal he scored Friday night was just a tremendous individual effort. He was able to make a great move without putting himself at risk or turning the puck over.”

MacIntyre’s goal ended a back-and-forth game in which both teams struggled to establish control on the ice. Princeton opened scoring in the first period when junior forward Mike Kramer knocked a pass from senior forward Mark Magnowski into the back of the net to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. The goal was the fourth from the line of Kramer, Magnowski and junior forward Matt Arhontas since they were reunited in the game against Clarkson last weekend.

“I think for the most part, you saw with the Magnowski line, those three guys have played together in the past,” Gadowsky said. “[Junior forward Sam] Sabky, [senior forward Dan] Bartlett and MacIntyre were probably our best team in the playoffs last year. I think right now, it’s nice to see those two lines starting to get some offensive production.”

Dartmouth evened the score in the second period when forward Scott Fleming took advantage of a Princeton penalty and knocked the puck past junior goalie Alan Reynolds. The goal came with only 42 seconds left in the second period, and it sent both teams into the locker room for the second intermission with the score knotted at one.

Both teams had missed opportunities to score the go-ahead goal in regulation before MacIntyre stole the show with his overtime heroics.

Princeton’s fast-paced, back-and-forth 3-3 tie with Harvard (1-3-1, 1-3-1) marked the Tigers’ final game at Baker Rink until they return for a conference showdown with Quinnipiac in early January.

“I think we’re starting to see the things, at least with the tempo of our games, that made us successful in the past,” Gadowsky said. “We had stretches this weekend where you could definitely see our team speed. That’s something that we were very happy to see, and you can just get it for longer and longer.”

The teams played to a scoreless first period before Princeton got on the board first for the second consecutive game. Bartlett netted his third goal of the year on a power play to give his team a 1-0 lead. Only seven seconds later, Kramer got the puck off the faceoff and put a wrist shot by Harvard goalie Kyle Richter to make the score 2-0.

Harvard answered the call when Doug Rogers put a shot by Princeton’s senior goalie, Zane Kalemba, to bring the Crimson to within 2-1. With 16 minutes, nine seconds remaining in the period, Sabky banged home a loose puck to push the Tigers’ lead to 3-1.

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But the Crimson battled back once more. Defenseman Alex Biega scored Harvard’s second goal of the game only a minute after Sabky’s tally, and his brother, forward Michael Biega, scored in the third period to tie the score at three. Princeton was forced to end its first homestand of the year with a tie, as neither team could score in overtime.

Gadowsky maintained that the Tigers still have work to do to return to the form that got them to the NCAA tournament in each of the last two seasons.

“We didn’t give up a lot of odd-man rushes, but we gave up a few big ones,” Gadowsky said. “For a team that was the most disciplined in the nation this year, we’re taking some penalties that can easily be avoided.”

For the second weekend in a row, Princeton played two goalies, and Gadowsky was happy with both netminders’ performances.

“Zane has played phenomenal,” Gadowsky said. “Even though we were ahead, he made phenomenal saves. We certainly want to see Alan play, and he definitely earned his starts. Down the stretch, it is going to be important to have more than one goalie. We’re very happy with how Alan’s been playing, and it gives us a little bit of an insurance policy that we have at least two goalies playing.”

Now the Tigers take to the road, where they will look to make a climb up the ECAC Hockey standings in the coming weekends.