Men's Hockey: Tigers garner one point from two tough teams

In a season marked by early frustration, the men’s hockey team dropped its first two road games of the year over the weekend. On Friday night, Princeton lost, 5-2, to No. 5 Cornell before dropping a 5-4 overtime decision to Colgate the following day.

“Obviously we’re disappointed with the result,” senior forward and co-captain Kevin Kaiser said. “Getting swept on the weekend is never ideal and never what we’re trying to do.”

Despite the result, the team remains confident that it is close to retaining the form that saw it reach the NCAA tournament the past two seasons. Princeton’s play in the overtime loss to Colgate was its sharpest all year, and the Tigers sent a message that they might escape their November doldrums.

“We haven’t played to our full potential yet, and Saturday was the first indication of playing like we can,” Kaiser said. “As long as we play like we did on Saturday, we’re going to put ourselves in a position to win a lot of games.”

In what was overall a tightly contested and spirited game, the Tigers (3-4-1 overall, 2-3-1 ECAC Hockey) came out flat in the opening two periods at Cornell. The Big Red (5-2-0, 4-2-0) jumped all over Princeton, scoring four goals in the game’s first 26 minutes to take a commanding 4-0 lead.

“I think Friday night against Cornell, we came out a little flat, and they jumped on us right away,” senior goalie Zane Kalemba said. “At Lynah [Rink], it’s pretty hard to battle back, especially when you come out a little flat. I don’t think we were mentally into the game or at least as ready as we should have been.”

In the third period, Princeton started to return to the tenacious, up-tempo hockey that has been its calling card under head coach Guy Gadowsky. Senior forward and co-captain Cam MacIntyre scored two goals — his second and third of the year — in the period’s first seven minutes and five seconds to bring the score to 4-2.

That was as close as Princeton came. Forward Riley Nash’s power-play goal late in the period pushed Cornell’s lead to 5-2.

“After we got down, 4-0, after two periods there, we came out against Cornell and played a much better period,” Kaiser said. “We started to make plays and get some offense going.”

Princeton’s third-period performance carried over to Saturday’s game at Colgate (6-3-4, 4-1-1), where despite the result, the team played its best game this season.

“We’re actually really happy with how we played on Saturday,” Kaiser said. “We were definitely creative with the puck. We outshot them and out-chanced them, too,” he added. “Saturday was definitely a step in the right direction for us, and there are a lot of positives we can take out of that game.”

The Tigers opened scoring early in the first period when senior forward Dan Bartlett put a pass from MacIntyre into the back of the net to give Princeton a 1-0 lead. A power-play goal from Colgate forward Nick Prockow made the score 1-1 midway through the first period.

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With only 1:50 remaining until the first intermission, senior defenseman and co-captain Jody Pederson responded with a power-play goal of his own to give Princeton a 2-1 lead.

In the second period, Princeton held a 21-7 edge in shots, but it could not extend its early lead. Bartlett’s second goal of the game was sandwiched between two Colgate scores, and the teams entered the final period tied, 3-3.

For the first time all year, Gadowsky paired Bartlett and MacIntyre with junior forward Kevin Lohry. The line proved an immediate success, generating four goals on the weekend.

“I don’t think, until Saturday, that most of the lines had been clicking,” Kaiser said. “Guys are starting to produce when they need to produce, and our goal scorers are starting to score goals. I think the offense is definitely coming together.”

Colgate grabbed its first lead of the game 5:21 into the third period on a goal from forward David McIntyre that gave his team a 4-3 edge. The Tigers answered late in the third period, when junior forward Mike Kramer’s fourth goal of the year made the score 4-4 and sent the game into overtime.

Two minutes into the extra period, Colgate went on an odd-man rush, and Francois Brisebois took advantage. The Raiders forward put a pass from fellow forward Robbie Bourdon and put the puck past Tigers junior goalie Alan Reynolds to give Colgate the 5-4 win and send the Tigers home without a point from the weekend.

“It was a broken play. They ended up with a two-on-one, and the guy just made a nice pass across,” Kalemba said. “There’s not much that Alan could have done there. They got a break and took advantage of their opportunity.”

Princeton has little time to recover from its difficult weekend. On Wednesday, the Tigers head to Hartford, Conn., for a pre-Thanksgiving matchup with conference-leading Quinnipiac (10-1-0, 6-0-0).

“We have to get back to the way we play and take it one game at a time. That starts Wednesday with Quinnipiac,” Kalemba said. “They are No. 1 in the league and undefeated [in league play], and it’s a huge opportunity for us. We’ll be ready to go.”