Men's Hockey: Skaters host Harvard in first round

The men’s hockey team (12-14-3 overall, 8-12-2 ECAC Hockey) will open its postseason at home this weekend, when it plays Harvard (7-19-3, 7-12-3) in the first round of the ECAC tournament.

After a regular season that fell short of the high expectations the team had set for itself, Princeton is hoping to skate confidently at Baker Rink during the playoffs, riding high after the Tigers’ most recent 7-3 victory at home against Brown.

“We have definitely fallen short of some of our goals we set at the beginning of the year, but we seem to be playing much better in the second half. We had a poor start to the season but have turned things around since Christmas,” junior defenseman Taylor Fedun said. Fedun was recently named second-team All-ECAC.

“Whether it was because we have had so many injuries or not is irrelevant at this point — what is important is that we take what positives we can from the regular season and use them to our advantage in the playoffs,” he added.

Princeton had lost seven straight games before winning the final game leading up to Christmas, and the team’s performance steadied in the following weeks. Princeton’s victory over Brown and a Harvard loss in the last weekend of the regular season allowed the Tigers to climb enough in the standings to claim the final home-ice spot for the ECAC playoffs.

Overcoming a season mired with injuries and disappointments, the Tigers noted that there were times when the team was really skating well together.

“We’ve had glimpses where we play our brand of hockey — Princeton hockey — but we need to put that together consistently both within each game and from night to night,” senior defenseman Brad Schroeder said.

“Using our team speed is vital to our success, so we will need to be flying. Since playoff games are so tight, we need to win every battle on the ice, as you never know which play will make the difference in a game and a series,” he added.

Focusing on a consistent, aggressive and fast style of play will be a major goal for the Tigers.

“We want to make sure that we play to the style and tempo that we want to play, and not how the other team wants to,” senior defenseman Jody Pederson said. “We like to play quick and up-tempo, and it’s important that we play this way, as this is when we’re most effective.”

“Winning battles for pucks all over the ice is an ingredient of any successful team, and we need to make sure we remember this and focus on winning all of those battles,” he added.

One thing Princeton can take solace in is the offense revival the team experienced at the end of the regular season. Earlier this year, the Tigers went through an anemic stretch where they totaled a mere four goals in four games.

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In Princeton’s last three games of the season, however, the team exploded for 18 goals. Just as encouraging as the offensive outpouring was the wide distribution of players who scored. Senior forward Dan Bartlett and junior forward Mike Kramer — the team’s two leading scorers on the year with 16 and 11 goals, respectively — did not score any goals in the year’s final three games.

Instead, young players like sophomore forward Kyle Hagel and freshman forward Will MacDonald stepped in to diversify the team’s offensive output.

After the Tigers’ 7-0 thrashing of Rensselaer, MacDonald was named ECAC freshman of the week thanks to his two goal performance.

Even though Harvard enters the weekend series on a four-game losing streak, the Tigers have tremendous respect for the abilities of their opponent.

“We have always had great battles against Harvard; there is a great rivalry there. Harvard is a skilled team with great goaltending,” Schroeder said. “They are probably much like us in that they did not meet a lot of the goals they set for themselves this season .”

“ They will no doubt be looking to make up for it in the postseason. The games will be much of the same as they were during the season: They will be fast paced, hard hitting and very competitive. The only difference might be an increase in the intensity because it is playoffs and we are both playing to extend our seasons,” he added.

While the intensity of playoff hockey is definitely up a few degrees from the regular season, it would be hard to imagine games getting more competitive than the previous two encounters between Harvard and Princeton.

The two games were extremely close. Their encounter in November ended in a 3-3 overtime tie, with Princeton managing to get two goals in seven seconds.

In their more recent faceoff in January, Princeton broke the 1-1 deadlock at the end of the second period with what ended up being the game-winner, as Princeton pulled off the narrow 2-1 victory.

“Harvard is an extremely talented hockey team,” head coach Guy Gadowsky said. “If we are relaxed defensively in any aspect, they definitely have the talent to exploit that and capitalize. We must remain focused defensively the whole series.”

While history is on Tigers’ side — Princeton have won all four home playoff series that have been played at Baker Rink — they will need to be at the top of their game this weekend.

To advance to the next round, they will have to utilize all that they’ve learned from the season, build on their strengths and play the style of hockey that they have shown themselves to be capable of.