Men's Hockey: Tigers score pair of upsets against New York foes

The goal exemplified the Tigers’ weekend. Both of their upsets, the first 4-3 over No. 9 Colgate (2-5-1, 0-3-1), the second 2-1 over Cornell (2-4, 2-2), required the full measure of Princeton’s gritty team play.

The Tigers set the weekend off with a bang, scoring the first two of their six weekend goals within the first four minutes of their game at Colgate. Freshman forward Andrew Calof continued his prodigious scoring production, netting the first goal a mere 16 seconds after putting back a rebound off of senior forward Mike Kramer’s shot. The duo united again three minutes later as Calof fired a long pass to Kramer, who one-timed the puck into the back of the net.

Princeton added to the scoring in the 15th minute as sophomore forward Rob Kleebaum scored his first collegiate goal from a Calof pass.

“After winning the puck on the forecheck, my linemates created havoc by driving the net,” Kleebaum said about his goal. “[This] allowed me to get a rebound, score and add to our lead.”

The comfortable lead soon got much less comfortable, however, when Colgate rallied, scoring three goals throughout the second period and the beginning of the third. Only two minutes after netting the equalizing goal, Colgate got a power play on the Tigers, but the team was able to successfully kill it and stem the comeback.

“After [Colgate] tied that game, we knew we had to get back to what was making us successful in the first [place] and get back to playing Princeton hockey,” Kleebaum said about the late-game comeback. “It was huge killing off those penalties, but we had the confidence that we were going to kill those penalties and not give up the lead again.”

Far from giving up the lead, the Tigers were quick to take it back. Ten seconds after the power play ended, Kramer scored his second goal of the game on a solo breakaway. The winning goal was assisted by senior defenseman Taylor Fedun and Calof, who got his team-leading 11th point.

The next day, the Tigers squared off against Cornell. Again, Princeton drew first blood when sophomore forward Eric Meland scored his first goal of the season, deflecting sophomore defenseman Michael Sdao’s point shot into the net.

The Tigers maintained their lead through the entire game until the very end of the third period. With nine seconds left in the game and its goaltender pulled, Cornell capitalized on a Princeton icing to net a tying goal.

Despite their late-game disappointment, the Tigers did not back down, stepping up to the challenge in overtime. They fired off four shots in overtime, and the last of these was Ford’s winner off of senior defenseman Cam Ritchie’s assist. The volume of shooting was crucial for the Tigers, who outshot an opponent for the first time this season en route to the win.

The keys for the Tigers this weekend were their quick starts to games, their late-game tenacity and the evenly distributed team play. Five different players contributed goals to this weekend, and neither of Saturday’s goals was scored by a player who scored the previous night. The team’s six goals also came off of nine assists. The Tigers will need to continue to move the puck as they did this weekend as the season progresses to offset their inexperience and youth. This weekend was promising for the squad, which showed it could finish out games against higher-ranked opponents, particularly No. 9 Colgate.

Eager to continue their success, the Tigers will look to pick up another win in their next game, their first at home, this Friday against Harvard.