Men's Hockey: Teams battle for seeding on penultimate weekend

In its final weekend on the road, Princeton (7-12-6 overall, 5-10-3 ECAC Hockey) will first face its toughest challenge of the season, playing at No. 8 Union (17-6-7, 11-3-4), before taking on Rensselaer (8-19-3, 5-10-3). The Tigers saw favorable outcomes in both matchups against this weekend’s opponents earlier in the season and will have to achieve similar results to bring a playoff series home to Baker Rink later this month.

Mathematically, the Tigers can still finish with a top-four seed in the conference, accompanied by a first-round bye. However, Harvard only needs to record a single point in its final four games to eliminate Princeton’s chances at having a weekend off. While far from the top few slots of the leaderboard, the Tigers can still realistically finish anywhere from fifth place to 12th.

Despite the ECAC Hockey conference being as tough as it usually is, head coach Bob Prier still expected to be among those teams that would have to play one fewer playoff series than the rest.

“Not finishing in the top four is a letdown,” Prier said. “However, we will still have as good of an opportunity as anyone to win the playoff championship.”

The current odds-on favorite to win that very championship is the first of two teams Prier’s squad will play this weekend. Union currently sits atop the ECAC Hockey standings, one point ahead of Cornell, and has also garnered much national attention. The Dutchmen rank No. 8 in the nation according to the latest polls from USCHO.com. Only one other team from the ECAC, No. 12 Cornell, cracked the top 20.

Perhaps the two largest contributors to Union’s success this season, and the two threats Princeton will need to find answers for, are forward Kelly Zajac and goaltender Troy Grosenick. Zajac’s 37 points are good enough for third overall in the conference and account for much of the Dutchmens’ league-leading 3.47 goals scored per game. On the other side of things, Grosenick leads all goaltenders in the league by a sizeable margin with a stellar 1.58 goals against average and .940 save percentage. Being able to get past Grosenick while keeping Zajac off the scoresheets will be a humongous challenge for the Tigers.

“They are both very talented players,” Prier said. “Zajac is one of the best when you give him time to use his vision; we will have to play him very tight. Grosenick is having a great year to date. Traffic and crashing the net for rebounds will be our focus; he is tough to beat clean on the initial shot.”

In their previous matchup earlier in December at Baker Rink, the two teams skated to a 3-3 tie. While Grosenick did not play in the game, the Tigers’ defense was able to keep Zajac from registering a point. Princeton battled back from a 3-0 deficit in the third period to tie the game with just barely over a minute left in regulation thanks to a goal by sophomore forward Jack Berger — his second of the night. No team was able to find the back of the net in the extra frame.

“That game was one of our best efforts,” Prier said. “I just watched it yesterday; we outshot them 32 to 17 and 14 to two in the third [period]. It should help our confidence going into the game.”

After facing the team at the top of standings, Princeton will then play Rensselaer. The Engineers and Tigers have identical conference records, so this head-to-head matchup will have a considerable impact on who finishes ahead at the end of the season. While Rensselaer’s record is not as strong as Union’s, Prier recognizes the threat a very hungry Engineers’ squad will pose.

“The irony is that there really is not much of a difference between the two,” Prier said. “Again, a testament to the parity of our league. [Rensselaer] is healthy and has been playing very good hockey of late.”

Earlier in the season at Baker Rink, a trio of sophomores led the Tigers to a 5-3 victory over the Engineers. Sophomore forward Andrew Calof and Berger both scored twice while sophomore goaltender Sean Bonar saved 28 of 31 shots for the victory.

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With still much in the air regarding playoff seeding and matchups, Prier noted it is too early to scoreboard watch — even though the current standings provide a very intriguing storyline. If the playoffs started today, Prier would lead Princeton against his alma mater and former employer St. Lawrence in a rematch of last year’s first round, which the Saints won 2-1.

If the Tigers have their way, that series will take place in the friendly confines of Baker Rink.