Men's Hockey: Offense key as playoffs begin

“Put the fish in the cooler,” defenseman and Bonar’s classmate Kevin Ross said.

Put the puck in the net. That’s what the men’s hockey team plans on doing often against Yale in a three-game series in New Haven this weekend. The series opens up what the Tigers hope to be a deep run in the ECAC Hockey tournament, for which they are the 11th seed of 12 teams.

The Bulldogs (13-13-3 overall, 10-10-2 ECAC), who are the 6th seed, have stymied Princeton (8-14-7, 6-12-4) this season in the teams’ three meetings. After a 2-2 tie in their non-conference season opener way back in October, the Tigers dropped their final two games against Yale by a combined score of 11-4. Nevertheless, Princeton remains optimistic for the weekend, expecting to have many scoring opportunities.

“We exposed their defense in past games,” Bonar said, his Canadian accent showing through. “The way we play the game, we have a nice, hard forecheck and no defender likes to take a body, eh.”

“Their defense is their weakness,” junior forward Rob Kleebaum said.

In the past, the Tigers have struggled to finish on scoring opportunities against the Bulldogs’ weak defense. Princeton will need sophomore forwards and leading goal scorers Andrew Calof — who has 13 goals and 13 assists this season — and Jack Berger — 9 goals, 11 assists — along with Kleebaum — 10 goals, 6 assists — to be aggressive in the Yale zone.

To help put his team in that aggressive mental state, head coach Bob Prier has gone to the drawing board.

30,000. That’s the first number that Prier scribbled on the whiteboard in the Tiger locker room at Baker Rink.

“The number of people born in a given year who play organized hockey in Ontario, Canada,” Prier explained to his team.

Then the coach raised his marker to the board and wrote another number: 42.

“42 of those 30,000 will play college hockey,” he said. Prier explained that’s less than half a percent of the original 30,000. But 3-4 percent of those 42 college hockey players, Prier said, will play in the NHL.

“That 3-4 percent are on winning teams,” said Bonar, who was pretty fired up after Prier delivered these motivating numbers this week. “He’s saying, ‘Now is the time that you prove you’re a winner.’”

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That time is playoff hockey. That’s when it’s time to win, and that’s when the Tigers think they’ll play at their best.

“[Yale is] a very skilled and fast team whereas our philosophy is more hard-working and gritty, and playoff hockey is gritty hockey,” Ross explained.

That little bit of grit has taken a toll on many Tigers this season, however. The team is lacking a full lineup due to injuries, and for the past couple games Princeton has played with only four defenders.

“I’ve been so bagged after the weekend it’s been outrageous,” Ross said.

But the Tigers have plenty of defensive weapons, including Ross and junior defenseman Michael Sdao, who was drafted by the Ottawa Senators in 2009. Bonar also said that if any team isn’t affected by a depleted lineup, it’s Princeton. The netminder claims that his skaters are the best conditioned in the entire NCAA.

The added challenges of missing injured players and playing at the Bulldogs’ Ingalls Rink instead of at home should stimulate Princeton to work even harder on the ice and play with a tenacious desire for victory.

“Adversity will be good for us. We play well under adversity,” Kleebaum noted.

Even the energy of Yale’s stadium is fuel for the Tigers.

“I always find that raucous away crowds give us a lot of energy … and Yale has a pretty good crowd for sure,” Ross added.

The Tigers will need to feed off of away fans’ energy if they hope to make a deep run in the ECAC tournament. If it can continue to win, Princeton will never get a game at Baker Rink. The end goal, however, is close to home. The ECAC Final Four will face off in Atlantic City, N.J., on March 16 and 17.