Princeton University
Cornell
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Cornell Blanks Princeton
December 01, 2001 | Men's Ice Hockey
Dec. 1, 2001
Final Stats
PRINCETON, N.J. - Cornell's size and talent was too much for Princeton as the Big Red scored two power-play goals on their way to a 4-0 victory Saturday night at Hobey Baker Rink.
"We worked hard," Princeton coach Len Quesnelle said. "What we gave tonight was not enough. It was all that we had, but it wasn't enough. I told our players that we need to measure ourselves against a team like Cornell. They are a complete team. Hopefully this will be a learning experience for us."
Ranked No. 9 nationally, Cornell fired 36 shots at Tiger goalie Dave Stathos (Longueuil, Que.), who played well despite yielding four goals. Princeton managed just 17 shots at Big Red goalie David LeNeveu, a freshman who earned his first shut out and improved his record to 4-0. Cornell (7-2-1, 4-1-1 ECAC) took a 1-0 at 12:51 of the first period when Sam Paolini slid a pass from left of Stathos to Ryan Vesce at the right post. Vesce put a shot high into the corner of the net as the Big Red capitalized on their second power-play opportunity.
Princeton (3-8-0, 3-5-0 ECAC) generated some offense late in the first period. LeNeveu stopped defenseman Matt Maglione's (Fayetteville, N.Y.) slap shot from 25 feet and gloved a Brad Parsons (Kingston, Mass.) shot off the ensuring face-off.
Two minutes into the second period Cornell stretch its lead to 2-0. Stathos stopped Jeremy Downs' initial shot, but Shane Palahicky found the rebound and an open net. Despite being outshot 19-10 after two periods, the Tigers found themselves down by just two goals.
Shorthanded to begin the third period, Princeton's David Del Monte (Mississauga, Ont.) fed George Parros (Randolph, N.J.) on a two-on-one shorthanded break, but his shot from the slot was wide left.
Any hope of a comeback was dispatched when Maglione and Cornell forward Mike Knoepfli crashed into Stathos at 2:13 of the second period. Stathos stopped Knoepfli's original shot, but the puck trickled into the net when the three collided just outside the Princeton crease.
Denis Ladouceur made it 4-0 when he one-timed a pass from Matt McRae from the right circle at 15:10 of the third period with Cornell on the power play.
"They had their power play going, and we didn't," said junior defenseman Neil McCann (Calgary, Alberta). "We have to take the positives from this weekend," McCann said of the team's victory the night before.
After snapping an 0 for 23 power-play drought the prior night in a 2-1 victory against Colgate, Princeton went 0 for 7 with the man advantage against Cornell.
Parsons, who returned to the lineup the night before after missing eight games with an injury, was not able to compete and full speed and played sparingly against Cornell.
The offense, especially the power-play unit, was dealt another blow when captain David Schneider (Melrose Park, Ill.) was forced to sit out the Cornell game. Schneider suffered an injury while blocking a shot on a two-on-one break late in the Tigers' victory against Colgate. Senior Josh Roberts (Orleans, Mass.) sat out his second consecutive game after being injured against Northeastern.
With Schneider sidelined, McCann stepped us his play and blocked several Cornell shots, including three on one Big Red power play.
"That was the type of effort we need on the penalty-killing unit," Quesnelle said of McCann's play. "He was the veteran defenseman for us with Schneider out."
Next weekend Princeton travels to Union (Dec. 7) and Rensselaer (Dec. 8). The Tigers won't play again until facing Notre Dame on Dec. 28 at Hobey Baker Rink and Dec. 29 at Sovereign Bank Arena. Both Notre Dame games start at 7:30 p.m.
Tiger Tidbits
Three stars: 1. Ryan Vesce (C), 2. David LeNeveu (C), 3. Neil McCann (P).
Princeton used five defensemen against the Big Red - a junior (Neil McCann), two sophomores (Matt Maglione and Steve Slaton) and two freshmen (Jesse Masear and Luc Paquin).
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