Princeton University
Harvard
Stathos Blanks Harvard
March 02, 2002 | Men's Ice Hockey
March 2, 2002
Final Stats
PRINCETON, NJ - Dave Stathos (Sr., Longueuil, QUE) picked a perfect time to record the first shutout of his career. Stathos turned in 36 saves to lift Princeton to a 3-0 win over Harvard in men's hockey action on Saturday night at Hobey Baker Rink. It was the Tigers first shutout over Harvard in 50 years, and allowed the Orange and Black to finish the regular season 11-16-2, 10-10-2 in the ECAC. Harvard drops to 11-14-4, 10-9-3 during conference play.
The Tigers emerged from the confusion of the ECAC standings in the best possible situation. The best that Princeton could have finished going into tonight's game was sixth, and that is exactly where it stands. The Tigers finished in a three-way tie for sixth place with Brown and Colgate. They hold the head-to-head tiebreaker with Colgate by virtue of a 1-0-1 record against the Raiders, and move ahead of Brown based on their head-to-head record against the top-five teams. That means that Princeton is headed to Rensselaer for the first round of the playoffs, to be held on March 8-10. "That win felt good," said Princeton head coach Len Quesnelle. "For the program to come out and play that way and finish 10-10-2 (in the ECAC) is a big accomplishment considering where we were before the exam break. We are playing our best hockey. The team has really come together as. We knew that this team was capable of making a special run and we did just that."
It was fitting that seniors accounted for two of Princeton's three goals as it was Senior Night in front of a packed house at Hobey Baker Rink.
David Del Monte (Sr., Mississauga, ONT) put the Tiger up 1-0 with the eventual game-winner at 3:49 of the second period. Luc Paquin sent the puck from the blueline down to Brad Parsons (Sr., Kingston, MA), who fired a shot that was saved by Crimson netminder Dov Grumet-Morris. Del Monte was there to collect the rebound and beat Grumet-Morris to the glove side with a power play goal to give Princeton the lead.
Trevor Beaney (Jr., Cornwall, VT) scored his fifth goal of the season at 10:17 to give Princeton a two-goal cushion. Dave Bennett (Sr., Warwick, RI) had the puck at the point and sent it down to Matt Maglione (So., Fayetteville, NY) who was on the right side of the net. Maglione was able to find a wide-open Beaney, who had just come on the ice and snuck behind the Harvard defense, in the middle of the left circle for a 2-0 lead.
Ryan Kraliz (Sr., Welland, ONT) provided the icing on the cake for the Tigers when he gave them a 3-0 lead at 7:50 of the final period with his first goal of the season. The senior poked the puck away from a Crimson defender to create a breakaway and parked the puck in the upper right corner of the net to provide the final 3-0 margin.
"We have been spinning out wheels for a large part of the year," said Kraliz. "The guys worked hard, from Stats [Dave Stathos] out. The fact that it was Senior Night just magnifies everything."
As for Stathos, he made several great saves to earn his shutout, including 15 in the opening period. Harvard had a solid opportunity to get on the board in the first period when the rebound off of a Rob Fried shot got away from Stathos and was up for grabs in the front of the crease. Tim Pettit got two swipes at it, but the Princeton defense was able to clear it out of the zone.
One of the best saves of the night came at the 13:30 mark when Stathos made a great save on Pettit. Dominic Moore had the puck on the left side and sent it to Pettit, who was making a run on the right side. Stathos slid over to cover the wide open net and preserve the Tigers lead.
Grumet-Morris finished with 26 saves in the loss.