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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Rensselaer
Men's Hockey Falls at Rensselaer 6-4
December 06, 2003 | Men's Ice Hockey
Dec. 6, 2003
Box Score
Troy, N.Y. - Rensselaer used a strong opening period to take control and defeat the Princeton men's hockey team 6-4 Saturday night at the Houston Fieldhouse. The start of the game was delayed 45 minutes because of the snowstorm that has affected much of the east coast.
The first period belonged to the Engineers. Rensselaer came out strong and dominated the period, outshooting Princeton by a margin of 17-5. It did not take long for one of those shots to find the back of the net as RPI went ahead 1-0 at the 5:20 mark when Alex Valentin's shot through traffic eluded Princeton goaltender Eric Leroux. The Engineers continued to pressure and came up with a second goal 2:05 later. Tommy Green skated into the Tiger end on a 2-on-1 and cut to the net. He deked around a Princeton defenseman and scored high on the glove side. Princeton called a timeout following the goal to regroup and played better in the second half of the period, but RPI took advantage of a late penalty on Princeton defenseman Daryl Marcoux to tally its third goal of the stanza. Scott Basiuk got the goal on a blast from the left point. Play balanced out in the second period and both teams had strong scoring chances early in the period, but big stops from Leroux and Rensselaer goaltender Nathan Marsters kept the score 3-0. At 11:25 of the period, RPI took advantage of a Princeton turnover as CJ Hanafin scored on a wrist shot to make it 4-0. Princeton battled back to get a goal late in the period on the power play. Senior Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer fired a point shot on net that Marsters sticked aside, however in the resulting scrum in front of the net, junior Neil Stevenson-Moore and sophomore Dustin Sproat got hacks at the puck. Sproat's shot slid under Marsters for his second goal of the season, and made the score 4-1. With the goal Princeton now has power play goals in its last six games. Shots were even for the period and both goalies made 11 saves.
Princeton started the third period off with a goal in the opening minute to move within two goals. Sophomore Patrick Neundorfer started the play in the neutral zone with a pass to junior Mike Patton. Patton fed it up to freshman Grant Goeckner-Zoeller, who carried it into the RPI end and sent a centering pass towards the net that Patton one-timed past Marsters for his third goal of the year.
Five minutes later Princeton made the score 4-3 when the Tigers connected for their second power play goal of the game. Goeckner-Zoeller moved the puck to Patton along the goal line, who fed senior Steve Slaton. Slaton snuck to the far side of the crease from his spot on the point and blasted a shot into the net before Marsters was able to get across for his third goal of the season.
Rensselaer made it 5-3 at 16:40 on a goal from Conrad Barnes. Princeton battled back to within one goal with 38.7 seconds remaining on Darroll Powe's first career goal. Powe hit home a rebound under Marsters from a shot by Goeckner-Zoeller. Patton also added an assist on the goal extra-attacker goal. Rensselaer added an empty-net goal.
Princeton is now 4-8-0 on the season and 4-6-0 in the ECAC.
Princeton returns to action next Saturday night when it visits Northeastern for its third non-conference game of the season.