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Princeton University Athletics
A New Beginning for Men's Hockey in 2004-05
October 21, 2004 | Men's Ice Hockey
Oct. 21, 2004
Princeton, N.J. - The Princeton men's hockey team will begin a new tradition when the 2004-05 season kicks off with an exhibition game on Friday night against Windsor. A new coaching staff and a new attitude lead the way as Princeton hopes to get the season started on the right foot Friday night.
The Tigers have never met Windsor before, but have often opened the season with exhibition games against Canadian colleges. In recent years the Tigers have opened the season with exhibition wins over Wilfrid Laurier, St. Francis Xavier, Western Ontario and Guelph.
Windsor enters the game with six games under its belts already, all coming against U.S. college teams. Windsor lost all six games, but is coming off back-to-back one-goal games to Air Force and Bowling Green.
Season Outlook
There's something new in the air at Baker Rink. There's a new coaching staff, a new attitude and a new look for Princeton's men's hockey team, as the Tigers look to climb to the top of the ECAC and the Ivy League after a pair of disappointing seasons. To help lead the turnaround, Princeton hired Guy Gadowsky as head coach during the offseason. Gadowsky spent the last five seasons as the head coach at Alaska-Fairbanks and helped turn a struggling Nanook program into one of the best in the CCHA. Gadowsky and his newly assembled staff of Jason Lammers and former Tiger great and NHL player Andre Faust will look to provide a young and inexperienced Tiger team with the guidance needed for a successful 2004-05 season.
Part of turning the program around will be the natural maturation process. Princeton scored 62 goals a year ago, and 47 of those 62 (75.8%) were scored by players who return. More than half of the goals were scored by a freshman or sophomore, and five of the team's top eight scorers are returning. In all, nine of the 12 skaters who made up Princeton's top four lines are returning, and the Tigers regularly dressed up to 10 freshmen a game last season. Adding to that mix will be the Baker Rink debut of a top recruiting class of six incoming freshmen.
Princeton's home ice, Baker Rink, has also undergone changes in the summer. The building's roof was restored to its original wood finish and all the steel was repainted.
FORWARDS
Returning - 11, Lost - 6, Newcomers - 4
Princeton has struggled offensively during the past few seasons as the Tigers focused on a more defensive and trapping style. Princeton has scored 62 goals in each of the past two seasons and scored 66 the year before that to average just above a two goal per game.
To win, a team needs to score goals, and Princeton will implement a more aggressive style and system to achieve that.
"At Fairbanks, we had a very disciplined, yet wide-open offense," Gadowsky says. "We scored a lot of goals and we did not take bad penalties. That's not to say we were not aggressive. I think other teams would have characterized us as a very physical team, but certainly not over aggressive -- I think we all take pride in that. I don't foresee much change in terms of style. We will be disciplined and we will be hard-working, and it will be exciting hockey. We'll play to score; we're not going to win many games 1-0. We're going to try to get it done with goals."
That offensive philosophy will allow a young Princeton team to break out offensively and put goals on the scoreboard. Last season the Tigers were led offensively by a pair of underclassmen, now-sophomore Grant Goeckner-Zoeller and now-junior Patrick Neundorfer.
Goeckner-Zoeller led the Tigers with 20 points on five goals and 15 assists to be the first freshman to lead Princeton in scoring since the 1977-78 season. He was also the first freshman in seven years to record 20 or more points in a season. Ten of his 20 points came on the power play, including a pair of his goals.
Two other Tiger forwards tallied double-digit points on the season, Neundorfer and junior Dustin Sproat. Neundorfer's eight goals led the team in that category and coupled with his six assists gave him 14 points on the year, which tied for second on the team. Sproat posted 11 points last season (7G,4A) after leading the freshmen in scoring the previous season. He and Neundorfer both have 22 career points and are tied for second on the team in that category.
Senior Neil Stevenson-Moore leads Princeton in career scoring, racking up 16 goals and 14 assists for 22 points in 76 career games. Last season, Stevenson-Moore scored three goals and added four assists for seven points, after reaching double-digits in points in his first two seasons.
Juniors Mark Masters, Brian Carthas and Sebastian Borza have all contributed in big spots for the Tigers. Masters has 12 career points after a seven-point output last season, when he scored three goals and added four assists. Carthas played in all but two games last season and scored his first career goal against Colgate. He has seven career points on a goal and six assists. Borza was hampered by injury last season and appeared in just half of the Tigers games for the second consecutive year. He scored two goals and added two assists last season and has six goals and three assists in his career.
Princeton also has four returning sophomores who played last season who will hope to use that year of experience to contribute to a strong 2004-05. That group is led by Darroll Powe, who appeared in 29 games last season, and tied for eighth on the team in scoring with nine points on four goals and five assists. Kevin Westgarth, who appeared in 25 games and had three goals and three assists, brought the Tigers a strong physical presence on the ice. Ian McNally skated in 19 games, scored one goal and anchored the Tigers' checking line for much of the season. Colin Koch, fought through an injury that delayed his freshman season a year, and limited him to just six appearances in 2003-04. That said, he scored a goal on the first shot of his first shift of his first game, and added an assist two games later.
Princeton will bolster that group with five new faces, freshmen Keith Shattenkirk, Erik Pridham and Landis Stankievech and sophomore Christian Reed.
DEFENSEMEN
Returning - 6, Lost - 3, Newcomers - 2
The Tigers will look to continue putting the clamps on their opponents offense. Last season's defense allowed 18 fewer goals than the season before, and Princeton will look to continue that trend this season. With a group of only eight defensemen, each Tiger will need to step up, as strong play in the Princeton end will result in scoring chances at the other end of the ice.
The defensive core will be anchored by junior Seamus Young, a stay-at-home defenseman with good offensive skills who is Princeton's top player on the blueline. He is a steady defensive influence, but he can also score. He has been a regular on the Tigers power play and has the fourth highest career-point total on the Tiger roster with five goals and added 14 assists for 19 points in 53 games. Of those 19 points, 12 have come on the power play, including all three goals last season.
Joining him in anchoring the young group of defenders will be three sophomores who all played big minutes last season. Daryl Marcoux was one of six Tigers to play in all 31 games last season and though he only tallied two assists on the year, he played an important role on the defensive end of the ice. B.J. Mackasey played in 23 games last season and posted an assist, while Max Cousins had a goal and four assists in 20 games played.
The group will be strengthened by the return of two Tiger veterans to the lineup in seniors Jesse Masear and Luc Paquin. Masear appeared in only eight games last season but will provide the team with veteran leadership on the blueline. Paquin took the 2003-04 season off but returns as a strong offensive threat, just two years removed from a nine-point season.
Freshmen Kyle Hagel and Mike Moore will complete the defensive corps and should contribute immediately.
GOALTENDERS
Returning - 2, Lost - 1, Newcomers - 1
In hockey it often comes down to goaltending, and Princeton has a pair of returning goaltenders ready to stake their claim at the top spot. Junior Eric Leroux saw the bulk of the playing time a season ago, while sophomore B.J. Sklapsky came on strong towards the end of the season.
Leroux started 28 of Princeton's 31 games last season and earned his first career win and shutout. Leroux had a .884 save percentage and a 3.80 goals-against average.
Sklapsky did not appear in a game until mid-season and then appeared in five more games during the course of the second half of the year. Sklapsky made three starts and posted an 0-2-2 record as all four of those games were decided in overtime. He had a .908 save percentage and a 3.07 goals-against average.
Joining Leroux and Sklapsky in the Tigers goaltending ranks will be freshman Jeff Mansfield after a strong season with New York Apple Core in the Eastern Junior Hockey League.
SCHEDULE
The 2004-05 Princeton schedule will feature the usual 22 games against ECAC opponents, as well as seven non-conference games against six opponents.
For the first time in three seasons, Princeton will play four of its seven non-conference games at home. Last year the Tigers were on the road for five of the seven games. The season kicks off with the first of the four games on Friday, Oct. 29, against St. Cloud State of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and continues the following night against Alabama-Huntsville of College Hockey America. Princeton and St. Cloud State met twice last season in Minnesota and met once prior to that in 1987 at Baker Rink. Princeton and Alabama-Huntsville have never met before, and UAH will become the 134th different team that Princeton will face in the 104 years of Princeton hockey.
The ECAC season kicks off the following weekend as Princeton plays its next four away from Baker Rink, visiting Vermont, Dartmouth, Brown and Harvard in the first half of November. The Tigers come home for three league games against Union, Rensselaer and Yale before Thanksgiving and then embark on a six-game road trip to round out the year, playing league games at Yale, Colgate and Cornell and non-league games at Hockey East teams, Merrimack (for two games) and Massachusetts.
Princeton returns to Baker Rink on Tuesday, Jan. 4 to begin a stretch in which 10 of 14 games will be on home ice beginning with a Tuesday night non-conference game against American International, Princeton's first meeting with the Yellow Jackets since 1960 and continuing with league games against Clarkson and St. Lawrence. Princeton's final non-conference game of the season comes against another new opponent, Bentley, on Tuesday, Jan. 25 at the conclusion of the exam break.
Princeton completes the season with five ECAC weekends, hosting Harvard, Brown, Cornell, Colgate, Dartmouth and Vermont, while visiting Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Rensselaer and Union. Princeton's final home game of the season will be Feb. 19 against Vermont and the final road game will be Feb. 26 at Union.