Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Merrimack
Merrimack Defeats Men's Hockey 4-2
December 11, 2004 | Men's Ice Hockey
Dec. 11, 2004
Box Score
North Andover, Mass. - Merrimack's Steve Crusco scored late in the second period to break a 2-2 tie and lift the Warriors to a 4-2 win over the Princeton men's hockey team Saturday night at Lawler Arena. Sophomore Darroll Powe and junior Patrick Neundorfer scored for the Tigers in defeat.
Merrimack outshot Princeton 13-8 in the period and made two of those shots count as the Warrior built a 2-0 lead through one period of play. The Warriors opened the scoring at 10:59 when Mike Alexiou used a fortuitous bounce to make it 1-0. Jordan Fox took a slap shot from the point that was well wide, but it took a lively bounce off the boards and wound up on Alexiou's stick and he took a quick shot that squeezed by Princeton junior goaltender Eric Leroux. Merrimack made it 2-0 at 17:20 off a face off in the Princeton end. Matt Byrnes won the draw back to Ryan Sullivan who fired a shot from the point that Leroux made the initial save on, but the rebound came out into the slot and Justin Mills backhanded it along the ice between Leroux's legs as he went down to try and cover the bottom of the net.
Princeton had three power-play chances in the first, two of which came prior to when Merrimack opened the scoring, but could not cash one of those in for a goal to take an early lead.
Princeton rebounded well in the second period scoring twice to even the game up at two goals apiece. The first Tiger goal came at 10:55, when Powe won the race to a loose puck and chipped it into the Merrimack net for his first goal of the year. Sophomore Sebastian Borza fired a breakaway pass and Powe won the race to it despite being tugged on by a Merrimack defender and having Merrimack goaltender Jim Healey racing out to try and play the puck. Junior Seamus Young also assisted on the goal.
Princeton made it 2-2 at 14:27 when Neundorfer scored on the power play for his eighth goal of the season. Sophomore Grant Goeckner-Zoeller carried the puck into the Merrimack end and laid the puck in front. Young got a swipe at it, but it was the second swipe by Neundorfer that wound up in the top right corner. It was Princeton's first power-play goal in 11 attempts against Merrimack over the two games.
Merrimack climbed back on 1:30 later when an odd-man rush resulted in Steve Crusco redirecting a Matt Johnson pass by Leroux.
Merrimack scored the only goal of the third period when Jordan Black scored at 11:37 of the period. Fox picked up the puck on the blue line and skated in on Leroux and his shot fooled Leroux as it bounced off his arm and into the net.
Leroux finished the night with 34 saves while Healey made 25 in the Merrimack goal.
Princeton is off for the next two and a half weeks before resuming its schedule on Dec. 29 at Massachusetts.