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Princeton University Athletics
Men's Hockey Hosts First-Place Brown Friday Night
February 04, 2004 | Men's Ice Hockey
Feb. 4, 2004
Princeton, N.J. - It's a rare one-game league weekend for the Princeton men's hockey team as the Tigers return to Baker Rink to face first-place Brown Friday night at 7 p.m. Brown, currently the 12th-ranked team in the nation, won the meeting of the two teams earlier this season in Providence.
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Drop the Puck... The Princeton men's hockey team returns to Baker Rink for a rare one-game league weekend against ECAC-leading Brown. The weekend was broken up to allow Harvard a one-game weekend in between rounds of the Beanpot Tournament. Princeton and Harvard met on Dec. 16 in Princeton.
Last Time Out... Princeton dropped a pair of games at Clarkson and St. Lawrence to fall to 5-16-1 on the season. The Tigers battled back to within a goal in a 3-2 loss at Clarkson and fell 5-0 the following night at St. Lawrence.
The Series with Brown... Princeton is 51-77-4 all-time against Brown and 31-24-3 in games played on home ice. Brown has currently won five straight games in the series, including the team's first meeting of the season and four games last season, including the ECAC playoffs. The Tigers last defeated Brown on March 1, 2002 in Princeton 3-2. Senior Steve Slaton leads all Tigers in career points against Brown with five, all assists.
Scouting the Bears... Brown sits atop the ECAC standings at 10-3-1 in the league. The Bears are also currently 12-5-4 overall and are the highest ranked ECAC team in the national polls at No. 12. In the ECAC, Brown has cruised through its schedule with only a few bumps along the way. The Bears enter the game winners of three consecutive games, including a 2-1 overtime win over their travel-partner, Harvard, last weekend, and non-conference wins over Merrimack and UMass-Lowell. Brown's only league losses have come to second-place Colgate twice, and at third-place Dartmouth. A Look at the Standings... Princeton is currently tied for ninth in the ECAC standings with St. Lawrence. The teams sit two points behind Harvard for eighth and the final home-ice slot for the first round of the ECAC playoffs. St. Lawrence holds a game in hand on Harvard and Princeton that will be made up on Saturday night at Union.
A Look Ahead... Princeton plays away from home the next two weekends before heading home for the final weekend of the season. Next Friday Princeton will visit Cornell and on Saturday, the Tigers will take on No. 15 Colgate.
Ranked Opponents... Princeton is 1-4 this season in games against ranked opponents. The win came at Harvard, while the losses came to Miami and St. Cloud State (2) on the road and to Cornell on home ice. Princeton has two opponents that are currently ranked on its remaining schedule, Brown and Colgate.
Clarkson/St. Lawrence Weekend Review... A slow start last Friday night at Clarkson did in the Tigers as Princeton was unable to recover from two early Golden Knights goals. By the time Princeton finally got things going in the third period, Clarkson had built up an insurmountable 3-0 lead. Princeton goals from freshman Grant Goeckner-Zoeller and sophomore Patrick Neundorfer were not enough as Clarkson extended its unbeaten string against the Tigers to 16 games. Saturday night, the Tigers let St. Lawrence get another quick start on them and were unable to muster a goal as the Saints defeated Princeton 5-0. The outcome resulted in the first St. Lawrence shut out over Princeton in the 68 game series between the two schools. St. Lawrence is now unbeaten in its last four meetings with Princeton following this season's win and tie.
Helping Hand... Freshman Darroll Powe became the 12th Tiger this season to record multiple-points in a game. He set up both third period goals at Clarkson to record multiple points for the first time in his college career. The goals were scored by Grant Goeckner-Zoeller and Patrick Neundorfer. Team Leaders... Neundorfer's goal at Clarkson was his team-leading sixth marker of the season, while Goeckner-Zoeller's goal was his team-leading 14th point of the year.
7-13-9... Since being put together as a line prior to the first St. Lawrence game, Darroll Powe, sophomore Dustin Sproat and freshman Grant Goeckner-Zoeller have each had strong four-game stretches. Powe and Sproat have four points in four games while Goeckner-Zoeller has three in the same span. The trio has been involved in seven of Princeton's 11 goals in the four-game stretch.
Hollywood... Los Angeles native Grant Goeckner-Zoeller stands atop the Princeton point standings with four goals and 10 assists for 14 points in 22 games. That point total surpasses the rookie totals of sophomore Dustin Sproat (11 in 2002-03), junior Neil Stevenson-Moore (12 in 2001-02) and senior Steve Slaton (10 in 2000-01). His point total is the highest for a Princeton freshman since Benoit Morin had 24 points in the 1997-98 season. He has tallied 11 points in his last 12 games.