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Princeton University Athletics
Men's Hockey Wraps Regular Season at Rensselaer and Union
February 24, 2005 | Men's Ice Hockey
Feb. 24, 2005
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The Princeton men's hockey team wraps up the regular season this weekend with games at Rensselaer and Union. The Tigers can finish as high as ninth in the ECAC Hockey League standings with wins this weekend as they face off with the two teams directly in front of them in the standings.
Face-off is set for 7 p.m. on both nights. For ticket information, visit GoPrincetonTigers.com or call the ticket office at (609) 258-3538. For those unable to join in person, the game will be broadcast live on the Internet at GoPrincetonTigers.com. The broadcast will begin approximately 10 minutes prior to the opening face-off and a link to the broadcast can be found on the hockey schedule page, the athletics front page, and the multimedia page. Additionally, live stats will be available through GameTracker.
Last weekend the Tigers slit their two games, downing Dartmouth 6-2 on Friday night and falling to Vermont, 4-1, on Saturday. The Tigers juggled up their lines for the weekend in an attempt to spur the offense, which resulted in seven goals in two games, after scoring just twice in the previous three games.
On Friday, freshman Keith Shattenkirk scored a pair of first period goals to pick the Tigers ahead for good in the eventual 6-2 win. Sophomores Darroll Powe and Grant Goeckner-Zoeller, and juniors Sebastian Borza and Mark Masters provided the other goals. Goeckner-Zoeller had a goal and two assists to lead all skaters with three points in the game.
On Saturday, freshman Mike Moore scored the Tigers' lone goal in a 4-1 loss. It was Moore's second point in as many games after missing several games with an injury. Sophomore Christian Read and freshman Kyle Hagel each had assists over the weekend, the first points of their careers.
Princeton's season sweep of Dartmouth was its first since the 1997-98 season and the two wins came following a seven-game Dartmouth unbeaten streak.
The weekend leaves Princeton at 7-18-2 overall and 5-14-1 in the league entering this weekend's play against a pair of teams which it is battling with in the ECAC Hockey League. Princeton now sits tied for 10th in the ECAC standings, three points behind of ninth-place Union, even with Rensselaer, and four ahead of 12th-place Yale.
The Tigers can finish anywhere from ninth to 12th and were eliminated from home-ice contention with the Vermont loss, meaning the Tigers will be on the road next weekend for the ECAC playoffs. Princeton's likely opponent next weekend will be Brown, Clarkson or St. Lawrence. If the season ended today, Princeton would meet St. Lawrence in the 7-10 playoff series in Canton, N.Y.
Junior Dustin Sproat had an assist against Dartmouth and he continues to lead the Princeton scoring charts with 15 goals and 17 assists for 32 points. Goeckner-Zoeller comes next with 28 points. Senior Luc Paquin's assist on Friday gave him 23 points and he is the first Princeton defenseman to post a 20-point season since Steve Shirreffs had 33 in the 1997-98 season.
The Tigers begin the weekend Friday night at Rensselaer. Princeton is 23-54-8 all-time against the Engineers and is 11-33-5 in games played in Troy, N.Y. The series has swung back-and-forth in the past few years. In 2002-03, the Tigers were 2-0-1 against RPI. Last season, the Engineers were 4-0 against Princeton. This season the Tigers earned the win in the previous meeting.
Rensselaer is 13-19-2 overall and 5-14-1 in the ECAC Hockey League to tie with Princeton for 10th. The Engineers started strong, but have struggled since the start of 2005, going 5-10 since the calendar turned. Rensselaer enters on a two-game losing streak and has been shut out in three of its last four games.
On Nov. 20 in Princeton, Patrick Neundorfer broke a 2-2 tie at 5:12 of the third to lift Princeton to a 3-2 win. Dustin Sproat and Neil Stevenson-Moore also scored for the Tigers while B.J. Sklapsky made 18 saves for his first career win.
Princeton continues the weekend Saturday at Union. Princeton is 17-12-3 all time against Union and is 5-7-2 at the Achilles Center. Union has won four of the last six meetings between the two teams, including a 6-4 win at Baker Rink in November. Each team won on the other team's home ice last season. Scouting the Dutchmen... Union started its league season stronger than anybody, winning six straight to sit atop the standings in November, but Union has managed just a 1-12 league record since. The Dutchmen are 11-20-1 overall and 7-13 in the league. They enter weekend on three-game losing skid and have won once in their last 10 games.
On Nov. 19 in Princeton, the Tigers led 3-2 after two periods but Union had a five-on-three to start the third and scored to knot the game at three, then added to more to make it 5-3, before the Tigers chipped a goal off the lead and Union added an empty-netter. Dustin Sproat had a goal and two assists to lead Princeton, while Scott Seney had three goals and an assist for Union.