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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Men's Hockey Opens Postseason this Weekend Against St. Lawrence
March 02, 2011 | Men's Ice Hockey
St. Lawrence at Princeton
GAMETIMES:
Fri., March 4 at 7 p.m.
Sat., March 5 at 4 p.m.
Sun., March 6 at 4 p.m. (If Necessary)
RECORDS:
Princeton (16-11-2, 11-9-1 ECAC)
St. Lawrence (10-19-5, 6-15-1 ECAC)
SERIES HISTORY:
Overall: St. Lawrence leads 59-20-9
At Princeton: St. Lawrence leads 27-12-4
In Playoffs: St. Lawrence leads 5-0-1
Streak: 2 Princeton wins
2010-11 SEASON:
Princeton swept the season series
Dec. 4, 2010 at Princeton: Princeton 5, St. Lawrence 1 (Recap | Box)
Jan. 28, 2011 at St. Lawrence: Princeton 5, St. Lawrence 3 (Recap | Box)
LINKS: Livestats | Video | Audio | Tickets | Game Notes (PDF)
PRINCETON (3/2/11) - The Princeton men's hockey team opens up the 2011 ECAC playoffs at home with a first round series against St. Lawrence. Princeton the ECAC tournament's sixth seed, while St. Lawrence is the 11th seed. Princeton swept both meetings from St. Lawrence during the regular season.
Princeton finished the regular season in a three-way tie for fourth with Cornell and Rensselaer, but lost both tiebreakers and became the sixth seed for the playoffs. Princeton split with both Cornell and RPI in the regular season but lost the tiebreaker to both based on the team's records against the top three finishing teams.
For Princeton the 2010-11 season was a bounce-back from a disappointing 2009-10 season in which the Tigers finished the league season under .500 as the eighth seed in the playoffs. Princeton was back over .500 this season and in contention for the final first-round bye entering the final night of the regular season. Princeton now has finished in the top half of the ECAC standings and had league records at or above .500 in four of the last five seasons.
As a result Princeton has now earned a home ice playoff series in five straight seasons. Prior to this stretch, Princeton had only hosted one playoff series and two play-in games altogether. This run began in the 2006-07 season when Princeton finished sixth and topped 11th-seeded Brown in three games. Princeton earned byes in the 2008 and 2009 postseasons as the second and third seeds, and hosted a first-round series last year as an eight seed.
Princeton enters the series having split its last two weekends with wins in the openers and losses on the second day. Two weeks back the Tigers posted a 7-3 win over Brown, before dropping a close one to Yale 5-4. Then last weekend Princeton edged Rensselaer 4-3 on Friday before being shut out 5-0 at Union on Saturday for the first time since the 2009-10 season finale.
On Friday at RPI, Andrew Calof opened the scoring with his seventh goal of the season. The goal was also his team-leading 30th point of the season, which ranks fourth for a freshman at Princeton. He is also the first Princeton player to reach 30 points since three players-Brett Wilson, Lee Jubinville and Cam MacIntyre-hit the number in the 2007-08 season. Calof was the only league freshman to average better than a point per game during the league slate.
Andrew Ammon also scored twice on Friday at RPI and hit the 10-goal mark for his rookie season. He joins Kevin Lohry, Taylor Fedun, Rob Kleebaum and Mike Kramer as 10-goal scorers as Princeton now has five this season. Princeton last had five guys reach 10 goals in the 1998-99 season and last had six in the 1994-95 campaign. Ammon also became Princeton's first freshman to score 10 goals in a season since Mark Magnowski had 10 in 2006-07.
Kevin Lohry added his 12th goal of the season in the win at Rensselaer while Derrick Pallis, Eric Meland, Rob Kleebaum and Michael Sdao added assists. Pallis had two in the win and because the second Princeton defenseman this season to reach 20 points joining Taylor Fedun. It is the first time since at least the 1970-71 season that Princeton has had two 20-point defensemen.
Sean Bonar made the start at Rensselaer and made 27 saves for the win. He now leads the team's three goaltenders with a 2.24 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage. Princeton has each goalie start once in its last three games. Alan Reynolds played in the loss to Yale, while Mike Condon played in Saturday's loss at Union.
Princeton plays its fifth-straight home-ice playoff series this weekend at home. Princeton has won three of the previous four in the stretch as it topped Brown in 2007, Yale in 2008 and Union in 2009, all in three games. Princeton has won seven ECAC playoff series since the 1995 season and six of the seven were won in three games. The only one that wasn't was a first-to-three-points series win in 199 at home against Cornell. Princeton is 22-41-2 all-time in the ECAC postseason and has an 8-6-1 record in home games and a 4-1 record in home series.
The Tigers host St. Lawrence in this season's first round. Princeton swept St. Lawrence during the regular season, scoring five goals in each win. Princeton topped the Saints 5-1 at Baker Rink on Dec. 4. Matt Farris scored his first of two goals midway through the second period to put Princeton ahead for good and Eric Meland, Matt Arhontas and Farris added power-play goals over the next 10 minutes to make it 4-0 Princeton through 40 minutes before the teams traded third period goals.
The second meeting came on Jan. 28 at Appleton Arena and Princeton jumped out to a 2-0 lead as Fedun scored twice in the first period. St. Lawrence would cut the lead to a single goal on three occasions but each time Princeton stretched it back out to two before eventually winning 5-3. Ammon, Mike Kramer and Calof added goals in the win.
Princeton's sweep marked the first time since the current ECAC travel partner system was implemented in the 1983-84 season that Princeton took both meetings from St. Lawrence in a season and only the third time in the series' 88 games that Princeton has won back-to-back games. St. Lawrence leads the all-time series 59-20-9 overall and is 27-12-4 in games played at Baker Rink. Princeton is unbeaten in the last three meetings (2-0-1).
Princeton and St. Lawrence have met in the postseason on six previous occasions. St. Lawrence won home playoff series in 1988 and 2005 and took a single game in the 1992 quarterfinals. The teams last met in the 2009 ECAC consolation game in Albany and skated to a 2-2 deadlock. Nine current Tigers played in that game with Pallis and Sam Sabky each tallying an assist.
St. Lawrence finished 11th in the final standings, dropping from 10th on the final day of the regular season when it lost at Harvard. St. Lawrence was 10-19-5 overall and 6-15-1 in the ECAC. The Saints enter the playoffs having won once in its last six games, a 5-3 win at Rensselaer two weekends ago. Yale was 2-1-1 in the previous four games with wins over Colgate and Yale and a tie at Quinnipiac.
Like Princeton, St. Lawrence's leading scorer is a freshman. Greg Carey has 18 goals and 16 assists for 34 points in his rookie season with the Saints and is joined on the team above 30 points by Kyle Flanagan. Also like Princeton, the Saints have rotated goaltenders throughout this season and have had three different goalies start in the last three games. Freshman Matt Weninger saw the bulk of time in goal and has St. Lawrence's best numbers but has seen limited action since leaving the game against Princeton in late January with an injury. Robby Moss and David Grilk both got starts last weekend in goal for the Saints.
The winner of this weekend's series advances to next weekend's ECAC quarterfinals. Should Princeton advance, the Tigers would either play Dartmouth or Cornell depending on what happens in the other first-round series. The other series are Colgate at Rensselaer, Harvard at Clarkson and Brown at Quinnipiac.