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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Maine (Consolation Game)
Players Mentioned
Men's Hockey Upends Maine 3-1 at Capital City Classic
October 31, 2015 | Men's Ice Hockey
TRENTON, N.J. (10/31/15) - The Princeton men's hockey team defeated Maine 3-1, in the consolation game of the Capital City Classic this afternoon at the Sun National Bank Center.
Senior Kyle Rankin gave Princeton a 1-0 lead and sophomore defender Joe Grabowski expanded it to 2-0 early in the second. Junior Ben Foster sealed the win with an empty-net goal with 2.7 seconds left. Junior Colton Phinney made 38 saves in net - and finished the weekend with 79 stops to earn a place on the all-tournament team. Rankin was named to the all-tournament team as well.
"I think it was a full 60 minutes," Rankin said when comparing yesterday's game to today's. "Yesterday against Yale we really struggled in the second period. We were hemmed into our zone a lot. Today the second period was actually our best period. We came out pretty even in the first period and were able to get two goals, which was huge. It was something that's exciting for the team, because a lot of games last year were trying to battle back from behind. Getting that first goal first, and not only that, but getting the insurance marker to boot, that was pretty great for us.
Princeton's first goal came at 2:42 of the second period. As Maine attempted to clear the puck down the boards, junior Tommy Davis came in to pinch and after sophomore David Hallisey delivered a check, senior Jonathan Liau came skating by to collect the puck. Liau circled behind the goal and came out with it on the left side and gave it to freshman defender Josh Teves at the point. He fired on frame and Rankin was on the doorstep to put it away.
Less than four minutes later, the Tigers added the insurance. It took just 13 seconds from the faceoff following Maine's penalty for Princeton to score the man-advantage marker. Junior Ryan Siiro bounced a Black Bear off the puckin the right corner and pushed it along the back wall to Hallisey. He slide the puck up the ice to Grabowski at the point and he scored through traffic.
The Tigers were able to kill off a five-minute boarding major that came at the conclusion of the second period, thanks in part two minutes being eaten away by Cam Brown's hooking call at 2:56 of the third. Princeton was 1 for 4 on the power play and 5 for 5 on the penalty kill.
Phinney had another great game in net, making 38 saves and allowed just one goal. Maine was able to break though at 6:08 of the third on a Dane Gibson goal. Colin Riley gloved down a clear in the neutral zone and skated in, dropping the puck off to Gibson at the top of the left circle. Gibson fired through traffic and into the net gloveside.
With 1:04 remaining, Maine netminder Rob McGovern went off. Princeton did a great job of trapping the puck and it took 25 seconds before Maine was able to control it. A backdoor set-up was squashed by Rankin, before a drive from the point sailed wide. An ensuing face off was taken just inside the Princeton blue line and Foster took the draw and shot it into the corner where Maine had to chase it down. Junior Garrett Skrbich knocked down a long break out pass and sent it towads the goal and Foster popped it in for the empty-netter.
"This is the first time we've won the second game of the opening tournament, which is extremely beneficial," Rankin commented about Princeton's experiecnce in the last three years in the season-opening tournaments. "You always talk about when there is a split, you want to split by winning on Saturday. You want to go into a week of practice on a high note, which we have the luxury of doing this week.
"Maine is a great team from a great conference, but what I think we showed this year is that we're a team that's ready to compete, and maybe surprise a few people and we'll just keep taking out mentatlity of hard work for 60 minutes with us everywhere we go and it was just great to get the win today."
The Tigers will bring that mentality to Central New York next weekend as they begin conference play at Cornell & Colgate on Nov. 7 & 8.