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Men's Hockey Rally Comes Up Just Short in 3-2 Game with Dartmouth
November 13, 2015 | Men's Ice Hockey
BOX SCORE
PRINCETON, N.J. (11/13/15) - Freshman Ryan Kuffner and senior Jonathan Liau scored their first goals of the season as the Princeton men's hockey team lost a one-goal game to Dartmouth in the home opener at historic Hobey Baker Rink on Friday, Nov. 13
The Tigers rallied from a three-goal first period deficit, scoring in each the second and third periods for the 3-2 decision.
"It was uncharacteristic," Princeton head coach Ron Fogarty said about his team's first period play. "We saw from the second and third how we can play. Where we are at, you can't be complacent or take a period off. No team is that good - it doesn't matter the skill level. You take a period off in college hockey, you're going to be down. And we were down. We batted back, but it's a great lesson for this group."
The three-goal first period started with Brett Patterson preventing a breakout and then feeding Corey Kalk at 9:55. Jack Barre deflected in a shot from Ryan Bullock from the point at 11:56 as Dartmouth gained a 2-0 lead in about two minutes time. Brad Schierhorn and Tim O'Brien helped worked the puck off the wall and got it to Nick Bligh who went high on Colton Phinney's glove side with 58 seconds remaining in the first.
"It wasn't the effort we wanted in the first, and that ended up being the result of the game," senior captain Mike Ambrosia said." But we have to forget about it. We had a good second and third, and we need to play a full 60 minutes that way and we're going to get a lot of results."
Princeton's first power-play opportunity came at 4:11 of the second and the Tigers put on a show with six shots on James Kruger during the two-minute infraction. The work paid off as Kuffner scored his first goal with sophomores David Hallisey and Joe Grabowski assisting. Kuffer grabbed his own rebound in the corner and sent it to the right point to Grabowski who fired on goal. The puck went off the toe of Kruger and Hallisey was on the doorstep to get a stick on it and Kuffner finished, just as Cameron Roth was released from the box.
Liau pushed Princeton closer in the third period with a goal with help from junior Hayden Anderson and freshman Spencer Kryczka. Kryzcka won a battle along the right side boards and sent the puck across the ice to Anderson as he was entering the zone. Anderson sent a shot on frame and the puck came off the pad of Kruger and was left wide open for Liau to knock home. It was the first career assist for Anderson and first career point for Kryzcka.
The Tigers added the extra skater for the final 1:07 but wasn't able to get another past Kruger, who finished the game with 30 saves.
Princeton outshot Dartmouth 11-7 in the third period, and was just three shots back as the final total stood 35-32.
Phinney, who was briefly replaced by Ben Halford for the final 58 seconds of the first period, made 32 stops.
"We've given ourselves an opportunity to win each game, because the effort has been consistent, as you saw in the second and third periods," Fogarty said. "We had scoring opportunities, just missed on a 3x1, we had a great looks, power play was very good today, but when you're 3-0 down, it's a steep hole to climb out of."
Princeton host No. 7 Harvard tomorrow night at 7 p.m. The Crimson dropped a 4-1 game at No. 4 Quinnipiac this evening.