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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
No. 14 St. Lawrence
Players Mentioned
Becker Tallies First Career Goal in Loss to No. 14 St. Lawrence
November 20, 2015 | Men's Ice Hockey
PRINCETON, N.J. (11/20/15) - Sophomore Max Becker scored his first career goal for the Princeton men's hockey team but the No. 14 St. Lawrence Saints grabbed a 5-1 win on Friday night at Hobey Baker Rink.
The Tigers were outshooting the Saints 9-2 in the first period before momentum shifted on St. Lawrence's goal.
Princeton dumped the puck in for a line change and Ben Masella grabbed it behind the goal and flipped it up the left boards to Michael Laidley. A backhanded pass found its way to Ryan Lough who took off down the flank and shot blocker side for the lone goal of the first period.
The Saints added two more goals in the second period to grab a 3-0 lead. Masella set up the play once again, feeding Mike Marnell at the opposite blue line and before the cross-ice pass to Brian Ward for the back door at 1:57. Laidley got a slotted pass from Woody Hudson after a neutral zone interception by Eric Sweetman and at 9:53, the Saints had a three-goal edge.
"We outshot them 17-9 in the first and had some great chances," Princeton head coach Ron Fogarty said. "They scored on three of the first five odd-man rushes to go up 3-0 and that's a big thing. They captialized on that. We had a couple of opportunities, we just didn't score."
Becker broke through at 12:31 of the second period with help from freshman Spencer Kryczka and Ryan Kuffner. Kryczka won a draw to the left of Hayton and along with Kuffner battled for the puck in the corner with the Tigers winning the battle and getting Becker the puck in the slot. His first career tally comes in his 13th career game - and coincidentally it came against his former teammate from Shattuck St. Mary's.
Alex Hagen's goal four minutes later came on a third-chance rebound after Princeton's Colton Phinney made two great saves against Christian Horn. Phinney was relieved of his duties with 29 saves to his credit and sophomore Ben Halford played the remaining 10:12 and made six stops.
Halford allowed his first goal of the season on Joe Sullivan's backdoor chance at 12:07 - the final goal of the game.
The Tigers never gave up and continued to pepper Saints netminder Kyle Hayton. This is the second straight game Princeton has taken 40+ shots, after taking 47 against No. 7 Harvard last Saturday. Tonight's game does mark the first time Princeton has outshot an opponent this season, doing so 42-40.
"You have to stay the course," Fogarty said post game. "People believe 'they're getting close' but they're still losing. You have to look at the finer details within the game to see if you're progressing. And we are. It's human nature to want a quick fix, but you have to keep building the foundation. It takes time.""It's a totally different feel this year," Becker said after the game. "The guys come to the rink and we're ready to go and ready to work. We're on the verge of something special here. It may not show in our record, but we're really working and we're a much better team than we were last year andof in years past and Ithink that's going to show, hopefully soon here. I think the coaches are doing a great job and the boys are all buying in, so I think we're going to see some results here soon."
Princeton gets another chance tomorrow night when it takes on No. 20 Clarkson. Game time is at 7 p.m., at Hobey Baker Rink. The Green & Gold skated to a 1-1 tie with No. 3 Quinnipiac this evening in Hamden, Conn.