Princeton University
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Dartmouth
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Players Mentioned
Zajac Scores as Men's Hockey Falls 3-1 at Dartmouth
February 27, 2015 | Men's Ice Hockey
BOX SCORE
HANOVER, N.H. (2/27/15) - Junior Michael Zajac scored his first goal of the season as the Princeton men's hockey team fell 3-1 to Dartmouth on Saturday night at Thompson Arena.
Zajac ended a 64-game goal scoring skid with the unassisted marked in the second period.
Princeton outshot Dartmouth 27-22 in the game, including a 10-2 edge in a scoreless third period. The Tigers weren't able to catch the Big Green, including when they pulled goalie Colton Phinney for the final 1:49.
The Big Green took a 2-0 lead with goals less than two minutes apart, and both were nearly identical.
A long outlet pass ended up with junior Jack Barre along the right boards. He found freshman Corey Kalk skating by at the top of the right circle and he whipped a shot that Tommy Davis laid down for, but the puck went underneath him and to freshman Carl Hesler for the back-door goal at 12:36.
Senior Eric Neiley shot underneath senior defender Tom Kroshus who laid down to block the shot, instead the puck made its way across the ice to senior Brandon McNally who had the back-door shot and goal at 14:20 The play got started by sophomore Grant Opperman who collected the puck in front of his own team's bench.
Zajac cut the Tigers' defict back to one at 8:35 of the second period. He intercepted a Dartmouth pass just inside the neutral zone and just as he crossed the blue line he rifled a shot that went over the shoulder of James Kruger.
Opperman picked up his second point of the night with a power-play goal with 1.7 seconds left in the middle frame. Brad Schierhorn stopped the puck from getting trapped along the boards as he slid the puck to the right post to Nick Bligh. Bligh saw Opperman open on the weak side and Phinney couldn't make the push over in time as Opperman made it 3-1.
Kruger made 26 saves in net for Dartmouth, while Phinney stopped 19.
Princeton was 0 for 1 on the power play, while Dartmouth was 1 for 3.
Princeton faces Harvard tomorrow night, in the final game of the regular season, at 7 p.m. The Crimson dropped a 5-2 game to Quinnipiac tonight.