Princeton Takes Down #10 Bemidji, 4-1

Friday, November 25

Bemidji, Minn.

7:00 PM

Princeton University

1-6-1

Bemidji

11-3-1

Team	1	2	3	F
Princeton	0	2	2	4
Bemidji State	0	0	1	1

photo courtesy of Brent Cizek

Photo by: Brent Cizek

November 26, 2016 | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

It was only a matter of time. The Princeton men's hockey team has been knocking on the door all year; whether it was taking two-goal leads or putting 50 shots on net. Tonight the Tigers clicked on all facets for a full 60 minutes and took down No. 10 Bemidji, 4-1.

Princeton snapped an eight-game win streak for Bemidji and took a team with the second-best scoring defense to task, lighting the lamp four times. Princeton is just the second team to beat Bemidji this season - joining North Dakota.

Sophomore Ryan Kuffner scored the opening goal and had the empty-net goal. Freshman Jeremy Germain had two assists while junior defender Joe Grabowski net a goal and an assist. The clutch goal came from junior Max Becker at 16:13 of the third that gave Princeton a 3-1 lead.

Senior Colton Phinney was an unstoppable force making 35 saves, while the Tigers looked comfortable early.

"It's been our last six games. It's been 2-1 or 2-2 and we've had the tie or lead into the third period," head coach Ron Fogarty said. "We played smart and had our third guy back predominately for the third period, forcing Bemidji to go around us, so I liked our execution in the third compared to the other games. We were tentative last weekend and our guys played more freely tonight."

"Since we starting rebuilding this program two years ago we just worry about ourselves. Worry about our structure and worry about our systems and if it's yielding solid team play then we know we know we are on the right track of building for the playoffs. If you start worrying about other teams then you start putting yourself on the defensive side and you're not going to be proactive in your play."

After a scoreless first, shots were nearly at 8-7 with the Beavers having the one-shot edge.

Princeton scored twice within three minutes to take a 2-0 lead in the second. Kuffner buried a Germain rebound at 15:45 of the second to put Princeton the board. Grabowski net his second goal in as many games at 18:43 when he went top shelf over the right shoulder of Michael Bitzer on a cross-ice pass from Germain. Junior Eric Robinson got the play started with a great stride down the left side and then taking the puck behind the back of the goal before hitting Germain on the left wing. He played it back before Robinson's pass went to a wide open Grabowski in the left circle and he sent a rocket into the upp 90.

The Beavers came out in the third hungry for a goal, but Phinney continued to close down the offense.

Bemidji was able to score just the third power-play goal of the season on Princeton – who has the nation's top penalty-killing unit in the nation. Leading scorer Brendan Harms took Phinney to the right side and snuck the goal in between the post and the glove at 12:39.

Becker came up big scoring just four minutes later to make it 3-1 at 16:13. He took on three skaters down the middle and flipped a backhander past Bitzer.

Bitzer came off with 2:54 to play but the Beavers got caught with seven skaters on the ice with 1:52 to play, putting them out of business.

Kuffner iced the game at 19:01.1 with a power-play empty-net goal with Veronneau and junior David Hallisey assisting.

Bitzer finished the game with 23 saves in as the team drops its third game of the season, 11-3-1.

"It's huge. It's exciting to get the train rolling," senior Ben Foster said post game. "We know we can compete with anybody and tonight proved it."