Princeton Beats No. 7 Quinnipiac 4-1 for Series Sweep

Saturday, December 10

Hamden, CT

4:00 PM

Princeton University

5-7-1, 3-6-1ECAC

Quinnipiac

10-7-2, 6-4-1ECAC

Team	1	2	3	F
Princeton	2	0	2	4
Quinnipiac	0	1	0	1

Photo by: Princeton Athletic Communications

Princeton Beats No. 7 Quinnipiac 4-1 for Series Sweep

December 10, 2016 | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score

HAMDEN, Conn. (12/10/16) - Senior Colton Phinney made 33 saves and sophomore Max Véronneau had a three-point game as the Princeton men's hockey team defeated No. 7 Quinnipiac at TD Bank Sports Center. After yesterday's 5-3 victory the Tigers have posted their second sweep of a top-10 team this season.

Princeton has won four of its last five games as it improves to 5-7-1 overall and 3-6-1 in the ECAC. The Tigers have already matched last year's win total before the close of the calendar year.

"It's repetition," head coach Ron Fogarty said. "We have systems that the guys have bought into and now have gotten better at from the last three years. It takes time to transition from old systems to new and the staff has remained patient through the process. Some people have gotten frustrated but the team has been patient. We knew games at Clarkson, Colgate and Cornell we were playing really well and had possession time and getting chances that just weren't going in. The Kuffner-Véronneau-Riche line wasn't clicking and we knew it was a matter of time. We just have to stay with what we're doing well. And if it's not working don't deviate to something you're not good at but keep better at what you're doing."

The Tigers grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period. The squad took advantage of a deflection off of a Bobcat defenders skate after Véronneau got a loose puck in the neutral zone just after a Princeton penalty had expired. He made his way down the right wing and tried to set up Ryan Kuffner with a back-door goal, as he had three skaters on him, and the puck went into the crease and into the goal at 3:20.

Kuffner got the next goal as with Princeton taking care of business on the power-play. Véronneau pushed the puck across the blue line to Josh Teves who then ripped a shot from the left point. The puck bounced through traffic and and circled around the back of the goal to the right side where Kuffner was in the right place to beat his defender and netminder Chris Truehl for the tally at the right pipe.

"We've been able to build off of last year," Kuffner said. "We did a lot of things right last year but just didn't get the results we wanted. But we have some new guys that have come in and done a really good job and everyone else has done their jobs to get better and contribute to the team so it's helped us a lot these first 12-13 games."

Truehl was replaced at the start of the second period after having made nine saves, with Andrew Shortridge for the remainder of the game.

The Bobcats inched within one just 24 seconds into the second with a goal from Kevin Duane. The Tigers breakout got caught in the neutral zone and as the teams circled back into the Princeton defensive zone, Duane had a step on his defenders. He was able to skate one-on-one and roofed a shot over Phinney.

Quinnipiac had a healthy second period, outshooting Princeton 15-9 but Phinney was playing great in goal to keep his team ahead.

It was junior Max Becker that scored a clutch goal, just as he did at Bemidji – at 2:02 of the third period to give Princeton some cushion, 3-1. Freshman Jackson Cressey was able to pick the puck off the back boards after a battle and Becker was just outside the crease to shoot the puck five hole on Shortridge.

The Tigers killed off two penalties midway through the period to keep the 3-1 lead with Phinney making big stops.

Quinnipiac called a timeout with 3:08 remaining and pulled Shortridge for the extra skater, but just like last night the Tigers made them pay with a short-handed tally tacked on the end.

Tonight it belonged to Véronneau who finished the weekend with a seven points, for the second straight weekend.

Princeton was 1 for 4 on the power play, while Quinnipiac was 0 for 5.

Shortridge finished with 16 saves as Quinnipiac, which falls to 10-7-2 overall and 6-4-1 in league play.

The Tigers will be back in action on Tuesday, Dec. 13 when they host UMass at Hobey Baker Rink at 7 p.m.