Men's Hockey Set For Home-And-Home With Sacred Heart

Friday, December 8

Fairfield, Conn.

7:00 PM

Princeton University

Sacred Heart

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Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Men's Hockey Set For Home-And-Home With Sacred Heart

December 07, 2023 | Men's Ice Hockey

Princeton at Sacred Heart
December 8 | 7 p.m. | Martire Family Arena
TV: SNY | FloHockey | Tickets | Live Stats | Game Notes

Princeton vs. Sacred Heart
December 9 | 7 p.m. | Hobey Baker Rink | Teddy Bear Toss & Future Tigers Day
ESPN+ | International Stream | Tickets | Live Stats

THE ALL-TIME SERIES WITH SACRED HEART
The Tigers and Pioneers have met just three times previously, with Princeton holding a 3-0-0 record in the all-time series. The first meeting was a 7-1 Tiger win at Hobey Baker Rink on 1/25/11. The lone meeting in Connecticut was a 4-3 Princeton win on 11/23/12 but this is the first meeting between the two teams at Martire Family Arena. The Tigers are 2-0 against SHU all-time at Baker Rink. Ron Fogarty has not coached against the Pioneers.

OFFENSE ON POINT
Princeton has scored 35 total goals over its first 10 games to start the season, ranking No. 3 in the ECAC and No. 13 in the country in Scoring Offense (3.50 goals-per-game). The Tigers scored 3+ goals in their first five games to start the year, the last time that had happened since the 2006-07 team also had 3+ goals in five consecutive games to open that season. Princeton has hit the back of the net 3+ times in eight of its 10 games this season. There has been balance to the scoring with 14 different goal scorers and 17 different players with at least one point.

CARDIAC CATS
So far through six ECAC games this season, Princeton has reached overtime in four of its eight games, with another decided by one goal with under 1:00 left in regulation. The Tigers have won three of their four overtime games during the 5:00 OT period and claimed the shootout over Harvard in the other.

Princeton's three overtime wins so far this season are most in the ECAC and No. 4 in the nation alongside Omaha and Lake Superior who each have three. Arizona State and Ferris State and Air Force lead the NCAA with four overtime wins.

Nerd Nugget: There are 20 teams in the country who have played 3 or more overtime games this season, Princeton is the only team to get the two points in each game to extend past regulation time.

GETTING YOUR MONEY'S WORTH
From strictly a cost-benefit analysis, a ticket to a Princeton game is one of the most efficient uses of your hockey-fan budget. Not only have four of the 10 games reached overtime, of those four, fans have seen one reach a shootout and two others were decided with under 0:10 left in OT.

To put it another way, Princeton has played 16:59 of its possible 20:00 of overtime this season and ended each of those four games with a winning pigpile.

AMONG THE NATION'S TOP OFFENSES
The Tigers enter this weekend ranked No. 3 in the ECAC and No. 13 in the country in goals-per-game (3.38). Quinnipiac (4.44) leads the ECAC, while Denver (5.31) leads the NCAA.

POWER PLAY POPS OFF
The Tigers are 10-for-30 on the power play this season, connecting at a 33.3% clip to lead the country ahead of Michigan (31.5%), Minnesota-Duluth (30.4%) and Sacred Heart (27.5%). Seven different players have PPGs for the Tigers -- Jack Cronin, David Jacobs and Kai Daniells have two, while Nick Seitz,, Tyler Rubin, Adam Robbins and Nick Carabin each have one.

TRYING TO FIND THE FRONT FOOT
The Tigers have played 616:59 of hockey this season over 10 games, and led for just 84:57 of that time. When the Tigers took a 2-1 lead 7:03 into the second period at RPI last weekend, it ended a run of 399:09 of game play where the Tigers were either tied or trailing and it was their first lead during regulation play since the third period of the Yale game on November 10. The Tigers still have managed to go 4-4-0 during their last eight games, twice rallying to win in overtime after not leading at all during regulation.

THE MURPH
For the second year in a row, Ian Murphy is the top returning scorer on the team. After posting 9-10-19 numbers in 2021-22, he popped off for 15-14-29 last season to lead Princeton in goals, assists, and points. This year, he is a point-per-game player (4-6-10) to start the season with points in eight of the 10 games -- including a five-game point streak (2g, 4a) entering the weekend. He had two hat tricks last season, tying for most by an ECAC player and second-most by any player in the NCAA.

JACK ATTACK
Jack Cronin struck for five PPGs and was second on the team with 12 goals overall last year. He scored 10 more goals last year than he did in his freshman season, and his 12-point growth from 2021-22 to 2022-23 was the most of any player on the team. In the opening weekend, Cronin had three points in two games, including a two-point game (1g, 1a) at Harvard -- his first multi-point game since 12/30/22 at Colorado College.

Cronin's 19 career goals are second-most by an active Princeton player, and his two-goal game against Colgate was the first of his career after 15 previous one-goal games.

Of Cronin's 19 career goals, eight have come on the power play (42%).

DE LA SOUL
Junior defenseman Noah de la Durantaye tallied a career-high 17 points last season, up from 10 as a rookie in 2021-22. He leads all returning defensemen in goals (4), assists (13) and points (17).

This season, he has five assists in eight games. He has gone 17 games without a goal dating back to 2/11/23 at Clarkson.

GORMAN FAMILY SCORING RACE
Sophomore Brendan Gorman is chasing down his older brother, Liam (Class of 2023), and father, Sean (Class of 1991) on his family's all-time scoring leader list. Brendan averaged 0.6 points-per-game last season as a true freshman.
1. Liam Gorman -- 36 pts. (16g, 20a) in 91 games
2. Brendan Gorman -- 29 pts. (7g, 22a) in 41 games
3. Sean Gorman -- 23 pts (5g, 18a) in 99 games

ABOUT ADAM
Adam Robbins tallied 14 points (5g, 9a) in 32 games last season after registering 15 points (5g, 10a) over his first 49 combined games. Of his nine assists last season, seven came on the power play. He has six assists this season, two of which have come on the power play. During the 2020-21 year, Robbins won a Clark Cup with the Chicago Steel.

Robbins scored the OTGWG against Yale, landing at #5 on that evening's Sportscenter Top-10 Plays -- the second time in his career he landed on the #SCtop10 following a penalty shot goal against Harvard on 1/6/23 which was #4.

SETTING SEITZ
Another NYC product had a standout 2022-23 in Nick Seitz. Last year, he connected for a career-high 15 points (9g, 6a) in 28 games after tallying 11 points (3g, 8a) over his first 56 games. He has 7 points (2g, 5a) in 10 games this season, including a 3-assist game at Dartmouth.

CARABIN CARRIES HIS WEIGHT
Assistant captain Nick Carabin stepped into a larger role last season as a junior and delivered with a career-high 11 points (1g, 10a) in 32 games after registering just one assist in 21 games during the 2021-22 season. He has 5 points (1g, 4a) in 10 games this season.

EZMAN IS THE MAN
After tallying 2 points in 22 games as a freshman last season, Jaxson Ezman has started the 23-24 season with 5 points (2g, 3a) in 10 games. He had his first career multi-point game with two assists at RPI on 12/2.

DJ SPINS GOLD
David Jacobs had 15 points (5g, 10a) as a freshman last year over 32 games. He had five different one-goal games, and is looking for his first career multi-goal game. To start this season, Jacobs has 8 points (2g, 7a) including a 3-point game (1g, 2a) against Yale and is No. 9 in the ECAC in assists-per-game (0.70).

FRESH FACES FIND FOOTING IN NET
Princeton's two wins against Yale and Brown each provided the first career win in their first career start for Princeton's two freshmen netminders. Arthur Smith made 24 saves in the 5-4 win over Yale, while Conor Callaghan made 30 saves in a 3-2 win over Brown.

SMITH NAMED ECAC ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Freshman goalie Arthur Smith made 36 saves in a 2-1 (OT) win over No. 10 Cornell on 11/18 to earn ECAC Rookie of the Week honors for the first time in his career. Smith is now 3-2-0 to start his career and is No. 10 among ECAC netminders in GAA (3.04) and save percentage (.899). Among freshmen goalies in the country, Smith ranks No. 8 in save percentage and No. 5 in winning percentage (.600).