Men's Hockey Back On Road For Colgate/Cornell Trip

Friday, November 22

Hamilton, N.Y.

7:00 PM

Princeton University

Colgate

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Photo by: Brian Foley

Men's Hockey Back On Road For Colgate/Cornell Trip

November 19, 2024 | Men's Ice Hockey

Princeton at Colgate | November 22 | 7 p.m.
Class of 1965 Arena
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Princeton at No. 7 Cornell | November 23 | 7 p.m.
Lynah Rink
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LOOSE ENDS
Princeton is 48-66-11 all-time against Colgate and 16-33-5 in Hamilton dating back to a series which started in 1935 with a10-2 Princeton win in New Jersey on December 18. The Tigers will be looking to snap an 0-8-3 skid against the Raiders and pick up their first win over Colgate since a 4-3 (OT) win in Game 2 of the 2017 ECAC First Round. Princeton's last regular season win over Colgate was a 4-2 win in Hamilton on February 8, 2013 -- 19 regular season games ago. Looking ahead to Saturday, Princeton is 55-99-8 all-time against Cornell and is 17-53-2 in Ithaca. The two teams split the series last year, including a 2-1 (OT) Princeton win at Hobey Baker Rink before Cornell scored a 6-2 win at Lynah.

GLORY DAYS
The Tigers have won the ECAC Championship three times, doing so in 1998, 2008 and 2018. Princeton's four Ivy League championships came in 1941, 1953, 1999 and 2008. The Tigers have played in four NCAA Tournaments, reaching the national tournament in 1998, 2008, 2009, 2018.

LONG WALK HOME
Saturday night at Lynah Rink will be a short walk home from the bus for Ben Syer, but it will be a long walk to the visitor's bench as head coach of the Tigers following a 13-year stint as an assistant with the Big Red. Syer's 13 seasons at Cornell included seven Ivy League championships, three ECAC regular season titles and one ECAC Championships postseason title which came this past March. Overall, he was part of a Big Red program that qualified for seven NCAA Tournaments and reached four Regional Finals.

HUNGRY HEART
The Tigers laid down their money and played their part on the power play last season, leading the ECAC and ranking No. 4 in the country going 25-for-90 to the tune of a 27.8% conversion rate. Princeton returns 64% of its power play scoring from last year, including Kai Daniells who had five PPGs as a freshman. Jack Cronin has 10 career power-play goals entering his senior season, with 10 of his 25 career goals (40%) coming on the man advantage. After going 1-for-7 on the PP in the first weekend, Princeton was 2-for-5 last weekend and enter this week ranked No. 9 in the country (25.0%; 3-for-12).

LUCKY TOWN
Princeton played nine overtime games out of its 30 contests last season, posting a 5-0-4 record in games going more than 60:00 to lose the blues they found along the way. No team in the country played as many overtime games without suffering a loss in them as Princeton did. The five OT wins in a season set a new program record and were one off the ECAC record held by Colgate (2008-09) and Cornell (1985-86). Naturally, the Tigers went to overtime in the opener and had that run of OT appearances without a loss snapped by Harvard. So far this season, Princeton is 0-1-1 in OT games with a loss to Harvard and tie (shootout loss) at Brown.

HUMAN TOUCH
Princeton has had the first human to touch the puck on face-offs at a good clip to start the season, ranking No. 9 in country in faceoff % at .545 (122-102) through four games. Freshman Drew Garzone is 66% on faceoffs this season (35-18) and ranks No. 4 in the country in faceoff win percentage among players to win at least 35 draws.

I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS
In terms of games that live on in the dreams of Princeton fans, the Tigers have 57 wins over ranked opponents all-time dating back to its first – a 3-2 win over No. 1 Boston University on December 30, 1997. The most recent win over a ranked opponent was a 2-1 (OT) win over No. 10 Cornell at Hobey Baker Rink on November 18, 2023.

NO SURRENDER
There was no retreat from senior defenseman Noah de la Durantaye last season as he had career highs in points (18) and assists (15) while his three goals were one away from his career high. He is Princeton's active leader in games played (92) and assists (35) and second in points (46).

JACOB'S LADDER
David Jacobs had 15 points (5g, 10a) as a freshman in 2022-23 over 32 games before climbing the points ladder last year and becoming almost a point-per-game player with 24 points in 30 games last season as a sophomore. He already has three points (3a) in four games this season.

JACK OF ALL TRADES
Jack Cronin was on pace to well-surpass his single-season bests last season before missing four games with injury. Still, he did set a career high in points (19) and assists (8) while his 11 goals were one off his career high.

MY FATHER'S HOUSE
Junior Brendan Gorman has taken to Baker Rink and had more success on-ice in the former home of his father (Sean, Class of 1991) as well as older brother Liam (Class of 2023). Here's the family scoring race entering the season.
1. Brendan Gorman --
47 pts. (14g, 33a) in 63 games
2. Liam Gorman -- 36 pts. (16g, 20a) in 91 games
3. Sean Gorman -- 23 pts (5g, 18a) in 99 games

THE 'E' STREET SHUFFLE
There were some sparks flying in E's crease as Ethan Pearson made 50 saves and allowed just two goals in a 1-0-1 weekend at Yale and Brown to earn ECAC Goaltender of the Week honors. Pearson is 1-1-1 overall this season and boasts a 1.90 GAA (#2 in ECAC and #17 in NCAA) and .929 save% (#2 in ECAC and #18 in NCAA).

WAITING ON A SUNNY DAY
Princeton fans have been waiting on the return of David Ma since the end of the 2022-23 season and he returns to the defensive corps for his junior season after missing all of last season as he dealt with an injury that had limited him to just 35 games over his first two seasons. He had 7 points (2g, 5a) in 18 games in 21-22 before adding 4 assists in 17 games in 22-23. A puck-moving defenseman, Ma won a Clark Cup with the Chicago Steel in 2021 and played for Team USA at the 2019 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup. He has three points (1g, 2a) in four games this season -- scoring at Brown (11/16) for his first goal in 1,099 days dating back to 11/13/21 at LIU.

THE RISING
Already through four games this season, Nick Marciano's career high in points has started rising. He has three points (1g, 2a) in four games after posting four total points over his first 48 games.

MAN AT THE TOP
Jake Manfre is the man at the top of the Princeton rookie scoring race with 1-1-2 totals through four games. After tallying an assist in his first collegiate game against Harvard (11/8) and notched his first career goal in his third career game with a redirection at Yale (11/150.