Men's Ice Hockey Closes Out 2024 At Army December 28th

Saturday, December 28

West Point, N.Y.

4:00 PM

Princeton University

Army West Point

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Men's Ice Hockey Closes Out 2024 At Army December 28th

December 23, 2024 | Men's Ice Hockey

Princeton at Army West Point | December 30 | 4 p.m.
Tate Rink
Tickets | Live Stats | F lo Hockey | Game Notes

LOOSE ENDS
The Tigers are 45-19-2 all-time against Army West Point, and are 20-14-2 on the road in the all-time series. The last meeting between the two teams came on January 30, 2024 -- a 4-3 win for the Tigers in overtime at Baker Rink. Princeton never trailed in the game, but found itself in overtime after an Army goal with 5.7 seconds remaining in regulation tied the game. Adam Robbins was the OT hero for the Tigers, scoring with 27.5 seconds left in the extra period. Kevin Anderson, Jack Cronin and Kai Daniells had the other goals for Princeton, while Noah de la Durantaye had two assists. Ethan Pearson made 27 saves in the win.

ALL THE WAY HOME
The Tigers are in the middle of a stretch where they play 11 of 13 games at home between 11/29-1/26 with only a pair of one-game road trips mixed in. The Tigers are 4-0-0 to start that block of games at Baker Rink and are now 4-1-1 at home this season.

WRECKING BALL
Princeton has been very disruptive of late, taking care of business deep in the swamps of Jersey to the tune of a four-game winning streak. That run is Princeton's longest in the regular season since the 2017-18 team won five in a row from 1/13-2/9 during a season which ended in a ECAC championship.

ONE STEP UP
Princeton's performance of late has marked a step up for the Tigers in terms of the Pairwise rankings and overall national notoriety. The Tigers were named "Team Of The Week" by College Hockey News after the sweep of OSU and are up to No. 25 in the Pairwise rankings. Entering this weekend, Princeton has played the No. 14 toughest schedule with its previous opponents boasting a combined win percentage of .564 (59-44-14).

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. 26 in country in faceoff % at .507 (298-290) through four games. Freshman Drew Garzone is 60% on faceoffs this season (78-52) and ranks No. 6 in the country in faceoff win percentage among players to win at least 78 draws. Garzone also ranks No. 2 in the country in overall faceoff percentage among freshmen.

I'M ON FIRE
Brendan Gorman enters the week on a four-game point streak with seven points (3g, 4a) in the stretch to set a new career-long point scoring streak. His 1.1 points-per-game and 0.5 goals-per-game this season rank 4th in the ECAC and 27th in the country. He has two short-handed goals this season, 2nd in the ECAC and 3rd in the country.

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 (98) and is second in assists (36) and points (49). De la Durantaye has two game-winning goals this season to rank No. 4 in the ECAC and No. 22 in the country while also sitting tied for No. 2 in GWGs by a defenseman in the nation.

THE WALL
Arthur Smith was named honorable mention All-Ivy last season in goal as a freshman bolstered by a 5-1-0 record against Ivy opponents with a 2.26 GAA and a .926 save percentage. He earned ECAC Goaltender of the Week honors after stopping 66-of-68 shots in two wins over No. 12 Ohio State -- his second career ECAC Goaltender of the Week honor. He currently ranks No. 3 in the ECAC and No. 12 in the country in save percentage (.932) and is No. 6 in the ECAC and No. 16 in the country in GAA (2.01). He is 4-1-0 overall, leading the ECAC and ranking No. 7 in the country with a .800 winning percentage.

MAN AT THE TOP
Jake Manfre is the man at the top of the Princeton rookie scoring race with 3-3-6 totals through 10 games. After tallying an assist in his first collegiate game against Harvard (11/8) he notched his first career goal in his third career game with a redirection at Yale (11/15) before exploding for 2 PPGs and an assist in a 3-1 win over Ohio State (11/29) and adding an assist against the Buckeyes on 11/30 for a four-point weekend to earn ECAC Rookie of the Week honors and ECAC Rookie of the Month honors for November.

YOUNGSTOWN
Miles Gunty played three seasons with the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL, winning a championship in 2023 and serving as alternate captain during the 2023-24 season. He had a breakout weekend last time out for the Tigers, tallying three assists in the wins over Union and RPI to earn ECAC Rookie of the Week honors.

STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA
The lone Pennsylvania native on the team is Jayden Sison who hails officially from Paoli and played for the Philadelphia Junior Flyers growing up before heading to Mount St. Charles. Sison played 30 games at forward during the 2022-23 season, tallying 8 points (2g, 6a) before injuries to Princeton's back end led to him playing 30 more on defense last season where had had four assists. He has now pivoted back to forward due to injuries up front and had a goal and an assist last game against RPI -- his first goal since scoring against the Engineers on 2/24/23 to snap a streak of 41 games without a goal.