Princeton University Athletics
Robinson Scores, Phinney Stops 41 as Men's Hockey Opens Season
BOX SCORE
TRENTON, N.J. – Junior Colton Phinney stopped 41 shots and sophomore Eric Robinson scored the first goal of the season as the Princeton men’s hockey team fell 3-1 to Yale at the Capital City Classic this evening at the Sun National Bank Center.
The teams were tied for nearly the entire game, after scoring 22 seconds apart in the first period. A goal by Chris Izmirlian with 3:04 remaining pushed Yale into the lead. After Ryan Siiro took a penalty, Princeton pulled Phinney to put the extra skater on the ice, but an unfortunate bounce led to an empty-net goal.
“The biggest positive is that we had a chance to win the game,” Robinson said after the game. “Phinney kept us in the there in the second with some pretty big saves. We definitely had some chances in the third – Ambrosia hit the cross bar. What we can take away is that we definitely had a chance to win it."
Mike Doherty put Yale on the board first as he knocked in his own rebound after getting the puck from Andrew Gaus after he worked the puck off the boards.
The Tigers didn’t take long to even it up, as Ben Foster won a draw in the left circle. The puck was whipped around the boards to the other side where freshman Alex Riche stopped it at the blue line and whipped it towards the goal and Robinson tipped it past Alex Lyon.
A blocked shot was collected by freshman Joe Snively and he skated over the blue line. Senior defender Kevin Liss was able to poke the puck away but Snively regained possession in the corner and centered for Izmirlian.
With 1:45 remaining, Siiro’s check unintentionally turned into a boarding as Gaust turned on the hit. With play in the Yale zone, Phinney skated off with 50 seconds remaining and the extra skater hit the ice. A wrap around the boards ended up in John Hayden’s stick and he sent the puck into the empty net with 25.9 seconds left.
Ron Fogarty called timeout, and kept Phinney on the bench. With a 6x5 advantage, it was the clocked that failed the Tigers, as they didn’t have enough time to get the goals they needed.
“We did a good job in the second to grind it out,” Fogarty said. They had two power-play shots in the grade A-area and they had four 5x5. They started pressuring and we made sure we were underneath and limited the quality scoring chances. We continued that in the third, and had some scoring chances. It’s great that we had opportunities, to make it two. We hit the cross bar, had a couple chances midway through the third. There are a lot of positives from it.”
Lyon made 28 saves for Yale, as the Bulldogs outshot Princeton 44-29.
Princeton will face Maine in tomorrow's consolation game at 4:30 p.m. UMass defeated Maine 5-4 in overtime in the day's first game.