October
28, 2004
Fresh Start at Princeton
By
Joe Gladziszewski
The
game won’t be remembered by many people at the end
of the year, but a 9-2 exhibition game victory over Windsor
was an important way for Princeton to start its season in
a couple of different ways.
Most
importantly, the nine goal output was long overdue. Princeton’s
struggles over the past two years have resulted from an
inability to produce offense. It usually took the Tigers
three weeks to score nine goals, not three periods.
Secondly,
it was a chance for new head coach Guy Gadowsky to get a
good look at his team in a competitive situation. He was
thrilled to see their reaction to each and every goal.
“It
was nice to see. Wonderful to see the emotion they showed
and the fun they had doing it. It was fun for me too,”
Gadowsky said.
Grant
Goeckner-Zoeller, the Tigers’ leading returning scorer,
scored twice in the game.
Gadowsky
has been awed by his surroundings at Princeton and his players’
rate of learning.
“The
biggest thing is that they are so intelligent,” Gadowsky
said. “They pick things up so quickly. I expected
them to be intelligent, but it’s incredible how quickly
they get things down.”
There’s
a lot of education going on these days at Princeton, as
the coaches are learning as much as they can about their
players and their team. This weekend’s series against
St. Cloud State and Alabama-Huntsville will be an opportunity
to do that.
“It’s
another chance for us to evaluate. St. Cloud State is a
tough opponent from the WCHA and we’ll get to see
how some of our guys will flourish against a tougher, tighter-checking
opponent and how gritty we can be,” Gadowsky said.
SEEN
AND HEARD IN THE ECACHL
Getting
Freaky – For years, the Big Red Freakout
has been a staple of the second-half schedule for the Rensselaer
Engineers at Houston Field House. Last year marked the beginning
of a new tradition, which met its goal of giving the RPI
hockey community something to get excited about at the beginning
of the year.
The
resulting concept was “Black Friday” which takes
place during RPI’s first ECACHL home game every year.
The team wears special one-game only black sweaters and
that’s slated for Nov. 5 in Troy. A special part of
this year’s Black Friday will be the induction of
Adam Oates into the RPI Athletics Hall of Fame and the initiation
of the men’s hockey program’s Ring of Honor.
Turning
our attention toward the current Engineer players, junior
forward Kirk MacDonald has been the early surprise for Rensselaer.
He scored the game-winning goal in each of last week’s
wins over Northeastern and Army. MacDonald shares the team
lead in scoring with Kevin Croxton. Each player has nine
points through five games, and Rensselaer is off to a 3-1-1
start with two more non-conference games this weekend against
UMass-Lowell and Mercyhurst.
Voice
of the People – The league’s coaches
and media turned in their votes for the pre-season poll
with the coaches selecting Cornell for the top spot and
the media picking Dartmouth. That was more than a month
ago and the ECACHL office invited fans to do the same before
the start of league play, an appropriate gesture during
this presidential election year.
Like
the coaches and media, the fans also have big expectations
for Cornell and Dartmouth. Among 32 voters in the men’s
poll, Cornell earned 15 first place votes and Dartmouth
earned 14. The Big Red edged Dartmouth overall for the top
spot.
FRIES
AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG
|
Great Weekend Getaway |
 |
| Harvard
at Brown (Fri.):
The
first conference game of the year will be played tonight
at Meehan Auditorium and it’s got several intriguing
storylines. It’s our first good luck at Harvard
under first-year coach Ted Donato and the debut performance
of the Brown Bears without Yann Danis between the
pipes.
While you're there: It’s not every day that
you get to see the elite collegiate water polo teams
from the Northeast splash against each other. Brown’s
hosting the men’s Northern Division Championships
all day Saturday at the Smith Swim Center on campus. |
| Stick
Salute |
The
St. Lawrence Saints, unheralded at
the beginning of the year, knocked off another elite
program this past weekend with a 1-0 win at Maine.
The Saints also beat Michigan State on the road this
year, and despite a 2-3-1 overall record, St. Lawrence
has earned a reputation for being a team that’s
tough to play against. They meet another challenge
this weekend against Miami.
|
| Bench
Minor |
| It’s
only a short trip from St. Lawrence to Clarkson and
unlike their travel partners down the road, Clarkson’s
Golden Knights have started the season very
slowly. Clarkson has one win and three losses, and
after taking last weekend off, the Knights host Niagara
for a pair of games this weekend. |
•
While Harvard and Brown
start the slate of league games this weekend (see the Getaway),
for most teams it’s another chance to test themselves
versus non-league opponents and no team has it tougher than
Vermont. The Catamounts travel to Minnesota-Duluth,
the number one team in the INCH Power Rankings.
•
Cornell freshman forward Topher Scott began
his Big Red career with a pair of goals in an exhibition
win over McGill. His goals were supplemented by tallies
from captain Mike Knoepfli and Cam Abbott. The Big Red allowed
only 10 shots on goal in the game, and faces Army and Sacred
Heart this weekend at Lynah Rink.
•
Hugh Jessiman also started his season quickly as he factored
in all three of Dartmouth’s goals
with two assists and an insurance tally to seal a 3-1 win
over Western Ontario.
•
Dartmouth hosts future ECACHL member Quinnipiac
on Saturday and the game will be televised by NESN and CSTV.
•
Earlier, we mentioned Princeton’s
nine-goal output against Windsor College. The following
night saw Harvard face the same team and
only manage two goals, despite outshooting Windsor 47-8.
•
Union’s 1-0 loss to Bowling Green
on Saturday was the fourth straight defeat for the Dutchmen
this year, but it was noteworthy because it was the debut
of highly-touted freshman goalie Justin Mrazek. He made
29 saves and allowed just one power-play goal against.
A
variety of sources were utilized in the compilation of this
report.
