November
25, 2004
Fresh Princeton
By
Joe Gladziszewski
In last
week’s ECACHL notebook, Union coach Nate Leaman
said that preparing to face Princeton this season is a difficult
task because of how much the Tigers have changed their style
of play under new coach Guy Gadowsky.
So, exactly what
is Gadowsky trying to accomplish at Princeton?
“We want
to score goals, and we play to do that. We’re going
to give up some chances as a result, but we want to score.
I think the players are having fun with what we’re
doing and responding to how we want to play,” he said.
That certainly
is a change for the Tigers, who have been among the lowest-scoring
teams in the nation over the last two years. Princeton averaged
exactly 2.0 goals per game in the last two seasons, with
62 goals in 31 games each year. The leading individual scorers
were Chris Owen with 23 points in 2002-03 and Grant Goeckner-Zoeller
with 20 points in 2003-04.
As a matter comparison,
Goeckner-Zoeller already has 15 points this year, and the
Tigers are averaging nearly double the scoring output with
34 goals in nine games for an average of 3.8.
Turning the low-scoring
methodical Princeton team into today’s version wasn’t
difficult, according to Gadowsky.
“The players
here are so intelligent. From a coaching standpoint, we
just gave them a blue print and they’ve followed it,”
he said.
Princeton is
riding a two-game winning streak after Saturday’s
3-2 victory over Rensselaer with volunteer assistant coach
Ken Hitchcock in attendance, and Tuesday’s 6-3 win
over Yale.
Princeton’s
scoring chart is led by sophomore forward Grant Goeckner-Zoeller
and junior forward Dustin Sproat who have 15 points each.
Defenseman Luc Paquin also has 15 points with three goals
and 12 assists, with four of those assists coming in Tuesday’s
win over Yale. Patrick Neundorfer centers a line with Goeckner-Zoeller
and Sproat, which is the top line for the Tigers.
Neil Stevenson-Moore
and Sebastian Borza have recently emerged as viable scoring
threats at the forward positions, giving Princeton some
depth up front.
Princeton
has a 4-3-0 record in ECACHL play, and is just one win shy
of matching its total number of league wins from last year.
SEEN
AND HEARD IN THE ECACHL
Vermont
rolling – The Vermont Catamounts own the
longest unbeaten streak in college hockey with a 6-0-3 record
over their last nine games. The Cats rolled past Massachusetts
on Tuesday night, to continue a great run of play that began
with a win and a tie at Minnesota Duluth on Halloween weekend.
Freshman
goaltender Joe Fallon has stepped into the lead role this
year, but last year’s top goalie, Travis Russell,
is no slouch and he stopped 23 shots in the win over UMass.
Coach
Kevin Sneddon was particularly pleased with how his team
responded after a tough pair of ECACHL games against Cornell
and Colgate last weekend.
“It
took a lot out of us this past weekend to play well against
Cornell and come back and beat Colgate, and then really
on not much rest at all and not much game preparation, to
come out tonight and play with that kind of enthusiasm and
that kind of energy it looked like we didn’t even
play on the weekend. I’ve got to give props again
to Paul Goodman (Vermont’s strength and conditioning
coordinator),” Sneddon continued. “He’s
got these guys in incredible shape, and we are able to skate
with anyone in the country. They put the commitment and
time in this summer, and it¹s paying off right now.”
Boston’s
best – When Mark Mazzoleni’s coaching
tenure at Harvard came to an end, one point that was raised
during conversation was that Mazz was a Wisconsin guy and
never became fully acclimated to the Boston hockey scene.
That criticism of Mazzoleni’s Harvard years became
more valid upon Ted Donato’s appointment as head coach.
Donato is a Boston native and Harvard alum and grew up with
a full appreciation of the Boston hockey and Beanpot culture.
It’s not a coincidence that Harvard’s team has
responded to that, with recent non-league wins over then-No.
1 Boston College and Tuesday’s 2-1 win over Boston
University, which is also nationally ranked.
It’s the first time that Harvard has beaten BC and
BU in the same season since 1999. Either BC or BU will get
a chance for revenge on Valentine’s Day in the second
Monday of the Beanpot. Harvard faces Northeastern in the
Beanpot semifinals on Feb. 7.
Home
for the holiday – Many college hockey players
don’t get the chance to spend the Thanksgiving weekend
at home, but count Les Haggett among the lucky ones. Brown’s
senior captain will be with his Bears team at Clarkson and
St. Lawrence this weekend. Haggett’s hometown of Norwood,
N.Y. neighbors Potsdam and is less than a 15-minute drive
from Canton.
FRIES
AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG
|
Great Weekend Getaway |
 |
|
Harvard
at St. Lawrence (Fri.); Harvard at Clarkson (Sat.)
When
Harvard faces St. Lawrence on Friday, it’ll
be a matchup of two teams that have enjoyed more success
outside of the league than in it. Saturday’s
Crimson visit to Cheel is a rematch of last year’s
thrilling ECACHL championship game, which saw Harvard
score the winning goal with 37.3 seconds remaining.
While
You’re There: If you’re into healthy eating,
then disregard this item, but stop by Sergi’s
in Potsdam for their famous pizza rolls – pizza
dough wrapped around a filling of sauce and cheese,
sometimes with pepperoni, and then deep fried.
|
| Stick
Salute |
|
Brown’s game-winning
goal at Minnesota Duluth on Saturday came
with just one-tenth of a second remaining in the third
period. Brown lost a face-off in the Duluth end of
the rink, but Sean Hurley intercepted a clearing pass
and it led to the goal by Jeff Prough. The Bears took
advantage of an opportunity rather than coasting into
overtime.
|
| Bench
Minor |
|
Satellite packages and the
expansion of cable television has led to more college
hockey being broadcast than ever before, but can it
ever be enough? I was surprised to learn that none
of the three Tuesday games featuring ECACHL teams
were televised.
|
•
Of the eight teams participating in the tournaments
hosted by Rensselaer and Providence this weekend,
Union is the only one with a winning record. The Dutchmen
appeared in the INCH Power Rankings this week at No. 18.
•
For more on Vermont, see this week’s
Hockey
East notebook by Nate Ewell, who spoke with Maine’s
Tim Whitehead and Colgate’s Don Vaughan about what
Hockey East can expect when the Catamounts join the league
next season.
•
If you think that Yale’s nine-game losing
streak is bad, and you should, consider that the
Bulldogs lost their final seven games of last year and are
currently mired in a 16-game losing streak.
•
When St. Lawrence hosts Harvard on Friday, the Saints
will return to the ice after a nine-day layoff.
SLU is 0-6-1 in its last seven games immediately following
games against Clarkson.
•
Dartmouth’s Lee Stempniak is among the best
players in college hockey, and he’s been
the key to the Big Green’s success this year. Dartmouth
has won all four games in which Stempniak has scored.
•
Brown freshman goalie Adam D’Alba made 44
saves in his first career start, a 2-1 win over
Minnesota Duluth.
•
Just the facts, ma'am: Union’s Jordan Webb
has 11 goals in 12 games. Not all have come on Friday, however.
If you're confused, feel free to run a Google search on
the old TV cop show 'Dragnet'.
A
variety of sources were utilized in the compilation of this
report.
