Q & A with Princeton's Cam Ritchie

The following question-and-answer feature appeared November 14 on the Princeton men's hockey Web site.

Princeton freshman Cam Ritchie is one of seven freshmen that are contributing game-in and game-out for the Princeton men's hockey team. Ritchie scored the first two goals of his collegiate career in last Saturday's win at Quinnipiac, while being part of a Tiger defense that limited Quinnipiac to just eight shots over the final two periods. Ritchie answers questions about last weekend's games against Quinnipiac, his first few months at Princeton, and what the team is looking to accomplish in the coming weeks.

This Q&A is the fourth of a weekly series that will appear throughout the hockey season and will feature a different player each week.

The team snapped out of a tough stretch with a 4-2 win on Saturday afternoon at Quinnipiac. What do you think was the difference in that game versus the previous two games against Quinnipiac?

At the beginning of the season we outlined team objectives that we would strive to achieve each game. In the first few games of the year we did a good job of achieving those goals and saw success because of it. I feel that as a team we started stray from those objectives and our results reflected that. This resulted in a four-game losing streak. After the first game against Quinnipiac, we talked about refocusing on those objectives. In the game on Wednesday, we showed signs of getting back on the right track, but we needed to produce a 60-minute effort. On Saturday we saw the results of what can be accomplished when we focus on those objectives for a complete 60 minutes.

You got into the offensive side of things on Saturday, scoring two goals. Can you talk about the first one, which gave Princeton its first lead in the win?

As a defensive group we talk about making sure we get as many pucks to the net as possible. By doing this we give our forwards the confidence that if they drive to the net, the pucks will come to them. The goal was just a result of the forwards working hard to get the puck to the point and then working just as hard to get to the net. I just tried to get the puck on the net, the forwards had set up a couple of good screens, and the puck found its way to the back of the net.

Complete Q & A can be accessed via the Princeton Web site by clicking here.