December 21, 2009

Princeton Top Male Athletes of the Decade: No. 6 Zane Kalemba

The following article appeared December 21 on the Princeton Web site.

 

If any one athlete earned a spot among the Top 10 of the decade with one performance, it was men's hockey goalie Zane Kalemba. Of course, his spot is about way more than one March night in Albany.

Kalemba was the Ivy League and ECAC Player of the Year a year ago as a junior, when he set Princeton single-season records for wins (22), goals-against (1.82) and save percentage (.932) while allowing two goals or less in 25 of 34 appearances and putting together a record of 22-10-1. He was also a Hobey Baker Award finalist, the second in school history, and he led Princeton to the ECAC Final Four, a second-straight NCAA tournament berth and the national Top 10.

Kalemba started 19 games as a freshman and then exploded as a sophomore, starting 30 games with a 19-11 record and a 2.38 goals-against average with five shutouts. Of his five shutouts, three came in the ECAC playoffs, none more impressively than his 27-save performance in a 3-0 win over Colgate in the semifinals in Albany. His 27 saves included several miraculous ones, which helped keep the game scoreless until the Tigers scored three times in the third period.

Princeton defeated Harvard in the final to earn its first NCAA tournament bid in 10 years, and Kalemba was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.