Team Notes: Princeton Hosts Brown and Yale in Final Home Regular-Season Weekend
PRINCETON - The Princeton men's hockey team looks to snap its season long four-game winless streak and solidify its place in the ECAC Hockey standings this weekend at Hobey Baker Rink against ECAC and Ivy League rivals Brown and Yale. The series also marks the final home-ice regular-season weekend for Princeton's eight-member senior class.
Princeton remains in the hunt for a top-four ECAC Hockey finish and can finish as high as third in the final league standings. Princeton is currently in sixth place with 20 points and sits four points behind third-place Dartmouth. Cornell and Rensselaer sit in between the two with 22 and 21 points respectively. Princeton holds a three-point edge on seventh-place Clarkson in the standings a seven-point edge on ninth-place Brown, although the Bears still hold a game in hand. Any combination of four points in the final four games will clinch home ice for Princeton regardless of what any other teams do with their remaining schedules.
Princeton earned a point last weekend with a tie at Harvard as Mike Kramer and Rob Kleebaum each scored twice. Princeton had leads of 1-0, 3-2 and 4-3 in the game, but could never pull ahead by more than a goal and Harvard came back to draw even at the finish. A day later Princeton fell at 17th-ranked Dartmouth 4-1 as Kramer tallied the lone Princeton goal on a deflection. Kramer scored three of Princeton's five goals on the weekend and now has scored eight goals in his last eight games. He has 12 total points in the eight-game span.
Princeton hosts Brown and Yale this weekend in its regular season home finale. The games represent the final home regular season games for the eight memers of Princeton senior class of 2011. The class is currently the second winningest class in Princeton hockey history and needs one more win to equal the Class of 2010 with 70 wins over the past four years. The group has been a part of two of Princeton's three 20-win seasons, has earned home ice in the playoffs in its first three seasons and has played in the NCAA tournament on two occasions. The group played an important role in Princeton's run to the ECAC Championship as freshmen and also made an ECAC final four appearance in its sophomore year as it helped Princeton claim an at-large berth to the 2009 NCAA tournament.
Princeton begins the weekend on Friday night against Brown. The Tigers are 63-80-7 all-time against Brown and hold a 30-34-4 record in the series at home. Princeton and Brown have traded a pair of one-goal games this season. The teams met in the Ivy showcase in last November in a game that was won by Brown 2-1, while Princeton took the league game between the two in Providence a week later by a 4-3 score. Matt Arhontas had three of Princeton's five goals over the two games and Andrew Calof had a hand in four of the five goals.
Brown is currently 8-12-4 overall and 6-10-1 in ECAC Hockey. The Bears currently sit ninth in the ECAC standings and enter the final two weekends looking to move up into a middle four spot to earn a first round home ice playoff series. Brown snapped a five-game losing skid in its last outing on Saturday with a 5-1 win at St. Lawrence. Brown had managed just four goals in the previous five games. Brown has other wins this season over Yale, Cornell and Boston University.
Princeton wraps up the weekend on Sunday as the Tigers host Yale in a nationally televised game on ESPNU. The Tigers hold a 102-125-9 all-time record against Yale and lead 47-41-4 in the series at home. Yale defeated Princeton 5-3 in the league opener for both teams in early November and has now won four-straight in the series. Arhontas, Calof and Michael Sdao scored in the loss for Princeton.
Yale is currently 20-5-0 overall and 14-4-0 in ECAC Hockey. The Bulldogs are currently ranked third in both national polls and are second in the ECAC behind Union. Yale started the season 15-1, but enters the weekend with a 5-4 record in its last nine games. Last weekend Yale split in the North Country, falling at St. Lawrence.
Princeton completes the regular season next weekend on the road at Rensselaer and Union.
