Team Notes: Princeton Closes Regular Season at Rensselaer and Union
PRINCETON - The Princeton men's hockey team enters the final weekend of 2010-11 ECAC Hockey regular season still in contention for a first round bye in the league playoffs. Princeton currently sits two points out of third place in the league standings entering its final league series of the season at Rensselaer and Union.
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 22 points and sits four points behind third-place Dartmouth and Cornell. Fifth-place Rensselaer sits in between with 21 points. Princeton can finish no worse than sixth, assuring a finish in the top half of the league standings for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
Princeton split its regular-season home finale last weekend against Brown and Yale. Kevin Lohry and Taylor Fedun each scored twice to lead Princeton to a 7-3 win over Brown last Friday night. Princeton scored three first period goals and never looked back as it completed a sweep of league games against Brown this season. Matt Arhontas and Andrew Ammon also had multiple points in the win. Two days later, Yale rallied from deficits of 3-0 and 4-3 to win a wild game on Sunday afternoon in front of a national television audience on ESPNU. Rob Kleebaum scored three goals in the loss whileMike Kramer netted his team-leading 13th goal of the season.
A total of 14 Tigers recorded points in the weekend split with seven posting points in both games. Kleebaum led all players with four goals over the two games and now has six goals in the last four games. Arhontas, Kramer, Andrew Calof and Kevin Lohry all had three points over the weekend. Kramer's three points continued his recent scoring streak. He now has five goals and five assists for 10 points in the last six games. Going back further he has nine goals and six assists for 15 points in Princeton's last 10 games.
Princeton closes the regular season this weekend against a pair of teams currently ahead of it in the standings. It starts Friday night at RPI in what is effectively an elimination game for Princeton. A loss on Friday would relegate Princeton to either a fifth or sixth place league finish and take the Tigers out of contention for a first-round bye as Princeton would trail Rensselaer by three points in the standings, and trail Dartmouth and Cornell by at least two. Princeton loses any tiebreakers with Dartmouth, while the tiebreaker with Cornell could go either way depending on what teams finish in the top four spots.
Princeton is 28-63-9 all-time against Rensselaer and sports a 15-35-5 record in the series on the road. RPI took the first meeting of this season 5-2 at Baker Rink early this month, converting on three power plays and scoring on a penalty shot. Taylor Fedun and Derrick Pallis scored in this year's home loss. Princeton has won the last three games in the series at Rensselaer, outscoring the Engineers 15-1 in the last three games at the Houston Field House. Conversely RPI has won the last three games in the series at Princeton, outscoring the Tigers 13-5 in the span.
RPI is currently 19-9-4 overall and 11-8-1 in ECAC Hockey. The Engineers are ranked 14th in the polls and currently sit one point ahead of Princeton in the league standings, also in the hunt for a top-four finish. RPI snapped a three-game losing streak with a 5-1 win at Clarkson last Saturday. The Engineers were 6-0-1 in the seven games prior to the brief skid.
Princeton concludes the regular season on Saturday night at Union. With a win on Friday, Princeton would still be in the hunt for a top-four finish, while Union enters the weekend a point ahead of Yale atop the league standings and will be in the hunt for winning the ECAC regular season title. Princeton holds a 22-21-4 all-time record against Union but trails 6-11-3 in the series at Union. Union has won it last three against Princeton, including a 7-4 win at Baker Rink earlier this month. The teams split the previous six meetings prior to Union's current streak. Union is currently 24-7-3 overall and 16-3-1 in ECAC Hockey. The Dutchmen are currently in first place in the league standings, a point ahead of Yale. Union enters the weekend on a nine-game win streak and swept Clarkson and St. Lawrence last weekend.
Regardless of Princeton's finish in the final league rundown, Princeton will start the ECAC postseason at home in March. If Princeton's finishes third or fourth, the Tigers will get a first-round bye and host a quarterfinal series March 11-13. Should the Tigers finish fifth or sixth, they will host a first-round series at Baker Rink March 4-6. Tickets for either series will be available beginning on Tuesday, March 1.
