November
1, 2007
Fore
and Score For Princeton So Far
By
Joe Gladziszewski
References to golf are a no-no once a college
hockey season begins. If you're on the links, it usually
means your season has ended. Princeton's offense has carried
the Tigers to a great start this season and there's enough
confidence at this point to believe that this might be one
of the longest Princeton seasons in recent years.
ECAC
Hockey Notebook
Cam
MacIntyre had three goals and an assist in Princeton's
first game of the year.
In three games this season, including two
exhibitions against Canadian universities, the Tigers have
scored 16 goals. Most impressively, 14 of those have come
at even strength when there's less time and space to operate.
Princeton scored five goals in the second period of a 6-2
win over Yale last Friday at the Shootout at Ingalls.
Bad luck or not, head coach Guy Gadowsky isn't
shy about using a golf metaphor when talking about his team's
offensive success thus far.
"We're not doing much different than
we did last year, but scoring goals is kind of like putting.
You do the same things and sometimes the putts fall and
sometimes they don't," Gadowsky said.
For the Tigers, the goals are going in and
keeping things simple is the key to success so far. Sophomore
winger Cam MacIntyre has been part of the most productive
line for Princeton, centered by Brett Wilson with Lee Jubinville
on the other wing. They're different types of players, but
what each brings to the combination makes for a productive
unit. MacIntyre is the biggest of the trio, at 6-foot-1
and 220 pounds. He said his job is pretty easy.
"Those two are unreal players, Jubinville
has lots of speed and Wilson sees the ice really well. We
have lots of chemistry and those guys are really easy to
play with," MacIntyre said.
The sophomore winger from British Columbia
recorded his first collegiate hat trick in the win over
Yale and says that Princeton expects to keep its offense
rolling, even with tough tests at Cornell and Colgate this
weekend – teams that are among the best defensive
teams in the league in recent years.
"As a team our philosophy is to attack,
and to drive the net," MacIntyre said. "We think
we can keep it up, getting lots of shots, getting lots of
pucks to the net and driving the net for rebounds. We're
excited to get the league season started off at Cornell."
Princeton has used the same line combinations
through all three games with only minor tweaks. That's a
credit to good health and good chemistry.
"We saw last year that some guys developed
chemistry and we tried a few other things that have worked
so far, and we've observed a synergy among the players,"
Gadowsky said.
The teams that play the best defense and get
the best goaltending are usually the ones that end up playing
well into springtime. Princeton's taking a bit of a different
approach, and if the Tigers keep rolling along and scoring
goals, making putts and tee times will have to wait until
much later in the spring.
SEEN AND HEARD IN ECAC HOCKEY
Under pressure early: Ivy
League travel partners Dartmouth and Harvard certainly aren't
easing into their seasons. Other than a few scrimmages and
intense practices, they're getting right into the regular
season with high-intensity games. The Big Green and Crimson
open up with most people say is the toughest weekend on
the ECAC Hockey schedule, games at defending regular-season
and playoff champions St. Lawrence and Clarkson.
Harvard makes its official debut for the 2007-08
season at Clarkson on Friday at 7 p.m. and follows that
up with a Saturday game at St. Lawrence. The Crimson won
an exhibition game 6-3 over Prince Edward Island in which
five different players scored.
Dartmouth won a home exhibition game against
York, but then impressively defeated Vermont at Gutterson
Field House last weekend. J.T. Wyman had two goals and an
assist playing on a line with Nick Johnson on either side
of freshman center Kyle Reeds.
Great Weekend Getaway
Brown at Rensselaer
(Friday)
It's the first ECAC Hockey home game
of the season for the Engineers and that mean's its
Black Friday. The Engineers are celebrating this event
for the third year in a row, an event that emphasizes
the start of league play in the first semester and
serves as a balance to the annual Big Red Freakout!
Fans are encouraged to wear all black to the game.
While You're There: Bring some bucks
and bid on the game-worn jerseys that are worn exclusively
for this game and are handed out to winning bidders
on the ice immediately following the contest.
Stick
Salute
To college
hockey fans in upstate New York, who have to be thrilled
about this weekend's schedule. From Plattsburgh to
Poughkeepsie and Amherst to Albany, there's a game
being played well within reasonable travel distance.
All three of the New York travel partners in ECAC
Hockey are home for two games each. RIT and Canisius
play a home-and-home series in Atlantic Hockey, and
there are seven Division III games taking place each
night inside of the state line.
Bench
Minor
Sure they've
only played one game, but we'll send the slow starts
by Cornell and Brown to the sin bin. With Cornell
scoring once against RIT and Brown getting blanked
by Yale, those teams rank 57th and 58th in scoring
offense nationally. Only 58 teams are ranked, as Harvard
hasn't played yet.
FRIES AT THE BOTTOM
OF THE BAG
• In games against teams from other
leagues so far this season, ECAC Hockey members are 14-9-0.
Many teams have played non-league games against league members,
and those games are not included in the aforementioned record.
• The Ithaca Journal previewed
Cornell's season last week and provided
an update on injured defenseman Brendon Nash.
• Rensselaer goes into this weekend's
games against Yale and Brown with a four-game winning streak.
In those wins against Army, Sacred Heart, Union, and Colgate,
the Engineers have outscored their opponents 9-3, with two
shutouts by Jordan Alford. In three of those games, the
opponent had more power-play opportunities than RPI, but
the Engineers successfully killed off 18-of-19 power plays
against.
• St. Lawrence is defending a unique
winning streak this weekend. In its home-opening weekend
in league play in each of the last two years, the Saints
have won all four games.
• Yale sophomore goalie Billy Blase
entered last Friday's game against Princeton prior to the
start of the third period and stopped all three shots he
faced in the final 20 minutes. He then got the start on
Saturday against Brown and earned his first shutout, making
18 saves. Blase was given the opportunity to play because
junior goalie Alec Richards missed those games due to injury.
Sophomore forward Sean Backman, the team's leading scorer
last year, also missed those games due to injury.
• Colgate won just one out of four games
against Quinnipiac and Princeton last year. This weekend,
the Raiders celebrate their annual Silver Puck Weekend,
making for a 3 p.m. start time on Saturday.
• Union won its first two home games
of the year and is back at Messa Rink this weekend for games
against Brown and Yale. The Dutchmen are recognizing two
former players this weekend, 1986 alum Scott Richardson
and 1985 alum Steve Baker. Richardson passed away over the
summer and Union is re-naming its Unsung Hero Award in memory
of him. Baker was the first Union player to play in the
NHL and is being inducted into the Union College Athletics
Hall of Fame.
• Cornell's 4-1 loss against RIT at
Blue Cross Arena in Rochester was the first loss in a Big
Red season-opener in seven years.
• Clarkson goalie Tim Potter made his
first collegiate start last week in a 5-1 loss at Lake Superior
State.
• Quinnipiac got a power-play goal in
the third period from David Marshall in a 3-2 win over American
International on Tuesday night. The win snapped a two-game
losing streak for the Bobcats.
A variety of sources were utilized in
the compilation of this report. Joe Gladziszewski can be
reached at gladdy@insidecollegehockey.com.
