Little Tiger numbers, experience on the rise
By: Bob Nuse
While his team has played just one game so far this season, Princeton High girls’ ice hockey coach Matt Becan can already tell the type of players he has on his roster.
"The girls have shown a lot of heart and desire," said Becan, whose team scored three goals in the third period to fall just short against Morristown-Beard, 5-4, in their only game of the season. "We played the third period against Morristown-Beard without one of our starters on defense, Katie O’Flaherty, who got hurt and had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher. She’s OK now, but we had to play that period without her.
"The girls really rallied around her and played well and we came back and nearly were able to tie the game."
Other than the game against Morristown-Beard, the only time the Little Tigers have been on the ice for competition was at the Lawrenceville play-day, where they battled Princeton Day School to a scoreless tie and dropped a 3-2 decision to Lawrenceville.
"When we played PDS, they had already had four games and 15 practices," said Becan, who is in his second year as Princeton’s head coach. "It was the same for Lawrenceville. We had only had five practices. But I thought we played pretty well there and we were able to hold our own."
Princeton will not play again until a Jan. 5 game at Holton-Arms in Maryland. Until then, the Little Tigers will use their limited practice time to continue to improve.
"We get on the ice a couple times a week and we also have a couple off-ice practices to work on our endurance," Becan said. "Now that we’re getting to the part of our schedule where we play more games, we’ll probably have one less on-ice practice and an extra game."
In the loss to Mo-Beard, Louise Finnell scored a pair of goals for the Little Tigers, while freshman Vicki Chen added a goal and an assist. Amy Suhovic scored the fourth goal with an assist from Jackie Distler.
Chen is an example of the more experienced players that are coming into the Princeton program. Whereas in the past players have had to learn to play once they came out for the team, these days the players are coming into the program with more and more ice hockey experience.
"Vicki has been playing for a number of teams, so she comes in with a lot of experience," said Becan, who was an assistant at Princeton for four years before taking over as head coach last year. "Our freshman class has grown and we seem to be getting more every year. This year we have 31 players total, which is a few more than last year.
"It seems like the girls that come into the program have more experience because they’re also playing for outside teams. The past two years you can really notice the difference in the level of experience of the players coming in."
Now in his second year as head coach, Becan can also sense his players getting a better feel for the way he’d like to see him play.
"This year the returning players really have an understanding of the way I want them to play," he said. "The older girls on the team have been a big help with that. Last year everyone was still getting used to the way I wanted them to play."
Becan hopes the higher experience level of his players, as well as the better understanding of the way he wants them to play, translates into a solid season.
"They’ve worked hard and as a group they’ve shown a lot of heart," Becan said. "Most of the teams we play have more time on the ice than we do. And they also have players who go to those schools because of the chance to play hockey."
Princeton, which has been the only public school team in the state since it started the program several years ago, has been joined this year by Summit High School. They’ll meet later this season in a game that will be for the public school "state" championship.
"The girls are excited about there being another public school program in the state," Becan said. "They’re looking forward to that game. The sport is really growing right now. More and more girls are playing ice hockey and it’s good to see."
Becan is happy to be a part of it. And he can only see it getting better.