Ex-forwards Faulkner and Carduner excel on defense for PHS
By: Rich Fisher
The exploits of Cranbury’s John Ryan and Peter Teifer are well known when it comes to the Princeton High ice hockey team, which is only natural since Ryan leads the Colonial Valley Conference in scoring and Teifer is third on the Little Tigers in that category.
But while goal scorers earn the headlines, defense earns the victories. And two of the Little Tigers’ top defensemen are Cranbury residents Justin Faulkner and Brad Carduner.
Both are juniors, both began playing as teammates in the East Windsor PAL program at age 6, and both came to PHS as forwards. Now, both are helping prevent goals for a team that stood at 11-2 after Tuesday’s victory over Bridgewater-Raritan.
"They’ve meant a lot to us this year," Princeton coach Paul Merrow said. "With Justin being one of our assistant captains, he’s been solid pretty much all season. He just goes out and takes care of his responsibilities.
"Brad got hurt midway through last season, and that was too bad. If I had him all season long that would have been tremendous. He came back this year and he’s been pretty solid as well."
The two are sometimes paired during shifts, but Merrow usually rotates Faulkner, Carduner, Christian McCracken and one other skater over the course of the game. They are also teamed on the power play, although Carduner is allowed to carry the puck into the attacking zone moreso than Faulkner.
That is reflected in the scoring, as Carduner has three goals and five assists while Faulkner has one goal and one assist.
"Justin’s a good puck carrier, but with his size, I try to get him to be a stay-at-home defenseman," Merrow said. "I like him to keep the front of the net clean."
Which is fine with Faulkner, who tries to play hard, but with finesse.
"I like to play a physical game," he said. "I like to keep it as balanced as possible between playing physical and making the passes, making smart decisions with the puck. I want to improve on the little things that make your game better."
Faulkner actually began his athletic career as an EW PAL soccer player but was recruited to the hockey program at an early age. While there, he played with Carduner, whose father was one of the team’s coaches.
Both players went their separate ways after PAL, but continued to play club hockey for different teams. Faulkner has given up club, but Carduner still plays with the Lawrence Flames.
Faulkner arrived at Princeton as a freshman, and immediately began skating regular shifts. But not as a forward, where he played for, well, forever up to that point.
"We had graduated a lot of defensemen that year," Merrow said. "I was looking for a freshman that I could put back on defense and groom as a defenseman. Justin stepped right up and said ‘I’ll play defense.’
"It wasn’t that thrilling, but once he got a taste of it and knew we were short on defensemen and he would get a lot of playing time, he changed his mind. He’s developed into one of the better defensemen in the county."
Faulkner admitted that the lure of playing time outweighed the glory of goal scoring.
"I was surprised at how much ice time I got that year," he said. "But we had so many forwards that there was a lot of time to go around."
And, also to his further surprise, the adjustment from forward to back-liner was not too difficult.
"It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be," he said. "The big thing is you’re less in the spotlight, you’re kind of in the back stage, keeping everything in order.
"But I didn’t have a problem, I prefer it more now than offense. You’re depended upon to be physical, a lot of times you don’t get acknowledgement for it, but for people who know hockey they acknowledge you for playing defense."
Faulkner felt the biggest adjustment was in his thought process. He suddenly had to think about helping his goalie rather than attacking the other team’s netminder.
"You’re not dependent on having to score a goal, or making a play for someone else to score a goal," Faulkner said. "You’re depended upon to be like the foundation, so the forwards can score. Without defense, you can’t have much of an offense. I just needed to be in that mindset, where I need to be as physical as possible, especially since winning loose pucks in our defensive end is really key."
Faulkner has taken regular shifts for three years. But Carduner, who moved to Cranbury from East Windsor four years ago, came on the scene a little later. He attended Peddie in eighth and ninth grade, but the ice hockey program he hoped would materialize, got stuck in Zamboni limbo.
"They got a new headmaster there when I was there, and he had three sons that all played hockey," Carduner said. "He was saying he was going to get a team going, so when I got there, there were expectations it would happen. But my dad talked to some people and I talked to some people and it never went through. I decided then to go to Princeton."
Carduner showed up at PHS last year and, rather than be asked to move to defensemen, decided to make the move himself.
"I had played forward until I got to Princeton," he said. "But there were just so many bigger kids playing forward, I decided to go out for defense.
"It was tough, just knowing where to be and what to do, because I had played offense all my life. You’re not moving as fast because you’re not trying to get the puck out of the zone to score a goal. You’re more laid back. You’re not skating around as much, so you can stay on the ice longer periods of time."
Carduner admitted it was a risk to try out at a position he had never played, considering he might look bad and not even make the team.
"I did think about that," he said. "But the forwards were so strong, I realized I didn’t have any chance up front. It had to be on defense. Justin was one of the guys I knew there, and he helped me out."
His tryout was impressive enough to make the team, but Carduner suffered a bad break literally in the season’s fifth game.
"I broke my (right) arm against Lawrence and it knocked me out for the rest of the season," he said. "I got to play in the last game of the state tournament when we played Millburn. It made my season just to get back for that game.
"It kind of bummed me out. I hadn’t played for two years in high school, I came to Princeton hoping to play hockey and wanting to play real bad. I had to sit out, but I was at every game."
Carduner said the arm does not bother him at all this season, as he and Faulkner continue to help Princeton to a strong season.
"We’re a lot deeper than in other years," Faulkner said. "We have one line that scores the majority of points, but we can also depend on two other lines. We’re all-around better in every aspect of the game this year."
And in the end, it takes every aspect to make a winner, whether you hear about it or not.

