Tigers finish off win

Men’s hockey ends bad trend

By: Justin Feil
   Patrick Neundorfer enjoyed the success he had centering in his first game with his new linemates Darrell Powe and Brandan Kushniruk.
   Quinnipiac wasn’t quite as fond of the combination as the threesome had a hand in four goals in the Princeton University men’s ice hockey team’s 6-3 win Saturday. The Tigers think few teams will be excited to go against the big three.
   "There’s not a line in the ECAC that would like to play against Powe, Dorf’ and Kushniruk," said Princeton head coach Guy Gadowsky. "It’s terrible to play against them. They’re tough. They’re tough and strong. They’re not only physically strong, but mentally tough. They’re not going to give you anything. They’re going to battle. To play against them, it’s not fun."
   The three certainly liked playing together for the first time Saturday. Kushniruk had a pair of goals and an assist while Neundorfer added a goal to help the Tigers come back from a 2-0 deficit and avenge a hard-fought 3-2 loss to Quinnipiac last Tuesday.
   "Brandan had a great game," Neundorfer said. "We just changed the lines up (Saturday) night and they seem to work. Ours generated three (goals). We played well together. We had a lot of energy on the line. Brandan has lot of energy and skill. Darroll is big forward who can create plays in the corner."
   Neundorfer is hoping the change is a change for the best and the start of something good. The win Saturday snapped a six-game losing streak that began after the Tigers jumped out to a 2-1 start this year. With Saturday’s win, Princeton is 3-7 overall, 2-6 in the ECAC going into Friday’s game at Cornell.
   "They’re a tough team," Neundorfer said of Cornell. "(Saturday) night, it was a huge win to break this losing streak. It’s great momentum going into this weekend. Scoring six goals, everyone’s confident and ready to go Friday night against Cornell.
   "We’re still experimenting a little bit," he added. "It’s tough to keep the lines together. It keeps people on their toes. We found some chemistry together last night. We’ll probably stick with that for a while since we scored six goals and played well together. The locker room atmosphere is great. We’re confident and looking forward to this weekend."
   Winning against Quinnipiac reversed a disturbing trend that had seen them lose several of the games in their six-game skid in the third period. Princeton pulled away from Quinnipiac with three goals in the third period Saturday. In just a glance at the four losses that preceded the Quinnipiac win, the exact opposite had happened.
   After tying Rensselaer early in the third period, the Tigers surrendered three goals in a 4-1 loss. Princeton then scored with less than three minutes remaining to force overtime, only to lose, 4-3, to Clarkson in its next game. Princeton was tied with No. 15 St. Lawrence going into the third period before losing 3-2. The Tigers were also tied with Quinnipiac on Tuesday before a goal with 1:06 to play by the Bobcats. Neundorfer then scored the apparent tying goal with 23 seconds left, but the goal was waved off when it was ruled that it never crossed the goal line. Saturday, they got a measure of revenge with a convincing win.
   "In the last five or six games, we’ve gone into the third period tied or within a goal," Neundorfer said. "We realized that and wanted to take advantage and have a great third period. Hopefully we saw how we did that and recognized that for next game. It’s been frustrating. You’re tied going into third period and to fall short. To see what it takes to finish the game and get a couple big goals and win the game is huge for morale and mentality.
   "That (finishing) and minimizing our mistakes is what we’ve worked on," he added. "We’ve played good solid hockey. Games have been close, but haven’t gone our way. We’ve been working on minimizing our mistakes. We don’t want to give the other team room to operate."
   The Tigers have shown plenty of signs of improvement over last year’s 8-20-3 season, Gadowsky’s first at the helm for Princeton. A year ago, the Tigers surrendered 3.9 goals per game. That average is down almost an entire goal per game at 3.0 this season. The offense, which averaged 2.6 goals per game, has been relatively even at 2.5 goals per game so far this year.
   "It’s a goal of ours to maintain our offensive philosophy but to be more consistent defensively," Gadowsky said. "That was our No. 1 on-ice goal. So far they’re doing a good job, as well as our goalies. Offensively, we’ve maintained the same philosophy and we hope the puck will keep going in for us."
   Gadowsky believes that the Tigers could be even stingier on defense if they can clean up their play just a little.
   "We’re not making a lot of mistakes, but we’re making huge mistakes," he said. "The ones we’ve made were very big. We have to concentrate and make sure we’re a lot more solid in those areas. We’re taking a few too many chances to try to do something spectacular. Sometimes when you’re right there, you try to do something to put you over the edge."
   The Tigers, however, don’t need to make the spectacular play as much as they need to rely on collection of players that is much deeper and more talented than last year’s squad that had just three seniors. Neundorfer was a rare junior captain for the Tigers and has continued in that role this season.
   "If you spend 10 minutes around him, you’ll figure out he’s the leader of the team," Gadowsky said. "He does all the things that take courage, that are hard to do. He blocks shots extremely well. He backchecks very well. He does all the hard things well. He has a lot of respect from guys on team. And he has the respect from opponents."
   Even if it isn’t very fun to play against him or his new line. Neundorfer hopes that more and more opponents will find that to be true as the Tigers look to ride the momentum of Saturday’s win into road games at Cornell and Colgate. Neundorfer’s line brought the biggest scoring punch against Quinnipiac but it could be any of the lines this weekend.
   "Another difference is last year we relied on one line," Neundorfer said. "One line was responsible for almost all our points. It’s not the case now. We’re spreading it around."
   Balancing the scoring along with playing tougher defense should put the Tigers in better position to win games. Being in position to win hasn’t been the problem for the Tigers. It’s been finishing off opponents. Saturday’s win, they hope, showed a welcome change with a win.
   "We have to learn how to win those close games," Gadowsky said. "We have a team that hasn’t been used to winning those games in recent years. We have to learn to get over that hump. It’s only one game so we can’t say we’re over it yet, but it’s a start. We were down, 2-0, after two 5-on-3s. They could have throw in the towel. But they fought back hard and give them credit for coming back."