Hockey can’t hold early lead vs. Hopewell
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Tim Campbell knows there are growing pains that come with coaching a young team.
”When we play well, we play really well,” said the Princeton High School boys ice hockey coach. “We just have a hard time being consistent. We get ourselves in a bind when we get a win and we think it is going to be easy after that.
”We’re the type of team that has to work hard for every win we get. We need to find a way around the mental challenge of convincing ourselves that things are not going to come easy. That is the opposite of the reality of the situation.”
Campbell saw just that happen to his team on Monday night in a 5-2 loss to Hopewell Valley. The Little Tigers scored first less than one minute into the game, but then saw the Bulldogs score four unanswered goals for a 4-1 lead.
”It was a fluke goal to start the game, but that’s what happens when you put the puck on the net,” Campbell said. “That is our entire mentality, but we didn’t do that enough. After we got that goal early I think we thought they were just going to roll over, which obviously they did not. We gave up four straight after that.”
John Reid scored less than a minute into the game for an early Princeton lead. But by the time Mike Wasson scored just seconds before the end of the first period, the Little Tigers were in a hole.
”We flat-out got outworked and that is all there is to it,” said Campbell, whose team slipped to 7-4-2 with the loss. “Whatever deficiencies Hopewell has they made up for with hard work and determination. They beat us to the puck all over the ice. They outshot us and they outworked us. We took some bad penalties and shot ourselves in the foot.
”Early on we thought the goals would keep coming and that is the worst mentality you can have.”
Princeton is currently in second place in the Colonial Valley Conference’s Valley Division. Notre Dame, which is unbeaten in league play, leads the division with Princeton battling West Windsor-Plainsboro South for second.
”The Valley is pretty even and tight,” said Campbell, whose team faces Nottingham today at 3 p.m. at Mercer County Park. “We’re still in it. We put ourselves in a situation where we have some must-win games coming up.
”We’re still young. We only have three seniors. The core of our team is sophomores and we have some freshmen who are playing well.”
The loss to Hopewell was the first time this season the Little Tigers had lost by more than two goals. They were coming off a 4-0 win over Jefferson in which Matt DiTosto had a goal and two assists to back the shutout goaltending of Josh Berger.