Tigers come to Hamden for Sunday matinee

Tigers come to Hamden for Sunday matinee

By Mark Spillane, QBSN Staff Writer

The Princeton Tigers will make a trip to Hamden to face the Quinnipiac Bobcats in an ECAC men’s ice hockey showdown Sunday at noon. This is the second of two meetings between the two teams this season; the last game resulted in a 5-2 Quinnipiac victory at Hobey Baker Rink in Princeton, NJ.

The Bobcats will be coming off of their Friday night game against Sacred Heart, while the Tigers will be coming off a Saturday contest against Harvard. The Bobcats enter the game with a 10-6-3 record after a strong performance Friday night against Sacred Heart, while the Tigers come into the weekend with a record of 4-7-2, before their Saturday night tilt against Harvard.

Quinnipiac will be looking to defend its home ice yet again, and improve their standing within the ECAC conference, where they sat tied with Princeton and Dartmouth at seven points entering this weekend. This game kicks off a season-ending stretch of 13 consecutive ECAC battles for the Bobcats, so Quinnipiac knows that it still has time to move up the standings board, but that push must start with a strong performance against Princeton.

For the Tigers, this game is the first of 15 remaining, including twelve in conference-play. Like the Bobcats, the Tigers have a lot of opportunities to climb up the standings and they also know that this game provides a large opportunity to start that rise.

Key For the Tigers:

Keep the momentum going and ride the hot stick of sophomore Jack Berger. This Tigers team has played very well of late, going 2-0-1 over the last three games entering this weekend, including a come from behind tie against No. 9 Union last Saturday. In all three contests, the Tigers found themselves down early, surrendering the first goal in each game, but each time they rebounded for a tie or a victory. In the game against Union, the Tigers scored three third period goals, including two from Berger, to tie the Dutchmen. Over those three games, he has scored four goals and assisted on another, and has clearly been fuelling the Tigers offensive attack.

Key for The Bobcats:

Continue to spread the puck around. In order to take the lead, the Bobcats need to keep using everybody that is available. In the last four games, eleven different Bobcats have scored a goal, a sign that everybody is contributing to the Quinnipiac’s success. The Bobcats also need to avoid complacency against the Tigers. Clearly, this Princeton team has had a propensity for comebacks lately, meaning that no lead is safe no matter how late in the game. This means that if Quinnipiac gains the lead it must not lose its intensity and need to keep its focus or it could be the next victim to the Tigers recent come from behind success.

Last Meeting:

The last time these two teams met was Nov. 1 at Princeton, with the Bobcats winning 5-2. Quinnipiac jumped out to a 3-0 lead before taking a 3-1 lead in the third period. Midway through the third period, the Bobcats extended their lead to 4-1 before the Tigers responded just a minute later to cut the gap to 4-2. However, the Tigers’ efforts were not enough, and the Bobcats scored an empty netter with 24 seconds to play to solidify the 5-2 victory. Quinnipiac’s five goals came from five different players, as senior goalie Dan Clarke (Belleville, Ontario) stopped 25 of 27 shots to get the win.