PULLING RANK: Princeton University men’s hockey player Kyle Rankin goes after the puck in recent action. Last weekend, junior forward Rankin came up big in a two-game set against visiting Michigan State. On Friday, he had an assist in Princeton’s 3-1 win over the Spartans. A day later, he contributed a goal as the Tigers fought back from a 3-0 deficit before falling 4-2. Princeton, now 2-7-1 overall, hosts Harvard on December 5 and Dartmouth on December 6. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

After being sidelined over the previous two weekends, Kyle Rankin returned  to the ice with a bang for the Princeton University men’s hockey team as it hosted Michigan State last Friday in the opener of a two-game set.

The junior forward assisted on a second period goal by Jonathan Liau, getting the Tigers rolling as they pulled away to 3-1 win over the Spartans. David Hallisey and Ben Foster also tallied as Princeton snapped a five-game losing streak.

A day later in the finale of the set with the Spartans, Rankin tallied a third period goal as the Tigers fought back from a 3-0 deficit to make it a 3-2 contest before falling 4-2 and dropping to 2-7-1 overall.

With Princeton having been outscored 16-2 in the two previous weekends, including being held without a goal by both St. Lawrence and Clarkson coming into the games against Michigan State, Rankin viewed the performance against the Spartans as major progress.

“Looking at the product we put out this weekend, for at least five periods of hockey, I am really excited,” said Rankin, a 6’1, 200-pound native of Kanata, Ontario.

“It is definitely a step in the right direction. I think we are in a good position going back into ECAC play because we are a completely different team than we were last weekend.”

Finding the back of the net made a huge difference for Princeton. “The big thing is scoring goals, we are working on that and a lot of guys are putting in time at practice, working on finishing off plays,” said Rankin

“We are seeing it coming. We had five goals this weekend and we had two in about eight minutes here in the third. It is starting to come. Once you get one, it starts to roll a little. I think that is big because Colton Phinney between the pipes gives us a chance to win every single night. It is up to us to capitalize on our opportunities and get our power play going when we get chances. That will be big going forward.”

While Rankin was happy with Princeton’s improved play, he acknowledged that the Tigers should not have dug the 3-0 hole against Michigan State.

“We strayed away from the things that we need to do to be successful,” added Rankin.

“We were going outside our system and looking for a couple of Hail Mary passes, that it is not the way we play. We are a puck support team and we work as a unit and I think a couple of times we strayed from that. That being said, we responded really nicely in the third and started playing the hockey that is going to be our identity going forward.”

Rankin got things going in the third as he tallied just over a minute into the period.

“That was my linemates; Jonathan Liau just flew down the wing there and fought off two guys down low and Mike Ambrosia did a great job supporting him,” said Rankin, who now has three points this season on a goal and two assists.

“Mike made an unbelievable pass on the stick to me and I was just in the right place in the right time and I was able to tap it in.”

Playing on the same line with classmate Ambrosia has sparked Rankin.

“I love playing with Mike, we were playing a lot together at preseason and unfortunately he had his injury,” said Rankin.

“It is great to have him back. It has been fun playing with Mike this weekend. We created a lot of offense and, at the same time, it is just the beginning.”

Princeton head coach Ron Fogarty had fun watching the Tigers show some punch over the weekend.

“We are getting a little depth back and we are scoring more,” said Fogarty, who also got a goal from Ryan Siiro in the loss on Saturday.

“We put up five goals in two games. When we stay with the program and move away from bad habits, we are going to give ourselves opportunities to win game in, game out.”

While Princeton didn’t win on Saturday, Fogarty was heartened by the team’s third period rally.

“We wanted to make a story, we just fell a chapter short,” said Fogarty. “We stayed with it in the third period, we stayed with how we can play hockey. We wanted to get one goal by the 10-minute mark so we are ahead of schedule at that point. You want to throw pucks at the net and crash the net and that occurred with both of our goals.”

Fogarty acknowledged that his team can’t afford lapses. “It is very valuable experience but we dug ourselves a hole in the second period for straying from what is going to make us successful,” said Fogarty.

“We said don’t try to create shortcuts, stay strong on our sticks and stay strong with what is getting us better. You start to stray from that and then our whole foundation is going to deteriorate. We stuck with it, especially in the third period. We gave ourselves a chance to tie the game up.”

In Fogarty’s view, Princeton has the chance to do some good things going forward.

“It is not fun losing, I am not happy with it but I thoroughly enjoy coaching these 28 guys,” said Fogarty, who will look for more progress this weekend when Princeton hosts Harvard on December 5 and Dartmouth on December 6.

“I see positive results here into December and throughout the rest of the season.”

Rankin, for his part, believes that the players are buying into Fogarty’s approach and see it as a recipe for success.

“It certainly takes time with a new coaching staff but, that being said, they have been, from a player’s standpoint, everything we could want them to be,” said Rankin.

“They have been very, very successful in conveying their message to us. They are patient with the players. They know we have a lot of freshmen and that we have had some injuries. They haven’t strayed from the process. We are lucky to have them as a staff and I look forward to what we can do under Ron, Dex [Ron Dexter] and Stavs [Stavros Paskaris].”