Starting its final weekend before a 17-day exam hiatus, the Princeton University men’s hockey team came out fighting as it hosted defending national champion Union last Friday.

Princeton battled the Dutchmen tooth-and-nail as the ECAC Hockey rivals played to a scoreless stalemate in the first period.

“We were playing hard, our kind of hockey, 5-on-5 down low, two-man attack, getting shots, throwing everything we can to the net,” said Princeton senior forward Tucker Brockett.

“I think we came out strong and played well in our defensive zone, our first period was solid.”

But things went downhill in the second period as Union scored two unanswered goals.

Brockett acknowledged that he was partially at fault for the Tigers’ woes in the period.

“We started getting penalties,” said Brockett. “I was the leader of that, I got three penalties. It is just unacceptable. You put a team on the power play seven times in the first two periods, you are not going to win the game.”

After Union increased its lead to 4-0 with 13:53 left in the third period, Princeton showed more fight as it scored two straight goals to cut the Dutchmen lead in half.

“We are treating every game like it is our last now,” said Brockett. “We are never going to be out of the fight. We showed that putting two quick goals in, they ended up getting another one. I think it is something to build on for tomorrow.”

Brockett notched the second Tiger goal midway through the period, fighting hard in the crease to convert a feed from Aaron Ave.

“They made a mistake, they didn’t get it out of the zone,” recalled Brockett.

“Aaron Ave was coming in and he looked like he was going to shoot it. There was just one defenseman between me and him so I just sagged off a little bit to the side. He shot for my stick and I tipped it in.”

It was the first goal for Brockett in 41 games and he was happy to get back in the book.

“I got the monkey off my back finally,” said Brockett, a 5’8, 165-pound native of Shaker Heights, Ohio who now has 17 points in his Princeton career on three goals and 14 assists.

“It doesn’t matter who scores, we have to put more goals in. At the end of the day, we need to score one more goal than the other team.”

In assessing his role on the Tigers, Brockett focuses on intensity rather than statistics.

“It is just energy, trying to get the guys going,” said Brockett. “It doesn’t matter if it is scoring goals, killing penalties, or blocking shots, just anything we can do to win games.”

Princeton head coach Ron Fogarty liked the way his team got things going in the game against Union. “We started well; we were being smart,” said Fogarty.

The Tigers, though, didn’t keep it up as they suffered some critical lapses.

“We were mentally soft, they had two easy goals, right in the slot,” said Fogarty.

“Our guys didn’t pick up, there was a lot of circling and no sense of urgency from a handful of players tonight.”

While Fogarty liked the urgency Brockett displayed in finding the back of the net, he noted that some of his energy was misguided.

“He is a little banged up but it is good for Tucker to get to net,” said Fogarty. “On the flip side, Tucker can’t take three penalties. He scored a goal but it doesn’t matter because it is 4-0 and we are taking soft holding, hooking penalties. Those are non-physical penalties that show that you are chasing the game.”

While Princeton ended up dropping its last game before its exam break as it fell 5-2 to Rensselaer on Saturday to move to 2-14-1 overall and 1-11 ECACH, Brockett believes the team can do well when it matters most.

“Things are quickly winding down, I think we have 11 regular season games left here,” said Brockett, who will look to get the Tigers on the winning track when it resumes play by hosting Army on January 27.

“Everyone makes the playoffs so as long as we are playing well going into the end of the season that is all you can ask for.”