BREAKING THE ICE: Princeton University men’s hockey player Max Veronneau heads up the ice in recent action. Last Saturday, sophomore forward Veronneau tallied two goals and two assists to help Princeton rally to a 6-5 win over Rensselaer in overtime as it earned its first ECAC Hockey victory of the season. Princeton, now 3-6-1 overall and 1-6-1 ECACH, faces Quinnipiac this week in a home-and-home set, hosting the Bobcats on December 9 before playing them at Hamden, Conn. a day later. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Max Veronneau was feeling snakebitten in the first nine games of the season for the Princeton University men’s hockey team.

Despite playing well enough to tie for the team lead in assists with five, sophomore forward Veronneau hadn’t found the back of the net heading into last weekend.

On Friday night against visiting Union, Veronneau broke through with two goals and an assist.

Although Princeton fell 7-3 to the 18th-ranked Dutchmen, Veronneau was relieved to notch his first goals of the season.

“I just kept shooting and was hoping and praying that one of them would go in eventually,” said Veronneau.

“It is an added boost of confidence that I can actually score again. It is pretty nice.”

A night later against visiting Rensselaer, Veronneau kept firing away, tallying two goals and two assists as Princeton rallied for a dramatic 6-5 win in overtime, rallying from deficits of 2-0 in the first period, 4-1 in the second, and 5-3 in the third on the way to earning their first victory in ECAC Hockey play this season.

In reflecting on the win which improved Princeton to 3-6-1 overall and 1-6-1 ECACH, Veronneau acknowledged that it didn’t come easy.

“It is tough when you start with the penalty kill the whole time, especially a 5-on-3 at the beginning,” said Veronneau. “We are just glad that we came back and got the the win.”

Veronneau started the comeback with a power play goal late in the first period.

“I was trying to pass it across the ice actually and then it just got tipped by one of their d-men so I was just lucky,” said a smiling Veronneau.

Midway through the second period, Princeton fell behind 4-1 and it looked like the game might be getting away from the Tigers. But with David Hallisey and Veronneau coming with two extra-man tallies, Princeton narrowed the gap to 4-3 entering the third.

“We got a couple of good breaks on the power play; the power play was clicking tonight so that was pretty good,” said Veronneau, a 6’0, 180-pound native of Ottawa, Ontario.

“It has been tough throughout the year with it but tonight; it was good for us.”

The Tigers showed more toughness in the third, overcoming a 5-3 deficit with two goals in the last 5:39 to force overtime.

“We just kept shooting on the kid, luckily a couple of them went in,” said Veronneau, who assisted on both of the third period goals. “The more shots we got, the better chances we got.”

Heading into the five-minute OT, Veronneau and his teammates believed they had a great chance to pull out the victory.

“I felt like we had most of the momentum at the end of the third period and then I thought it was a matter of time before we scored,” asserted Veronneau.

Sure enough, a blast from the point by Tiger sophomore star Josh Teves was tipped in by freshman Jackson Cressey with 3:03 into the extra session to give the Tigers the win.

“It was a good look by Kuffner who passed it across to Josh,” recalled Veronneau.  “It was a nice shot through the five with two good screens by Dave and Cressey up front.”

In Veronneau’s view, the win was a good confidence builder for Princeton.

“It means a lot, last night was a tough game for us, we got scored against a lot,” said Veronneau. “To come back and get a win is nice, it is our first conference win.”

Playing on an all-sophomore line with Kuffner and Alex Riche has helped Veronneau develop his scoring touch.

“Ryan, Riche, and I have been playing together for the last two years so it has been nice,” said Veronneau who now has 12 points this season on four goals and eight assists, tying him with junior David Hallisey for the team lead.

“We know where each other are on the ice a lot so it is pretty easy to play when everyone is on the same page.”

Princeton head coach Ron Fogarty liked the way his team stuck together in the win over Rensselaer.

“It is a great come-from-behind win, the first time we have seen it in a long time with this staff being here,” said Fogarty, noting that the Tigers have won three of their last four games, having swept No. 10 Bemidji State in a two-game set on the final weekend of November.

“We didn’t deviate, last night we deviated from stuff and it became an onslaught. You just have to be patient. It is a 60-minute game for a reason and we played 64.”

The Tigers showed patience in a wild game that saw the first seven goals come on the power play.

“It was a battle of special teams and our penalty kill struggled for the first time all year,” said Fogarty.

“The percentages don’t tell the story, it is when you score or when you give them up and we gave up a lot tonight but we got the one that counted at the end on the power play.”

While Princeton struggled with the penalty kill, it ended up with four power play goals in the evening, including the overtime tally.

“It was good, we created scoring chances and opportunities by going hard to the net,” said Fogarty.

“We were a little on the perimeter and we were driving through looking for draw passes in the first period and even into the second. We just shifted to the drive and got back to the smart things of the game that made us successful.”

Seeing Veronneau break the ice with his first goals of the season was a key to Princeton’s success.

“You have got to find that first one, subconsciously that wears on you as a forward, you want to get the one and then you open the floodgates,” said Fogarty.

“He was doing a lot of things right, it was just unlucky bounces. As a sophomore, he is a driving force. He makes players and people better around him.”

Hallisey and junior forward Max Becker helped drive the Tigers in the win over RPI.

“David is good, he is supposed to score goals,” said Fogarty of Hallisey, who tallied two goals and an assist.

“He is on one of the top two lines and the power play; that is what he is on the ice to do and he is cashing in. I thought Becker played a great game too; he was a little rat dog out there and drew the penalty at the end there too.”

Looking ahead, Fogarty acknowledged that Princeton needs to do a better job of limiting goals against.

“You give up 12 goals against in a weekend and you are not going to win many games,” said Fogarty, whose team faces Quinnipiac this week in a home-and-home set, hosting the Bobcats on December 9 before playing them at Hamden, Conn, a day later.

“We were fortunate enough that we scored one more goal than RPI tonight. We are going to work on it. We strayed from systems yesterday in the second period. Today the focus was playing a 60-minute game, no matter what the score was and we played 64.”

In Veronneau’s view, the Tigers will continue to display that focus. “We want to just keep on winning; we have a tough matchup here next weekend against Quinnipiac,” said Veronneau.

“Hopefully we can win a couple of games next weekend and just keep going from there.”