MAX VALUE: Princeton University men’s hockey player Max Veronneau goes after the puck in recent action. Last Friday, junior forward Veronneau tallied two goals and an assist to help Princeton defeat Yale 5-4. The Tigers, who lost 3-0 to Brown a day later to move to 3-3-1 overall and 2-3-1 ECAC Hockey, host Bemidji State for a two-game set this week on November 22 and 24. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Although the Princeton University men’s hockey team was outskated and outworked by Yale in the first period last Friday, Max Veronneau singlehandedly kept the Tigers in the game.

Junior forward Veronneau tallied a goal and assist as the teams were deadlocked at 2-2 after the first period even though the Bulldogs built a 16-6 edge in shots.

Veronneau and his teammates knew that they needed to pick it up after the shaky first period.

“That was a bad start for us and a good start for Yale,” said Veronneau. “They are a good team, we just had to regroup ourselves. We had to get back to our own game and keep control of the puck. It is a lot harder to score when Yale has the puck. We had to limit mistakes and try to score some goals.”

Veronneau scored a goal 1:09 into the second period to give Princeton a 3-2 lead it never relinquished on the way to a 5-4 win before a crowd of 1,948 at Baker Rink.

Reflecting on his hot start, which has seen him tally team-high 10 points on five goals and five assists, Veronneau said it is due, in part, to an increased comfort level with his linemates.

“I feel like it has always been there, it is just keep building it,” said Veronneau.

“When you keep playing with same players, like Ryan [Kuffner] and Alex [Riche] for the last three years, the more our trust builds with each other and the more confidence that I have.”

Princeton’s offense, as a whole, is inspiring confidence in Veronneau. “It is good when multiple lines are scoring,” said Veronneau as Jackson Cressey, Reid Yochim, and Liam Grande also scored goals for the Tigers in the victory over Yale.

“It is a lot easier to put up a lot more goals. The power play today was unbelievable in the first period, that is always good.”

The Tigers could make things easier on themselves by being more intense on the defensive end.

“I think that some of us were a little lackadaisical a little bit at 5-2, trying to score some more goals,” said Veronneau. “We need to play more defense. We will work on that and learn from that and hopefully next time we are up 5-2 we will keep it 5-2.”

Princeton head coach Ron Fogarty acknowledged that his squad turned in an uneven performance.

“Yale is a good hockey team, they have a very good coach [Keith Allain], and they jumped on us,” said Fogarty. “But there are three periods in a game and we won the second period and survived the third.”

Fogarty knows that he has a very good player in Veronneau. “Max is someone where you have confidence as a coach when he is on the ice that things are going to be done well because he is very consistent in his habits,” said Fogarty.

“He does things extremely well and repeats that over and over again; that is why he is going to be a pro hockey player.”

In Fogarty’s view, the Tigers need to do things better in the defensive zone in order to be more consistent in ECAC Hockey play.

“We are pushing it a little too much on the offensive zone, trying to score that sixth and seventh,” said Fogarty.

“We should have learned a lesson with Cornell (a 5-4 loss on November 4), when you are up 4-2, the game should be over. We were up 5-2 tonight, the game should be over and it became a game. We have to make sure that we become more solid defensively.”

While Princeton got stymied by a big defensive effort from Brown as it fell 3-0 to the Bears on Saturday, the Tigers ended the weekend at 3-3-1 overall and 2-3-1 ECACH, a marked improvement on their 0-6-1 start last winter.

“The upperclassmen come back stronger and confident in our style of play with a belief in the style of play,” said Fogarty, whose team hosts Bemidji State for a two-game set this week on November 22 and 24.

“When you win, it is easier to keep going, realizing that it is yielding wins. We are getting some pretty good goaltending right now too and some timely saves. Ryan [Ferland] did keep us in the first period.”

Veronneau, for his part, is confident that the Tigers can pile up plenty of wins this winter.

“It feels great; for the last three years, it is putting in all of the hard work and then seeing us doing well this year,” said Veronneau. “Hopefully we can keep it up and keep on winning.”