MILESTONE MOMENT: Princeton University men’s hockey player Brendan Wang controls the puck in a 2022 game. Last Friday, junior defenseman Wang scored his first career goal in a 6-2 loss to Cornell. The Tigers, who lost 6-4 to Colgate to move to 6-10-1 overall and 3-8-1 ECAC Hockey, host Bentley for a two-game set on January 25 and 26. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

For Brendan Wang, it was a moment that was nearly three years in the making.

Making his 57th appearance for the Princeton University men’s hockey team last Friday night as it hosted Cornell, junior defenseman Wang scored his first career goal as he converted on a power play in the third period.

“You get an opportunity, you have to make the most of it,” said Wang. “Kev (Kevin Anderson) made a great play to me. I kept my head up and took a shot — you have to shoot to score.”

It was a heady moment for Wang to break through with his first goal.

“It is a long time coming, but you don’t do these things on your own,” said Wang. “There is a big support staff behind with teammates, coaches, parents, grandparents, friends, and family.”

While Wang’s goal was a milestone moment, things didn’t go well for Princeton against Cornell. The Tigers jumped out to a 1-0 first period lead on the first career goal from freshman defenseman Kai Greaves but the Big Red ended up pulling away to a 6-2 victory before a standing-room-only crowd of 2,432 packing Hobey Baker Rink.

“I thought we did a lot of good things, we started out pretty good,” said Wang. “One or two bad bounces and things can go the other way really quick. There was no quit in our group. We all had a strong belief but is just unfortunate the way things turned out.”

Getting two power plays in the third period, Princeton did outshoot Cornell 9-8 over the last 20 minutes of the contest but only had Wang’s goal to show for it.

“On the power plays, we zipped the puck around pretty good there,” said Wang. “Obviously we would have liked to score a little more. That is the way things go sometimes.”

Princeton head coach Ben Syer liked seeing Wang break through with his first goal.

“It was an interesting group we put together there and Brendan Wang just took an opportunity there,” said Syer. “It was simple and he just ripped it. What gets things going sometimes is the simplicity of things to just get pucks down on the net. I am really happy for him. It is certainly an unbelievable milestone here for him.”

For Syer, facing Cornell was an interesting experience as he spent the previous 13 seasons on the coaching staff of the Big Red.

“I look at it as a great challenge,” said Syer. “You go against a group that has had consistent success and to go against somebody I consider to be a mentor in coach [Mike] Schafer. He forces you to make certain adjustments. He changes his game plan. There is a reason why they have had success, he has been the constant there. To be able to have those challenges is exciting and we hope to be able to find that same consistency for our group.”

Syer acknowledged that the Tigers were plagued by some inconsistent play in the loss to Cornell.

“I thought we were up on the forecheck, we were doing some nice things,” said Syer. “I was really pleased with the way we started. We pride ourselves on details. Tonight I think we got away from it. We got beat off a face-off, we didn’t block a shot and we didn’t do some of our structural stuff that we had been doing fairly well throughout the game.”

A night later, the Tigers did better against Colgate, jumping out to 2-1 and 4-3 leads before falling 6-4 in moving to 6-10-1 overall and 3-8-1 ECAC Hockey.

“We have to really take care of the things that we can control, it starts with 200 feet away from our net,” said Syer, whose team is mired in a six-game losing streak and will look to get back on the winning track when it hosts Bentley for a two-game set on January 25 and 26. “This Colgate team is really going to test our ability to transition and to get above guys and certainly to be able to handle things around the net as they will get a lot of pucks down to the net.”

In Wang’s view, the Tigers can best handle their business by remaining confident and detail-oriented.

“We need to reset and keep that strong belief that we are a good team and stick to our details,” said Wang.