GREEN WAVE: Princeton High boys’ hockey star Will Greenberg heads up the ice in recent action. Last Thursday, senior co-captain Greenberg tallied two goals to help PHS top WW/P-N 6-4. The Little Tigers, now 4-2-2, return from the holiday break when they play Lawrence on January 2 at Mercer County Park.

Will Greenberg hadn’t shown his normal finishing touch for the Princeton High boys’ hockey team so far this season but he had the sense that things were about to change last Thursday as the Little Tigers played
WW/P-N.

“I have kind of started slowly this year; I haven’t scored that much but I have been passing a lot,” said senior forward Greenberg. “Today I felt really good. In warmups, I knew I was back on track.”

The co-captain started quickly against the Northern Knights, scoring a first period goal as PHS jumped into a 1-0 lead. Late in the contest, Greenberg tallied an insurance goal to foil a WW/P-N rally as the Little Tigers pulled out a 6-4 victory.

In Greenberg’s view, the win should be a confidence builder for PHS, which had tied its last two games coming into the WW/P-N contest.

“We haven’t been playing that well; everyone knows that we have a lot more potential than we have been showing,” said Greenberg.

“Today we didn’t really play that well but we were able to show our potential at the end of the game and come out with a big win.”

Greenberg came through near the end of the game as he notched his second goal on a breakaway to give PHS the final margin of victory.

“The puck was kind of scrambling in our zone so I just went up ice and Kirby [Peck] found me,” recalled Greenberg.

“I thought I was just going to beat the guy but he caught up to me so I just did a little toe drag kind of thing; I just fired it and it went in.”

Greenberg and Peck work together on and off the ice to guide the team in their roles as co-captains.

“Kirby and I know how to lead,” asserted Greenberg. “Being a captain is much more important than scoring. We need to teach guys how to play and get them in the game.”

PHS head coach Tim Campbell certainly liked the scoring punch he got from Greenberg in the win over the Northern Knights.

“That is what Will does; he has good games like that,” said Campbell, who also got two goals from Connor McCormick in the victory with Matt DiTosto and John Reid adding one apiece.

“In order for us to be successful, that is the type of game he has got to have and I have no doubt that he will.”

Campbell acknowledged that PHS has to show more game than it did against WW/P-N if it is going to experience a lot of success this winter.

“We didn’t play that well tonight,” said Campbell, whose team lost 2-0 to Glen Rock the next night to bring a 4-2-2 record into 2012. “I am not happy about it at all but we found a way to pull it off.”

While Campbell was pleased that his team found the back of the net frequently against WW/P-N, he knows that the Little Tiger defense needs to tighten up.

“Obviously you are happy with scoring six goals but giving up four goals is too many with the type of defense we normally have,” said Campbell.

“Good defense wins these tight games; that’s where we need to focus our efforts right now. We are getting beat to the puck, we are getting beat to the net.”

In Campbell’s view, PHS has the potential to beat a lot of teams when it gets into the meat of its schedule after the holiday break.

“We are taking some momentum into the holidays and coming back for a big January,” said Campbell, whose team resumes action when it plays Lawrence on January 2 at Mercer County Park. “I am looking forward to it.”

Greenberg, for his part, believes PHS has the chemistry to come up big down the stretch.

“We are just a bunch of guys who know how to work together,” said Greenberg.

“The thing is we don’t have to rely on one guy to score big goals; anybody can score at any time, nobody is going to care who it is. As long as we are scoring, we are happy. I think we will get the ball rolling and start winning more games.”