For the Princeton University men’s hockey team, it was a fresh start in more ways than one as the Tigers opened the season by playing Yale last Friday in the Liberty Hockey Invitational at the Prudential Center in Newark.

First, it was the dawn of a new era for the program as head coach Ron Fogarty made his debut behind the bench for the Tigers.

“It is great to be part of Princeton as a head coach, I am very honored to be in that role,” said Fogarty, reflecting on his first game at the helm of the program as he replaces Bob Prier.

On the ice, the team’s corp of freshmen made a good first impression as the Tigers battled Yale to a 2-2 tie through overtime before losing in a shootout as the Bulldogs advanced to the title game of the event. Newcomers David Hallisey and Eric Robinson accounted for both Princeton goals while fellow freshmen Matt Nelson and Joe Grabowski picked up assists.

“The freshmen did a great job, they were all over the ice for us,” said Fogarty.

“Eric Robinson had a great weekend, every time he was on the ice, good things happened for us. Yale scored first and we quickly responded as David Hallisey got his first career goal.”

Another young Tiger, sophomore goalie Colton Phinney, came up big, making 45 saves on the evening.

“Colton was called on in the second period when they had some power plays,” said Fogarty.

“He made some big saves and we were able to take a 2-1 lead into the third period We held them to four shots in the third but gave up a goal on a quick breakout and that cost us the win.”

While Princeton ended up falling 6-1 to Merrimack in the third-place game on Sunday, Fogarty wasn’t fazed by the result.

“We had four or five breakdowns, it was just a few small mistakes,” said Fogarty, who got a goal from another freshman in the loss as Ryan Berlin found the back of the net.

“We are not that far away. We told them not to quit, it is a 60-minute game. We sagged a little when we got down 2-0; we just have to refocus. I liked how we responded in the third period.”

Senior Tucker Brockett showed good focus for the Tigers. “Tucker Brockett played well; he gave us some solid work,” said Fogarty.

“We asked him to play a lot of minutes. He wasn’t on the score sheet but he did a lot of things on the penalty kill and in the 5-on-5 for us.”

Fogarty saw plenty of good things as he assessed the weekend. “Overall it is great to have 125 minutes of tape and see where we are at,” said Fogarty.

“We need to solidify strengths and shore up weaknesses. We had some good support in the d-zone. I love the energy and the togetherness of the team even when we were down to Merrimack. There is a desire to get better.”

With Princeton opening ECAC Hockey action by hosting Cornell (0-1-1 overall) on November 7 and Colgate (6-2 overall) the next day, Fogarty knows that his team has to get better to break into the win column.

“We want to make sure we keep working on ourselves,” said Fogarty. “We are not going to show a lot of tape of other teams to them. We will go over key points. We want to keep supporting the puck in the defensive zone. We didn’t get a lot of sustained pressure in the offensive zone. Most of our chances came on breakouts. We need to reload and keep the puck in the offensive zone.”