FINAL PUSH: Princeton University men’s hockey player Mike Ambrosia heads up the ice in recent action. Last Friday senior forward Ambrosia had two assists in a losing cause as Princeton fell 5-4 to Colgate. A night later, Ambrosia and the Tigers were shut out as they fell 1-0 to No. 17 Cornell. Princeton, now 5-16-2 overall and 3-11-2 ECAC Hockey, plays at Clarkson on February 12 and at St. Lawrence on February 13. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Mike Ambrosia and his fellow seniors on the Princeton University men’s hockey team are determined to make the most out of their final weeks with the Tigers.

“We want to try to put our best foot forward the last month here of the regular season,” said senior forward Ambrosia, a 5’10, 180-pound native of Chatham, N.J. who serves as one of the team’s assistant captains.

“Anything could happen and we want to get the team going in the right direction.”

Last Friday against visiting Colgate, Ambrosia got things going in the right direction for the Tigers as he assisted on the second goal of the contest to help Princeton jump out to a 3-1 first period lead.

“It was kind of a broken down play, Hayden (Anderson) made a great heads up play back there,” said Ambrosia, who set up a tally by sophomore Eric Robinson with 8:53 left in the period as the Tigers took a 2-1 lead.

“He didn’t panic under pressure when they came at him, he made a great pass. I just tried to throw it on the net, to be honest. Robby (Eric Robinson) a tremendous player with a lot of speed, he goes hard on the puck and he was able to get it and throw it on net and luckily it went in.”

After Colgate scored to make it 3-2, Ambrosia set up another tally on a 5-on-3 power play, slotting the puck to Max Veronneau as the Tigers went ahead 4-2 with 6:06 remaining in the period.

“It was kind of a broken down play and we were just trying to move it around and I flung it across the net and luckily Vern (Veronneau) was standing there,” said Ambrosia. “He made a great finish.”

Unfortunately, Princeton didn’t produce a good finish as Colgate scored a goal late in the second and added two more tallies in the third to pull out a 5-4 win.

“I think we played the style of hockey that we want to play for the first two periods,” said Ambrosia, who now has eight points on two goals and six assists this season with 37 career points on 14 goals and 23 assists.

“We got away from our game in the last period there; they have good offensive skill and they put two in the back of the net. That wasn’t the result that we wanted but we have to take the positives and learn from why they scored.”

Although Princeton fell 1-0 to No. 17 Cornell a night later in moving to 5-16-2 overall and 3-11-2 ECAC Hockey, Ambrosia believes the Tigers are headed in a positive direction.

“We have a lot of skilled guys up front that are very young and they are playing great,” said Ambrosia, referring to freshman Veronneau and his classmates, Ryan Kuffner and Alex Riche.

“They have had tremendous years and we know that they are going to continue to do that. We are obviously focused on this year and always focused on the next game but they definitely have bright futures, that is for sure.”

Princeton head coach Ron Fogarty is pleased with the impact made by his corps of newcomers.

“We are asking a lot of the freshmen here, we are asking a lot of that line and all four of those freshmen are on power play,” said Fogarty referring to the trio of Veronneau, Kuffner, and Alex Riche along with freshman defenseman Josh Teves.

“It is an awful lot to ask in college hockey. They have absorbed it and are doing a great job. They are getting a lot of ice time and more ice equals more opportunities.”

In the early going last Friday, Princeton took advantage of opportunities as it scored four goals against Colgate in the first 33 minutes of the game.

“Finn (Colgate goalie Charlie Finn) has had our number for the last three years, we came out and executed,” said Fogarty, who got goals from Garrett Skrbich and Riche in addition to the tallies by Robinson and Veronneau.

“We got pucks on the net, we got traffic, I think we did a good job of that. You score four goals, you have got to have a result.”

But committing some defensive breakdowns, Princeton allowed Colgate to generate good scoring chances of its own.

“We played so well, it was a great effort and we just compounded our mistakes in the third,” lamented Fogarty.

“Their skilled players made great plays and we all try to recover instead of just doing our job. It takes time, that was a tough one.”

In assessing Ambrosia’s play, Fogarty believes the senior is making the most of his fleeting time with Tigers.

“Mike has been playing very well after Christmas, something clicked there, he would be the first one to say it,” said Fogarty, whose team plays at Clarkson on February 12 and at St. Lawrence on February 13.

“He has taken a lead and that is what you need from your seniors. You need your seniors to lead offensively and he is doing a great job of it.”

In Ambrosia’s view, Princeton needs to start clicking for all three periods on a nightly basis to do some damage in the last month of the season.

“I think this last month we proved to ourselves that when we do play well 5-on-5, when we do stay out of the box, and we don’t give other teams odd man chances that we can play with anyone in the nation,” said Ambrosia.

“We played with (No. 1) Quinnipiac for a couple of periods. Internally we know if we play our game for a full 60 minutes that we will definitely have a chance to win. We have to do that and that is what we have struggled with so we are going to continue to work hard.”