OVER THE EDGE: Princeton University men’s hockey player Quin Pompi heads up the ice in recent action. Last Friday, junior defenseman Pompi tallied two assists but it wasn’t enough as 12th-seeded Princeton fell 3-2 to fifth-seeded Clarkson in double overtime on the first game of their best-of-three ECAC hockey opening round series. A night later, the Tigers fell 3-2 in overtime to lose the series. The defeat left Princeton with a final record of 5-23-3. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Even though the Princeton University men’s hockey team was seeded 12th in the ECAC Hockey playoffs, it liked its opening round matchup at fifth-seeded Clarkson.

“We had the knowledge of beating them at home and we were close for two periods up there,” said Princeton head coach Ron Fogarty, whose team defeated Clarkson 3-0 on November 21 at Baker Rink before falling 5-2 to the Golden Knights in the rematch on February 12.

“We were just fine-tuning some of our tendencies that we could utilize against Clarkson. It was a positive atmosphere.”

The Tigers got off to a positive start Friday night in the opener of the best-of-three series, taking a 1-0 lead on a first period goal by Alex Riche. Princeton went up 2-0 midway through the second period on a goal by Ryan Siiro.

“The way we started is the way we played for the majority of the series,” said Fogarty.

“I thought we played to the best of ability this weekend. We created goal scoring chances; we kept them to the outside in 5-on-5.”

But a crucial third period penalty on Princeton turned the tide in the favor of Clarkson as it scored on that power play and then tallied in a 6-on-4 situation with 21.9 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.

“If it stayed 5-on-5, I am sure we would have had a positive result but you give a team five minutes on the power play, they are going to get opportunities,” lamented Fogarty.

“Then they had the goalie pulled and then we had too many men on the ice and it was a 6-on-4. They score in the waning moments; we gave it up with the extra attacker.”

The Tigers regrouped in overtime, battling the Golden Knights to a stalemate in the first extra period. But the Tigers couldn’t hold the fort in the second overtime as Clarkson tallied 1:05 into that period to win the game.

“Obviously it is tough, we had to refocus, after having a 2-0 lead but we realized if we had it 2-2 going into overtime in the the first game, we would take it,” said Fogarty, reflecting on the marathon contest, which ended up being the third longest in program history.

“The guys refocused and played well in the first overtime. We had scoring chances. We were going three lines from the majority of the third period on. The energy level was great, they stayed with it. They skated hard and smart the entire time.”

A night later, the foes went into overtime again and Princeton yielded a goal 17:23 into the first extra period to fall 3-2 and conclude its season at 5-23-3. Early in the contest, it didn’t look like it was headed to OT as Princeton trailed 2-0 midway through the first period.

“We had a great talk at the first intermission, saying that every class has been in this situation, being down to your last game and down by a goal or two,” said Fogarty.

“If you lose, you want to leave it fighting and go down with heart and resolve. When it is over, you don’t want to look back and think what could I have done differently.”

The Tigers clearly took that message to heart, as Max Veronneau scored a second period goal and Ben Foster added a third-period tally to send the game into overtime.

“The guys responded great in the second period and gave us a chance to win the game,” said Fogarty.

“It was most definitely different, now you come back and tie it. Garrett Skrbich had a great chance in overtime and the goalie made a great save.”

In reflecting on the series loss, Fogarty said it came down to the special teams play.

“The biggest weakness the whole weekend was the power play, we didn’t get a goal on the power play,” said Fogarty.

“If we had just scored on one throughout any game, it would have made a big difference. We have to address that and get better.”

In assessing the season overall, Fogarty noted that the infusion of talented freshman made a big difference.

“We are a team that is in the process of changing, we had our one line that was a freshman line (Riche, Veronneau, and Ryan Kuffner) and then Josh Teves at the point, who contributed every game for us,” said Fogarty. “Our freshmen did a lot of the production offensively for us this year, they had a good year.”

The Tigers also showed more punch offensively as they scored 60 goals this winter compared to 39 in 2014-15.

“I think puck management was a big improvement, we didn’t throw the puck away and that gave us more opportunities to score,” said Fogarty.

In Fogarty’s view, the Tigers are on the verge of some big things.

“We put together some strings of playing smart hockey and we could beat anyone,” said Fogarty.

“We were up 3-1 at Quinnipiac around Christmas; we had a win against Yale, who is a top-ranked team. There are a lot of positives. We showed a growing maturity. You are in games, you have taken leads. There are 16 games that we lost by a goal or had the goalie pulled, compared to five the year before. It is a little more frustrating because you are so close but it showed a great progression of being in 16 games this year that we ended up losing but we were in them.”

Junior goalie Colton Phinney kept Princeton in a lot of games as he recorded a program single-season record of 1,058 saves in 30 appearances.

“He is a huge part of things for us, he gave us the opportunity to be more offensive minded,” said Fogarty, of Phinney, who had 43 saves in Game 1 and 44 in Game 2 last weekend against Clarkson.

“The maturity of him in the net, making saves at a high rate and frequency, that is a reason why our goal production went up a lot this year from last year. Having him back is great. He has a chance to play pro hockey when he is done. I know he wants to come back and win a playoff series and hopefully get to Lake Placid. He will definitely be one of our leaders on the team next year.”

Fogarty is definitely looking to add more offensive firepower to the team next year.

“We have got to recruit goal scorers, guys who have proven that they can put the puck in the net in juniors,” said Fogarty.

“We have to recruit guys, knowing what they are showing at the junior level is what we they are going to be.”

As for his returning guys, Fogarty believes they need to show more athleticism to build on this winter’s progress.

“They just need to continue to get stronger, you can never be strong enough or quick enough,” said Fogarty. “We are in a position now to win those one-on-one battles more frequently.”