BEARING DOWN: Princeton University men’s hockey Max Veronneau heads up the ice last weekend as Princeton battled Brown in an ECAC Hockey best-of-three first round playoff series. Junior forward Veronneau starred as the seventh-seeded Tigers dominated the 10th-seeded Bears, winning 8-2 on Friday and 7-1 a night later. Veronneau hit the 100-point mark in his college career with an assist on Princeton’s second goal in Saturday’s contest. The Tigers, now 15-12-4 overall, play at second place Union (21-13-2 overall) in a best-of-three quarterfinal series starting on March 9. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Max Veronneau was in the middle of making milestone moments as the Princeton University men’s hockey team hosted Brown in a best-of-three ECAC Hockey first round playoff series last weekend.

On Friday, junior star forward Veronneau helped Ryan Kuffner score the 100th point of his career, burying a feed from his classmate and linemate in the back of the net late in the second period as Kuffner tallied the 100th point of his Princeton career with the assist. The goal gave the Tigers a 5-2 lead and they never looked back on the way to an 8-2 victory.

A night later, Veronneau reached the century mark himself, threading a pass that Kuffner converted into a goal as Princeton went ahead 2-0 in the second period and proceeded to pull away to a 7-1 win and a series sweep of the Bears.

“It is pretty special. To get 100 is a pretty big number,” said Veronneau, who ended up with a goal and two assists in the win. “I hope we can just keep on winning.”

The Tigers, now 15-12-4 overall, will look to keep winning as they play at second place Union (21-13-2 overall) in a best-of-three quarterfinal series starting on March 9.

In the series clincher over Brown, Princeton came out firing, building a 15-6 edge in shots but didn’t find the back of the net until sophomore Jackson Cressey tallied in the last minute of the frame.

“It took us a little while to score a goal but I think we were getting chances,” said Veronneau.

“I thought after Cressey’s score we just got a little more juice in our step. We had a little more confidence and we were able to pop a couple of more in. Luckily we are a pretty high scoring offense and we did get seven on the board.”

Veronneau helped the Tigers get in step when he hit the century mark in his career by slotting the puck to Kuffner early in the second period as Princeton doubled its lead.

“I saw Ryan going; I didn’t know that there was no other Brown guy there, so I was pretty fortunate for that one,” said Veronneau, reflecting on the goal which gave Kuffner 28 on the season, tying him for the program single-season mark with former NHL standout Jeff Halpern, who had 28 goals during the 1997-98 season.

“I saw Kuff in the open. I was just hoping that we would get it.”

For Veronneau, it is comforting to be on the same line with Kuffner as they both hail from Ottawa, Ontario and played together in junior hockey with Gloucester in the CCHL before coming to Princeton.

“You know where he is all the time and just playing with him six years now, it makes it so much easier to play,” said Veronneau, who now has 50 points this season on 15 goals and 35 assists while his running mate Kuffner has piled up 48 points on 28 goals and 20 assists.

Princeton head coach Ron Fogarty knows that having the one-two punch of Veronneau and Kuffner makes his life easier.

“It is pretty special. I had two players who had over 40 points at Bowling Green and I didn’t think I would see it again,” said Fogarty.

“To have those two guys feed off of each other very well; they have had the luxury of playing together for a long time in junior hockey and now in college. They know the tendencies of each other.”

Fogarty liked how his players fed off of each other on the defensive end over the weekend.

“They played well, they played smart defensively,” said Fogarty.

“I love how our defense is playing right now. It stems from our forwards getting back as well too. We play better when our forwards are back helping out the defense and giving the defensemen other options to bring to puck out quicker.”

While Princeton got it done on both ends of the ice against Brown, Fogarty doesn’t believe his squad has peaked yet.

“We are a team that knows we can score goals,” said Fogarty. “We are an offensive team that can score in bunches. We are also a team that defends very well. That is our identity. I think we can play better, we are getting there. You are never going to get the perfect game. There are still some lapses in our game that we have to tighten up.”

Despite those occasional lapses, Princeton has
continued its steady improvement under Fogarty’s guidance, posting 30 wins over the last two seasons after totaling just nine in his first two years at the helm.

“You look at each year and try to progress. By winning two games this weekend, we have guaranteed a winning season,” said Fogarty, noting that is only the ninth winning campaign for Princeton since 1962.

“That is just one of the notches that has developed for the senior class to be part of a team that has won. We are not done by no means. To be where we are at with a winning season in our fourth year, it is not on me, it is on the players. You need the players who want to buy in and work hard every day and be committed to the process.”

The Princeton players will have to work hard to overcome a tough Union squad this weekend.

“There is so much parity in the league; we just played a Brown team that beat Harvard and Dartmouth last weekend,” said Fogarty, whose team lost twice to Union in regular season action, falling 4-3 in overtime on November 10 and 4-1 on February 17.

“Anybody can win if you are playing smart hockey now. You have to play to your strengths. We know who we are; we know our identity as a team we played that way tonight.

Veronneau, for his part, is confident that the Tigers can keep winning

“We need to keep scoring and playing well,” said Veronneau. “If we play like we have the last two games the next few ones, we can easily do well.”