By Bill Alden

Playing in its first game under new head coach Ben Syer, the Princeton University men’s hockey team put on quite a show as it hosted Harvard in its season opener last Friday.

Battling the Crimson in a back-and-forth contest before a standing-room only crowd of 2,352 at Hobey Baker Rink, Princeton jumped out to a 2-1 lead and then rallied from a 3-2 deficit to force overtime before falling 4-3.

Heading into its game against Dartmouth a night later, the Tigers were looking to build on their effort against Harvard.

“It was fun to get out there and get their first game under our belt, a couple of bounces didn’t go our way,” said Princeton senior captain and star defenseman Noah de la Durantaye. “Chalk it up to experience, it is a young team coming in looking to establish themselves. I thought it could have gone either way.”

For the first 18 minutes against the undefeated Big Green, the Tigers were on point as the foes were knotted in a scoreless stalemate.

“I was super happy with our first period,” said de la Durantaye. “We were battling, skating with them. We fought tooth and nail with them. We were right there and the second period comes around.”

But Princeton gave up a goal with 1:36 left in the first period and then yielded two more scores in the first 2:07 of the second period as the Big Green built a 3-0 lead on the way to a 5-1 win and improved to 4-0 overall and 3-0 ECAC Hockey.

With the Tigers trailing 4-0 heading into the third period, they settled down and got a goal from Ian Devlin and put together a good final 20 minutes.

“I was super proud of the way we fought, it is not easy coming out there being down a few goals and trying to battle back,” said de la Durantaye. “I am super proud of the resilience and the effort that we gave. I think ultimately we got back to what is going to make guys strong as a team, hunting pucks, getting pucks deep, and going to the net. It is not the result we wanted but at least there is that to build off of and we can go from there.”

The Tigers are building a strong connection with new coach Syer.

“I think it has been super exciting for us; it is a new generation of Princeton hockey and I am just happy to be part of it,” said de la Durantaye. “It is new philosophies, new systems which is awesome for us. It is a breath of fresh air, especially for the older guys. Everyone is getting adjusted, it is not only the younger guys. That being said, we still have to work hard and get the ball rolling here because the season has started. We start late so we have to hit the ground running. We will use this weekend as experience and look forward for sure.”

As one of the older guys on a team that has just four seniors, de la Durantaye has looked to help his younger teammates adjust to the rigors of college hockey.

“I think the biggest thing is to communicate and just bring them along and have one-on-one conversations with every guy as much as you can,” said de la Durantaye. “It is just going through things that maybe they are thinking and asking them questions just to get their thoughts flowing and get it out in the open. You can be a sounding board to them. We have been through a lot of things that they are going to go through. That is my way of doing it, that is what worked for me when I was coming up. I am just trying to implement that for them.”

Princeton head coach Syer believes the squad is bonding. “I always look at a team as like a family, when you talk about a new group coming in, it is harder to get acclimated and for them to know what is expected of them,” said Syer. “The flip side of that is that is the older guys are expected to do what they are responsible for and that is to do things the right way so the younger guys can see it.”

While the Tigers didn’t get a win on opening weekend as rowdy moved to 0-2 overall and 0-2 ECACH, Syer saw some good things.

“I thought our effort in the first period was extremely good,” said Syer. “I thought the majority of our effort in the third period was pretty good. Obviously last night and tonight our second period’s not good.”

At the second intermission in the Dartmouth game, Syer urged his players to play as a unit.

“I think the message was if you look at what our first period was for the majority of it and the majority of last night when we were at our best, we are doing it together as a group,” said Syer. “I think hockey is the ultimate team game. The harder you play as a group of five, the more you execute. When you start to cheat that process, you don’t get the rewards. If you respect the process, it gives you opportunity. It doesn’t always give you the result that you seek but it gives you opportunity to obtain the result you are looking for.”

Syer credits de la Durantaye with having a big influence on the group.

“Noah has been extremely positive in the sense that he wants the best for the team,” said Syer. “He has an appreciation and an understanding for our team to have success, we need all of our classes to have success. That success leads to team success and individual success as well. He has been doing a great job.”

For Syer, his first weekend at Baker Rink was a great experience.

“It is a lot of fun to be able to prepare and that is what we do,” said Syer. “Our staff is up late last night and back at it early today. Obviously you want a better outcome for your guys. I thought we showed some flashes of some really good things. Now it is on us as a staff to keep morphing that group to be more cohesive as we move along here. That will be the next challenge. So you close the book on this weekend on Monday and move on to the next weekend.”

The Tigers will be hitting the road next week as they play at Yale (1-2-1 overall, 1-0-1 ECACH) on November 15 and Brown (0-2 overall, 0-2 ECACH) on November 16.

“Yale is always a great defensive team they don’t give up a lot,” said Syer. “They beat Cornell in a shootout last night. Brown plays their tail off so we will have two real tough competitions here coming up next week. It is just a matter constantly of a group being together, talking with the guys and not mixing the message here.”

De la Durantaye is looking forward to having that time tougher with his teammates.

“I think it will be fun to get away from school; it’s always fun to get away and have that focus only on hockey,” said de la Durantaye. “It is being in the hotel, being around the guys and really use it as an opportunity to get even closer. We are really close right now but there is always opportunity for growth in that regard. That is going to be a good experience for all of us.”