November 19, 2009
Like Miami, Princeton Looks to Soothe the Pain
by Eben Novy-Williams/CHN Reporter
PRINCETON, N.J. — It would be difficult to script a season’s ending more devastating than the one that met the Princeton Tigers last season — a script also used by Miami in the national championship game.
Up 4-2 with less than a minute remaining in their NCAA quarterfinals matchup against Minnesota-Duluth, the Tigers surrendered a pair of goals just thirty-nine seconds apart, the second of which coming with less than a second on the clock.
The stunned Princeton squad gave up a power play goal 13:19 into the first overtime and the season abruptly ended. It was not the Tigers’ first gut-wrenching loss of the year – in their ECAC Hockey semifinals overtime loss to Cornell a week earlier the Tigers gave up a game-tying goal to Cornell with 0:25 remaining in the third – but it was undoubtedly the most painful. Particularly for a program making just its third trip to the NCAA without a win, and where such opportunities do not come around every year.
“Disappointment,” said senior forward and co-captain Cam MacIntyre of his emotions following the loss to Minnesota-Duluth. “Especially given all that we had done to get to that point; to get a lead in that game. We fought for our at-large bid a week earlier, and we felt that we let ourselves down.”
“I’m not sure you can define the emotion,” Princeton head coach Guy Gadowsky said. “No other loss that I have been a part of as a player or a coach has stuck with me as long as that did.”
But, like Miami, MacIntyre and Gadowsky agree that eight months later, the pain has turned into motivation.
“It has helped us identify one of this season’s main goals: not giving up third period leads,” MacIntyre said. “Now when we talk about that loss, it is about the lessons we have learned from it… Hockey is a game of failures and successes, and it is how you respond to those failures that help define your success.”
“A lot of our current guys were on the ice that night, so in many regards it has helped shape our mental toughness,” Gadowsky said. “I’m sure that we will benefit from [the Minnesota-Duluth game] at some point this season.”
Through their first few games of the 2009-2010 campaign, the No. 19 Tigers (3-2-1 overall, 2-1-1 ECAC Hockey) have been simply adequate; nothing stellar, yet nothing to warrant worry either. Like all teams, Princeton is battling injuries – sophomore defensemen Matt Godlewski and Cam Ritchie have missed time, and offseason surgeries to freshman forwards Will MacDonald and James Kerr will keep both off this ice for most of this season – and the next few weekends will be very telling.
“We have not gotten off to the fast start that we have had each of the last two years,” MacIntyre said. “We’ve had some ups and downs, but those are normal for any team.”
Princeton dropped a 5-2 non-conference game to No. 7 Yale and struggled in a loss to unranked St. Lawrence by the same score. Since those losses, however, the team found some consistency, going 2-0-1 against conference foes Clarkson, Harvard and Dartmouth. The team hits the road for the first time all season with games against No. 5 Cornell and Colgate this weekend.
Losses as dramatic and painful as the ones against the Big Red and Bulldogs last year tend to fall hardest on the goalie. But senior netminder Zane Kalemba, last season’s ECAC and Ivy League Player of the Year, has shown no ill effects this season, despite taking a lot of heat for how he may or may not have misplayed the tying goal.
“Zane is as mentally tough as they come,” said MacIntyre of Princeton’s second-ever Hobey Baker finalist. “Nothing really fazes him.”
Kalemba was instrumental in backstopping the Tigers to their ECAC Hockey championship two years ago – he was named tournament MVP – and was stellar once again last season, finishing the year with a .932 save percentage and microscopic 1.82 goals-against average.
This year he benefits from enormous depth on defense, where the Tigers return all six blueliners from a team that gave up just 2.10 goals per game a season ago. 6-foot-2 seniors Brad Schroeder and co-captain Jody Pederson give the squad a physical presence, while Matt Godlewski and junior Taylor Fedun excel in the attacking third.
“We have three senior defensemen and three juniors, all of whom have been playing together for a while, so we are pretty experienced back there,” Gadowsky said. “If we are going to be successful, the defense is going to be the main reason for it.”
Add to the mix 6-4, 220-pound freshman Michael Sdao, the Ottawa Senators’ seventh-round pick in this year’s entry draft, and you have one of the nation’s best defensive corps: big, physical and active on both ends of the ice.
For Princeton, the biggest questions are on offense. Last season the team graduated three critical forwards: 100-point scorer Brett Wilson, captain Brandan Kushniruk and 2007 ECAC and Ivy League Player of the Year Lee Jubinville.
“We are still trying to get into a rhythm offensively,” MacIntyre said. “It’s just a matter of time before we get fully comfortable with each other, and you can see it starting to form already. There is a lot of talent on this offense.”
Senior Dan Bartlett broke onto the national scene last year, finishing the season with a team-high 16 goals and 28 points, including a torrid stretch run. The team also received solid offensive seasons from current senior Mark Magnowski and current junior Sam Sabky, but the success of the Princeton offense may hinge on the return of MacIntyre.
MacIntyre arrived on campus as a freshman in 2006 and contributed from the start – not just as a goal scorer, but as a physical power forward who embodied the tough Princeton Hockey work ethic.
“We knew Cam would fit in immediately,” Gadowsky said. “He is an unbelievable leader and the complete package… He has a presence on the ice and knack for scoring goals.”
In his sophomore season, MacIntyre was second on the team in goals and third in points.
“I had great linemates that year in Jubinville and Wilson, which made my job so much easier,” MacIntyre said. “Two things were crucial for me that season: first, I of all I was healthy, and secondly I scored a hat trick in my very first game. Confidence is everything in this game, and having a start like that really helped.”
After playing 32 games as a freshman and 31 as a sophomore, however, MacIntyre battled injuries as a junior, appearing in just 14 games scattered throughout the season. First it was his back, injured in the summer before the season started. Then he tore his groin, an injury that proved much more severe than MacIntyre or the team initially anticipated.
“It was a frustrating season,” MacIntyre said of those 14 games, in which he tallied just one goal and five assists. “It felt like I was constantly playing two or three games and then I would have to sit again. It was tough for me to get into a rhythm and it was tough for my teammates as well.”
MacIntyre spent most of the offseason getting healthy, and so far returns are good.
“I feel great physically,” he said following a three-point weekend against Ivy rivals Harvard and Dartmouth. “Right now my biggest concern is not doing too much. I am at my best when I keep the game simple – get the puck deep, work the corners – and now that I am back to full speed it is something I need to keep in mind.”
Gadowsky anticipates that it will take MacIntyre some time to fully regain comfort on the ice.
“He is still getting used to the ice,” Gadowsky said. “That being said, he looks great, and I know that it is just a matter of time before he sees results. He is going to be better than he was before, I guarantee it.”
And yet there are signs that such a time may have already arrived. Last weekend against Dartmouth, the team that vowed not to give up third period leads did just that; and in overtime, MacIntyre came to the rescue.
Following a long rebound, MacIntyre grabbed the puck in his own zone and skated up ice. After beating a Big Green defender along the left boards, he raced towards the crease, stopped short and fired a low wrist shot into the back of the net. Princeton 2, Dartmouth 1.
The play hearkened memories of the sophomore MacIntyre; equally healthy and two years more experienced. And for a defensive-minded team looking for that offensive spark, it represented a hopeful sign of things to come.
