Union could do little wrong in defeating Yale on Friday, while Princeton had trouble getting pucks on net in its loss to Rensselaer.
One night later, the Tigers had no problems getting shots on net. The Dutchmen did little to stop them.
The Tigers scored four times in the first period, and had the first five goals of the game Saturday to cruise to a 7-2 ECAC victory over the Dutchmen at Achilles Rink.
The loss dropped the Dutchmen (11-14-3, 7-10-1 ECAC) back into a tie for the final playoff spot with Colgate, where they began the weekend. Princeton (8-14-3, 7-9-2) is in a seventh-place tie with Vermont and Yale.
Even though the Dutchmen defeated Yale, 5-1, Union co-captain Bryan Yackel said it was a lost weekend for the team, which had its four-game home winning streak snapped.
“We didn’t accomplish anything,” Yackel said. “[Friday] night was great, but it didn’t get us anywhere. We’re right back to square one.”
In their 1-0 loss to RPI, the Tigers attempted 52 shots. Only 23 made it on goal. Many of their shots went wide.
In the first period against Union, 17 of Princeton’s 19 shots were on goal. The two that didn’t make it were blocked.
“We played pretty well [Friday] night, we just didn’t have much to show for it on the scoreboard,” Princeton coach Len Quesnelle said. “Tonight, I thought our team showed great character and great resiliency coming off a tough loss against RPI.”
The Tigers started the carnage 4:57 into the game with a power-play goal.
Goalie Brandon Snee made a save on a George Parros right-wing shot. Snee kicked the rebound into the slot and right on to the stick of Shane Campbell, who fired it home.
Chris Corrinet made it 2-0 at the 10-minute mark, again scoring on a rebound.
Peter Zavodny scored a fluke goal with 3:41 left. Kirk Lamb won a faceoff from Bryan Yackel in Union’s right circle, and drew the puck back to Zavodny at the right point. Zavodny dumped the puck along the glass, trying to get it behind the net.
Instead, the puck hit a glass partition in the right corner, took a crazy carom to the net and bounced past Snee.
“Teams get a couple of those a year, and that’s our first one,” said Lamb, who had four assists. “We could have used that [Friday] night.”
That ended Snee’s night, and he didn’t get much sympathy from the people controlling the in-house music. They inappropriately played “Na Na Na, Hey Hey Hey, Kiss Him Goodbye.”
“I don’t think he played well,” Union coach Kevin Sneddon said. “Everybody’s got to be held accountable. He wasn’t the only one I sat out.”
Marc Wise replaced Snee, but the Tigers showed no mercy. David Schneider scored a power-play goal with 17.4 seconds left to close out the first-period barrage.
Ethan Doyle made it 5-0 at 6:39 of the second period. Charles Simard scored Union’s first goal on the power play with 8:48 left in the second. Brad Parsons and Sharam Fouladagar-Mercer scored in the third for the Tigers, while Nathan Gillies added a Union goal off an assist from third-string goalie Kyle Loney, who replaced Wise after Fouladagar-Mercer’s goal.
“We didn’t play well, but they played extremely well,” Sneddon said. “They were a great hockey team tonight. You have to give them credit. Lenny had his team ready to go.”
Ken Schott covers college hockey for The Daily Gazette in Schenectady, N.Y.
