NEWARK, N.J. — Yale righted the ship after a lackluster loss to Brown on Friday night in defeating Princeton 3-2 on Saturday night.
Both games were part of the Liberty Hockey Invitational. The tournament, hosted by Princeton, was held at the Prudential Center.
Things got off to a quick start for the Bulldogs and they never looked back.
Sophomore winger Matthew Beattie, who was knocked out of last night’s game after a check from behind by Dennis Robertson, scored his first collegiate goal on a pretty wrist shot just three minutes in. It was the first goal of the weekend scored by a New Jersey native, as the Vancouver Canucks’ draft pick hails from Whitehouse Station, 40 minutes west of “The Rock.”
For Beattie, it was a sweet moment.
“That was cool,” said Beattie. “It was nice coming home. I had a lot of family and friends in the stands.”
It was also Beattie’s first time playing at the Prudential Center, unlike teammate Kenny Agostino, who won state titles in the building during his youth days.
Yale kept things going and got a pretty goal out of junior forward Trent Ruffolo 6:14 into the first. Sophomore center Cooper Carlson made an excellent move to create space and found the Florida native in the slot and he beat Princeton goalie Sean Bonar.
Bonar was the only goalie in the tournament to compete in both of his team’s games and looked somewhat human tonight following a 38-save win over Dartmouth on Friday.
You could argue Princeton started as badly as the Tigers did against Dartmouth, but actually got victimized for their play on Saturday.
Princeton coach Bill O’Brien agreed.
“Tough when you get scored on that early,” said Prier. “It might’ve been their first opportunity and they buried it.
He was impressed, however, with the same resilience his team showed as last night.
“Again, they battled back, had a good third period,” Prier added. “We can build off that.”
The Tigers showed life later in the first as junior Tyler Maugeri was set up by freshman center Ben Foster to beat John Spano to make it 2-1 at 14:42. Regardless, it was a bit of a lackluster offensive performance all around for the Tigers.
Princeton managed just 24 shots on Spano, with the low point coming in a two-shot second period.
Yale got its two-goal lead back midway through the second period with the lone shorthanded goal of the tourney. Sophomores Stu Wilson and Nicolas Weberg combined on a two-on-one and Weberg beat Bonar to make it 3-1.
Yale never looked back, though Princeton got a late goal from Andrew Ammon with just eight seconds remaining to make it close at the end.
O’Brien credited the goal with leading to Princeton’s sluggish second period.
Yale coach Keith Allain credited the win as a team effort after last night’s loss.
“I wanted to let them know that ice time is earned,” said Allain. “Positions on the line are earned. To be honest with you, we used everyone equally tonight and everyone contributed to our victory.”
As a result of the Tigers loss on Saturday, Brown was declared the winner of the first-ever Liberty Hockey Invitational as the Bears were the only team to emerge from the weekend undefeated.
All-Tournament Team
G – Sean Bonar, Princeton
D – Brandon Pfeil, Brown
D – Brent Patterson, Dartmouth
F – Tucker Brockett, Princeton
F – Stu Wilson, Yale
F – Mark Naclerio, Brown
MVP – Naclerio
