ECAC Finals vs. No. 16 Harvard

Hi and welcome to downtown Albany’s Times Union Center for tonight’s ECAC Finals showdown between No. 15 Princeton and No. 16 Harvard.

Yesterday afternoon, backed by lights-out goaltending from sophomore Zane Kalemba, the Tigers beat Colgate 3-0 in the first semifinal. Kalemba made 27 saves in the shutout – with a number of timely highlight reel stops – and the Tigers, who were unable to find a groove in the first two periods, capitalized on a pair of Raiders mistake to score twice in the third – Princeton added an empty-net tally in the final period. Tigers goals were scored by freshman forward Matt Arhontas – who has scored in each of the Tigers’ four playoff games this season – and Kevin Lohry, who netted both the game’s second goal and the empty netter. (A more comprehensive recap of the game can be found on The Daily Princetonian website, www.dailyprincetonian.com).

Last night, Harvard outlasted Cornell 3-1 to earn the right to play Princeton in the finals. Cornell looked to be the better team, but a pair of early Crimson power play goals proved enough to pace Harvard to its fifth title game in the last seven years.

The two teams met twice during the regular season with each team winning on its home ice. On January 5, in Hobey Baker Rink, the Tigers beat the Crimson 2-1 on goals from Arhontas and sophomore forward Kevin Kaiser. On February 15 in Cambridge, Princeton suffered its only Ivy League loss, 3-2. Harvard forward Doug Rogers scored a hat trick in the game.

The Crimson finished the regular season in third in the ECAC, thanks mostly to sophomore goaltender Kyle Richter. Richter led the ECAC in save percentage (.935) and goals-against-average (1.82) during the regular season, while recording 12 wins and earning the award for the ECAC’s Goaltender of the Year. Harvard surrender the least goals – 41 – in ECAC play, and are led by senior defenseman Dave McDonald, and forwards Doug Rogers (sophomore) and Mike Taylor (senior).

Tonight’s game features two of the least penalized teams in the ECAC – Princeton was 9^th and Harvard 10^th – and the Crimson boast the league’s best special teams average. Harvard killed 91.3% of the opposition’s penalties this season, which led the league, and are third in the league on the power play, converting 20%.

Princeton enters today’s contest as the ECAC’s best offense, having scored 75 goals in ECAC play this season. The Tigers’ junior forward Lee Jubnvillle led the league with 38 points, and senior defenseman Mike Moore led all ECAC defensemen with 16 points.

The 2007-2008 ECAC season ending awards were announced yesterday and Princeton, the league's second best team statistically, took home a lot of hardware. Senior forward Landis Stankievech was awarded ECAC Student-Athlete of the Year, senior defenseman Mike Moore was named ECAC defenseman of the Year, head coach Guy Gadowsky - finishing his fourth season behind the Tigers' bench - was awarded ECAC Coach of the Year, and junior forward Lee Jubinville was named ECAC Player of the Year. The Tigers also earned the Turfer Athletic Award for team sportsmanship. Congrats boys.

Tonight's game features a number of players named to ECAC teams. On the First Team All-ECAC are Princeton's Moore, and Jubinville and Harvard's Richter. On the Second Team All-ECAC is Princeton junior forward Brett Wilson and on the Third Team All-ECAC is Harvard's sophomore defender Alex Biega. Neither team had a player named to the ECAC All-Rookie team.

To win tonight, the Tigers are going to need to accomplish three things that they struggled with last night. The following are Princeton’s Three Keys to the Game

1) The Tigers need to get traffic in front of the goalie. Princeton thrives on throwing the puck at the net with bodies in front to hammer rebounds and screen opposing goalies. This starts with getting defensemen involved in the play and establishing possession in the attacking third of the ice, but it is a necessity for Princeton’s success. The Tigers scored twice on Colgate errors last night, and cannot expect to do the same today.

2) The Tigers need to establish themselves physically. All season Princeton has been a hard-nosed, physical team, and they got away from that yesterday. From the drop of the first puck, Princeton needs to let Harvard know that skating with your head down will earn you a trip to the ice, and that no puck will be left unchallenged. Similar to point Key 1, playing a physical game will help the Tigers get back to the tough ‘Princeton Hockey’ that was so successful this season.

3) The Tigers defense needs to avoid giving up the big play. While the blueliners were good yesterday, they gave Colgate a number of quality fast break opportunities. Kalemba was tremendous, stopping everything thrown at him, but the Tigers cannot expect that two games in a row. The Princeton defense will need to continue its steady play while preventing the odd-man rushes and fast break opportunities that nearly buried them yesterday.

The consolation game just ended – Cornell defeated Colgate 4-1 – and we should be getting underway within the next half hour. Both team's are currently warming up - Princeton in their home whites and Harvard in their away Crimson - so stick with me, and I will bring you the action as it unfolds.