Princeton Suffers First Shutout Of Season In Loss To St. Lawrence

Princeton hockey suffered its first shutout of the season on Friday, falling 3-0 to St. Lawrence.

“They’re a good team,” Princeton coach Ron Fogarty said. “They’re very mobile on the back end and [have] pretty smart players.”

Gavin Bayreuther and Christian Horn scored less than two minutes apart in the second to put the Saints (8-4-1, 4-1-0 ECAC) in the second. But Princeton netted their own quality scoring chances in the frame.

“That’s the most we’ve generated in the second period in a long time, the quality scoring chances,” Fogarty said.”We had a breakaway we just missed [and] another breakaway to cut it to 2-,1 just missing that. Their goalie played well, but it’s good to see scoring opportunities starting to occur.”

The Tigers (1-5-1, 1-4-0 ECAC) are now on a four-game losing streak. Over that stretch, Princeton as scored three goals and allowed 17.

Down 2-0,Tucker Brockett had a clear breakaway but was robbed by St. Lawrence netminder Kyle Hayton. Hayton, a freshman, made 26 saves in his fourth shutout this season.

Princeton was unable to find the net before Matt Purmal gave St. Lawrence the 3-0 lead with less than three minutes in the game.

St. Lawrence dominated in the opening minutes of the frame, pinning Princeton in their zone. It took almost half the first period fro the Tigers to recover.

“That’s very indicative of Appleton Rink,” Fogarty said. “When I was at Colgate and Clarkson, [it was] the same thing. In the first 5-10 minutes there’s an adjustment period because it’s a different surface and they usually come out very hard.

“We knew there was going to be a five, seven minute wave there coming. We weathered it and we counted near the end of the period as well.”

The Tigers took 26 shots and allowed 40, but kept the Saints from scoring on their three power play chances. Princeton finished 0-for-2 on the power play.

Colton Phinney made 37 saves in the loss, which was his sixth start of the season.

“He’s been playing great,” Fogarty said. “He gave us a chance. We just have to execute on our scoring opportunities.”