The Princeton Tigers have done it a again.
For the second time in three weeks, the Tigers have swept a team in the USCHO’s Top 20 poll. This weekend they took down the No. 7 Quinnipiac Bobcats in a home and home series. Friday night at Hobey Baker Rink they had five different goal scorers in the 5-3 victory. Not even 24 hours later, this time in Hampden, Conn., Max Véronneau had two goals and an assist in the 4-1 victory.
Two weeks ago they swept a Bemidji State team. They did drop a game against Union last weekend.
Veronneau has been on fire for the Tigers with 13 of his team leading 18 points coming the past two weekends. Ryan Kuffner and Jackson Cressey have seven points the past four games.
Colton Phinney hasn’t been putting up stellar numbers, but he’s giving his team a chance to win right now. He seems to finally getting into a rhythm because the schedule doesn’t let up to end the first half in the second half.
After a home game against UMass on Tuesday, Princeton welcomes the Minnesota State Mavericks for a pair of games next weekend. The Mavericks came into this weekend 16th in the nation and swept Ferris State.
After this weekend, they have one more non-conference game and it’s against Penn State who currently has the nations best record at 13-1-1. Princeton hosts the Nittany Lions on Jan. 28.
A change at the top of the ECAC standings
A few weeks ago, the Bobcats had a comfortable lead in the conference standings, but after being swept, they woke up on Sunday morning in third place. The Union Dutchmen and the St. Lawrence Saint each jumped Quinnipiac in the standing. Union lead the conference with 17 points while Clarkson is one point behind Union.
Spencer Foo had a big weekend for Union as he had four goals in the games against Brown and Yale. In the win over Yale Saturday, he had a hat trick. The Saints defeated rival Clarkson on Friday night in their lone game of the weekend.
Quinnipiac with 13 points has a two point lead over Clarkson who’s in fourth. Cornell and Harvard are tied for fifth with nine points.
There’s no place like home
The Dartmouth College Big Green record doesn’t stand out at 4-5-2 overall and 1-3-2 in ECAC, but at Thompson Arena this season, they are 3-0-1. On Saturday they defeated in state rival the University of New Hampshire 5-1 in Hanover.
What’s more impressive is the opposition has only scored four goals this season.
It’s something they can build on for the second half of the season as 11 of their final 18 games will be played at Thompson Arena.
