With Princeton in Town, Men's Hockey Looks To Win Third Straight

UPDATED: January 29, 2016, at 11:08 a.m.

After suffering a short midseason slump, the No. 7/7 Harvard men’s hockey team snapped its slide with two convincing wins over Colgate and No. 14/13 Cornell this past weekend, finding twine on 10 occasions while only conceding four goals.

The Crimson (11-4-3, 7-3-3 ECAC) will look to keep its offensive attack in tune in its Friday matchup against Princeton (5-12-2, 3-7-2) at the Bright-Landry Hockey Center before its Beanpot Semifinal against No. 5/5 Boston College on Monday.

VESEY POINT STREAK

Senior forward Jimmy Vesey was part of the top class of the ECAC last season, and not much has changed this year. The Charlestown native has an eight-game point streak in which he has accumulated six goals and eight assists, including putting up a hat trick over St. Lawrence in a five minute span. This comes off last season’s performance, where Vesey started off the year with a 21-game point streak that was snapped in a shutout loss at Yale.

Vesey leads the ECAC in points on the season, despite having played fewer games than his elite counterparts. The senior has 30 points in 18 games, while second-place Sam Anas of Quinnipiac has 29 points in seven more contests.

A FAVORABLE HISTORY

The last time Harvard lost against Princeton, the junior class had not yet set foot on campus.

The Crimson has racked up five straight wins over the Tigers, not even conceding a tie in the five-game unbeaten streak. Harvard has outscored its Ivy League foe by a margin of 20-8 over those five tilts.

In the earlier matchup this year in Baker Rink, three goals and sophomore Merrick Madsen’s second career shutout led Harvard to a comfortable win. Not much suggests that there is a strong chance of that changing, with Princeton sitting in the bottom third of the conference standings.

PRINCETON’S OFFENSIVE WOES

Friday will match the ECAC’s best and worst offenses per scoring averages, with Princeton sitting alone in the cellar with a 2.32 goals per game mark. Harvard, on the other hand, boasts the top ranked offense in the conference with an average of 3.83 tallies per contest.

Princeton also lacks a consistent scorer in the offensive end. The top-ranked point-getter for the Tigers is Ryan Kuffner, who is tied for 36th in the conference with 13 points. Four Crimson skaters—including three in the top 10—stand above him in terms of league point totals.

—Staff writer Kurt T. Bullard can be reached at kurt.bullard@thecrimson.com.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: January 29, 2016

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the Crimson was sitting in the bottom third of the ECAC conference standings. In fact, it is Princeton sitting in the bottom third.