3rd period notes

9:20pm: Princeton’s Mark Magnowski scores on a nice turnaround shot at the empty net, and that’s pretty much going to do it here in Albany. The Princeton Tigers are your 2008 ECAC tournament champions, and they will play in the NCAA tournament beginning next weekend. Check out CHN’s continous coverage of the Pairwise implications and the tournament seeding tomorrow. Congratulations to Princeton.
9:18pm: With 2:38 remaining, RIchter heads to the bench. Empty net for Harvard.
9:17pm: Goal! Princeton takes a 3-1 lead with a power play goal, with 3:06 remaining in the period. Expect Kyle Richter to head to the bench fairly soon. Brett Wilson scored the goal through a screen for the Tigers.
9:14pm: Harvard having some real trouble skating the puck into the Princeton zone, as all five Tigers seem to converge on the puck-carrier. Now, with 3:47 remaining, Princeton is going on the power play, with Harvard sophomore blueliner Alex Biega going into the box for interference. The Tigers could put this one away right now.
9:06pm: Princeton starting to tighten things up, but you get the feeling Harvard will have at least two or three solid offensive flurries in the final moments here. 8:46 remaining in the third period.
8:57pm: By the way, Zane Kalemba’s shutout streak ended at 190:06. And his counterpart Kyle Richter just made a nice right pad stop on Princeton’s Kevin Lohry, who scored two goals yesterday.
8:56pm: Harvard kills it off. Back to even strength. 15 minutes left in the period.
8:53pm: At 3:02 of the period, Harvard captain David MacDonald takes an interference penalty, and now it’s Princeton that will go on the power play. This may break up Harvard’s momentum, as the Crimson came out skating hard and firing pucks towards Kalemba.
8:48pm: Well that didn’t take long. 24 seconds in, Harvard strikes on the power play. They had a 4-on-3 advantage, and Harvard forward Jon Pelle ripped a shot over Kalemba’s left shoulder. 2-1 game, and Harvard is still going to be on the power play in a few moments.
8:47pm: The Tigers and Crimson take the ice for the final period of regulation here in Albany. The ECAC championship and an NCAA bid are on the line, with Princeton leading 2-0. Should be an entertaining period. And here we go…
2nd period notes

8:32pm: Period ends, and Princeton leads 2-0. Harvard leads in shots on goal, 25-23.
8:31pm: End-to-end action here. Kyle Richter fought off a Cam MacIntyre laser shot, and on the other end, Jimmy Fraser gets hooked on a short-handed rush and draws a penalty to even things up. Richter then makes another nice save on Brett Wilson.
8:29pm: 1:14 remaining in the period, and Harvard’s Doug Rogers goes to the penalty box for cross-checking.
8:28pm: It will be interesting to see how Harvard responds now, particularly the Crimson seniors. As I type this, Harvard senior Dave Watters twice muscles through a pair of Princeton players to put the puck on goal. They’ll need an enormous amount of effort to score three goals against Zane Kalemba, who has a shutout streak approaching 200 minutes now.
8:19pm: Princeton scores again on a play that may haunt Kyle Richter for a while. Princeton senior Landis Stankievech floated the puck in from the blue line, and it somehow eluded Richter, trickling slowly into the net. Stankievech, by the way, was named a Rhodes scholar earlier this season — one of the highest academic honors one can achieve. He was recently named the ECAC Student-Athlete of the Year. And he’s given his Tigers a 2-0 advantage in the championship game. 6 minutes to play in the period.
8:15pm: Hm. Just noticed that the Tigers must have had a last-minute lineup change too. Senior Keith Shattenkirk is listed on he line chart on the fourth line for Princeton, but it appears that classmate Erik Pridham is playing in his place. Pridham, a senior, has played in just 10 games this season. Moments ago, he plowed into Harvard goaltender Kyle Richter, much to the dislike of Crimson defenseman Brian McCafferty.
8:12pm: The all-upperclassmen Crimson line of Tyler Magura-Jimmy Fraser-Steve Rolecek just had a great shift in the Princeton defensive end, with some sustained pressure. Let’s see if Harvard can keep up the intensity here.
8:09pm: Brett Wilson for Princeton just had a nice chance but was turned aside by Richter. Wilson, a junior with 34 points in 32 games this year, lines up next to Lee Jubinville on Princeton’s top line. They have had two or three very solid shifts this game.
8:05pm: The play this period is very slow and deliberate. The Princeton defense is doing a good job collapsing around Kalemba, not letting many shots through. Harvard is also struggling to move through the neutral zone.
8:01pm: Almost 5 minutes gone by in the second period now, and Princeton still leads 1-0. Kalemba just made a nice glove save on a fluttering shot from Crimson freshman defenseman Chris Huxley, who by the way was inserted into the lineup less than an hour before game time, replacing senior J.D. McCabe, who was originally listed in the lineup.

1st period notes
7:41pm: And, thankfully, this should be the final time this weekend that we have to hear the Times Union Center’s public addresser announcer exclaim, “And now, it’s time for some crazy, wacky, Sumo fun!… Get ready… And… Sumo!” More thoughts to come in the second period (about hockey, not sumo wrestling).
7:40pm: The first period comes to an end, and Princeton leads 1-0. Lots of shots in this one, with the Tigers leading in that department 15-13.
7:38pm: Princeton going on its first power play of the game, with 1:56 remaining in the period. Tigers captain Mike Moore had another nice chance on the delayed penalty, left wide open between the hash marks. Richter made a nice save.
7:29pm: With 6:31 remaining in the period, ECAC and Ivy Player of the Year Lee Jubinville appears to knock another one in for Princeton, poking at a loose puck between Kyle Richter’s pads. But the play was blown dead a split second before, after the official, Peter Feola, lost sight of the puck. On the other end, Kalemba makes a nice save on Harvard’s Matt McCollem, who had a nice end-to-end rush.
7:23pm: Harvard moves the puck very well on the power play; they seem to always do so. Princeton netminder Zane Kalemba had a couple of nice saves, including kicking out his right pad at the last second to stop a shot from the point. The Harvard power play comes to an end, with Kalemba stopping another shot. He already has 11 saves, just 9:33 into the game. The Hagel-Kaiser-Kushniruk line for Princeton , by the way, has been buzzing so far in this game.
7:22pm: Moore, the goal-scorer for Princeton, takes his third minor penalty of the weekend — a hooking call. Let’s see what the Harvard power play can do. The Crimson went 3-for-6 on the man-advantage last night. 11:37 remaining in the first period, 1:05 left on the Crimson power play.
7:16pm: Goal! Princeton is flying, and they get on the board first. Senior captain Mike Moore tipped in a Kyle Hagel shot to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
7:10pm: Some other stats to note: For Princeton, the Tigers are looking for their first ECAC championship and NCAA tournament berth since 1998. They are also looking for their 21st victory of the season, which would be a school record. This is Princeton’s third appearance in the ECAC championship game. The Tigers are 1-1 in the other two (losing to Rensselaer 5-1 in the 1995 title game and then beating Clarkson 5-4 in double OT in the aforementioned 1998 game). For Harvard, this is the Crimson’s 17th championship game and sixth in the last seven years. Harvard is 8-8 all time in the ECAC title game and 3-2 since 2002. Harvard, which is 10-2-1 in its last 13 games, is seeking its 22nd NCAA tournament appearance.
7:06pm: Starting lineups have been announced. National anthems have been played. And the teams are huddling around their respective goaltenders — Zane Kalemba for Princeton, who has 3 shutouts so far in the ECAC tournament (a record) and an active shutout streak of 149:42… and Kyle Richter for Harvard, the ECAC goaltender of the year. The puck drops.

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 - 7:07 pm | ECAC Live Blogging