Saw the Princeton-UMass matinee at the Mullins Center in Amherst yesterday.  The second time I've seen Princeton this year, and third time I've seen UMass.  (I believe it was the first meeting between the two teams since Don Cahoon left Princeton for the UMass job 3 years ago, with former Cahoon assistant Len Quesnelle now the head coach of the Tigers.)

For the first 30 minutes plus, it was absolutely no contest.  UMass looked bigger, faster, and more hungry, and had a 4-0 lead late in the 2nd period.  Princeton, on the other hand, looked shaky and flat for the first half of the game (and perhaps dispirited from their back-to-back drubbings at the hands of Yale).

Two consecutive pretty 5-on-3 PPGs by Princeton (look-alike in-close passes across the goal mouth to forwards Owen and Patton, who simply had to knock the pucks into the almost-empty net), however, cut the UMass lead to 4-2 at the end of the period.  

Princeton then scored early in the 3rd (another PPG), and suddenly had all the momentum for the first half of the 3rd period, with plenty of good passing and solid checking, which had been absent much of the game.  UMass held off the onslaught, however, killing a key penalty nicely and keeping the score at 4-3.  Mauldin finally scored an empty-net goal near the end to clinch the win.

Princeton fell to 1-10, while UMass improved to 8-5 (after a 1-3 start).  The teams meet again in a couple of weeks at Baker Rink in Princeton.

Lots of talk in the stands and on the radio after the game about the upcoming home-and-home with BU this weekend.  Feels like people are beginning to believe that this UMass team might be for real, and are anxious to see how they'll stack up against a team like BU, which should be a good measuring stick for where this young UMass team currently stands.  It would be a lot of fun to see UMass keep winning and even filling some of those tons of empty seats in the Mullins Center.

For Princeton, on the other hand, prospects for this year seem awfully discouraging.  They appeared outclassed at Dartmouth a week or so ago (although they hung around the whole game), and yesterday seemed overwhelmed early by UMass.  Even after getting back into the game, there were some ugly/disorganized moments.  In particular, there were 3 different occasions in the last 5 minutes when Princeton had too many men on the ice right before a faceoff, and the ref held up play to let them get one of the guys off.  They are a young team, however, and have historically played a lot better in late-season games than in the early going.  Will keep my fingers crossed.

Dan McMurrer
Amherst, MA
(Princeton '90)