Hockey iced by Tigers in DVCHC playoff at Class of '23 rink

If there was ever a playoff game where the scoreboard result seemed unimportant, this was it. As much as the Penn men's club ice hockey team was battling Princeton to advance in the DVCHC playoffs on Friday, the Quakers were battling for respect. They might not have gotten it from the Tigers, but Penn's skaters earned it from a crowd whose size proved that hockey spirit is alive and well in West Philadelphia at the Class of 1923 Ice Rink. Unfortunately, Joe Merrill scored the only Penn goal as the Red and Blue's season ended with a 9-1 defeat. It wasn't a blowout in the beginning, though. Penn dominated the first period but was unable to put the puck in the net. Just 30 seconds into the action, Penn's Harrison Blum, who lit the lamp four times during the season, shot wide of the net on a breakaway. Moments later, Paul Yoon, the Quakers' top goal scorer with 18, had another close miss. DVCHC All-Star Whit Matthews, who led Penn with 37 points (16 goals, 21 assists), fired the puck into the back boards. "We came out flying," Penn winger Ross Giambalvo said. "With the crowd, everything seemed to be going our way. But then we had about two minutes where we made a couple of mistakes and allowed them to take the momentum from us." At 14:08 of the first period, Penn made it's first mistake. The Quakers were on the attack, but Princeton's Matt Lackner picked up an errant pass in the neutral zone, skated past the check of Penn's Doug Watson, and flicked a shot past senior goaltender Michael Grossman. Twenty-eight seconds later, the Tigers struck again, as Drew Evans jammed the puck home through traffic in front of the net. Penn, trailing 2-0 after the first period, knew that a comeback was possible. For all the time that the Quakers held the puck in the Tigers zone in the first frame, some scoring had to be imminent for the home side. It wasn't. Princeton added five unanswered goals in the second period and the focus of the game quickly turned away from the scoreboard. If Penn wasn't going to win the game, they were at least going to leave the team in orange and black feeling black and blue. "Princeton's got some fast guys," Giambalvo said. "And the way you can slow them down is to put a body on them and that was our plan for the entire game. And we also wanted to give the crowd something they wanted to see." At 3:25 of the second period, the crowd certainly had something to see. Penn's Todd Miselis, second on the team with 47 penalty minutes, took the team lead by earning two more for roughing. Miselis wrestled Lackner to the ice and got a few hits in through his gloves before both players were ushered to the penalty box. During the ensuing four-on-four, however, the Tigers used their speed to take advantage of the open ice and scored their fourth goal of the game at 5:06. Later in the period, Princeton again benefited from the Quakers' physical play, as Brian Spaly scored a power play goal. He then skated across the ice with his stick raised in front of the Penn bench and most of the crowd, which had some choice words to fling back. Shortly after the Tigers' sixth goal, Jon Right knocked Grossman over, earning some time in the penalty box. Penn's netminder sprung to his feet but was restrained by his teammates before he could inflict any harm upon the offending forward. "That was another situation that showed they didn't have any respect for us," Giambalvo said. "You just don't do that up 6-0. We had a feeling that Princeton didn't respect us as a school or as a hockey program. [Knocking over Grossman, as well as Spaly's taunting] just backed up our beliefs and made us want to get back up at them for the school, the crowd, the team, everything."

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