Princeton Are 13-0 When It Isn’t a Shootout and 0-5 When It Is
Princeton’s season makes no sense until you look at how their games end. Then it makes perfect, painful sense.
The Tigers are 13-5 this year. In games that finish in regulation or overtime, they’re 13-0. In shootouts, they’re 0-5. Nobody else in Division I has lost more than two shootouts all season. Princeton have lost five, and every one of them hurt.
That’s according to the NCAA’s own numbers, passed on by Princeton’s TigerBlog this week. And the list of teams that have beaten them that way reads like a ranking of the best in the country: the sides seeded second, third, fourth, sixth and eighth. The latest came on Sunday, when Yale beat them 3-2 in a shootout in the Ivy League tournament final to take a first Ivy title.
So here they are, the fifth seed in the NCAA tournament, opening against Syracuse on Friday at 2:30pm ET (12:30am PKT on Saturday) at UConn. And Syracuse, just to twist the knife, are 4-1 in shootouts this season. They won back-to-back shootouts against North Carolina and Boston College to take the ACC tournament, semis and final both.
Win it before the whistle
Princeton’s route through this one is obvious, even if it isn’t easy. Don’t let it get to a shootout.
That’s easier said than done. Seven of Princeton’s 18 games this season have gone to overtime, the most in program history. They’ve won all seven of those. They beat Northwestern 2-1 in overtime in the regular season, and they beat Cornell in overtime too. This is a team that knows how to win a tight game, right up until the moment it stops being a hockey game and becomes a skills contest.
TigerBlog, who has been watching this team all year, isn’t hiding how he feels about it. He hates shootouts, full stop. His point is a fair one: at no point in a normal game do you see a breakaway from 23 metres with nobody else involved for eight seconds, and a format that hands the goalkeeper a save and then leaves an empty net for the rebound decides far too much. His fix is simple. If it’s level after 60 minutes and 15 of overtime, call it a tie in the regular season, and keep playing in the postseason until someone scores.
He’s got a point. Knowing you have to score to win changes how a team plays, and right now Princeton keep losing games they haven’t really lost.
What Friday decides
UConn play Lafayette in the first game at Storrs, then Princeton and Syracuse follow. The two winners meet on Sunday at noon ET (10pm PKT) for a place in the Final Four in Louisville.
Princeton were there last year, or as close as it gets. They reached the NCAA final and lost in double overtime to Northwestern. The Wildcats are the top seed again this year, chasing a third straight championship, and Princeton already own a win over them this season.
For our money, Princeton are the better hockey team on Friday. They’ve proved that in regulation and overtime all year. But if it’s level after 75 minutes, the numbers say Syracuse hold every card. Princeton’s job is to make sure it never gets that far.
