West #3: Princeton

Princeton University Tigers

3 seed vs. Minnesota-Duluth, West Regional (Minneapolis, MN)
8:00 CDT, Friday, March 27, ESPNU
Record: 22-11-1
Coach: Guy Gadowski (144-168-32)

Scoring Summary:
GFA	GAA	Diff.
2.79	2.03	+0.76

Leading Scorers:
#	Player	G-A--Pts
9	Dan Bartlett	16-11--27
16	Brett Wilson	10-15--25
6	Lee Jubinville	10-11--21

Goaltending:
#	Player	Sv %	GAA	W-L-T
32	Zane Kalemba	.935	1.74	22-9-1

Stats via CollegeHockeyNews.com

Princeton is making their second consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament, this time as an at-large selection. Last year's squad went up against North Dakota in the first round and hung tough with the Sioux for a while, but were ultimately outmatched. They return a lot of the key players from that team, notably juniors Lee Jubinville and goalie Zane Kalemba. In fact, the Tigers depend on their veteran talent. Their top five scorers are all upperclassmen and the average age of the team is a downright elderly 22 years, 5 months. Dan Bartlett is their leading goal-scorer with 16, while Brett Wilson leads the team in assists with 15 and is second in penalty minutes with 44. As you might guess based on that, Princeton is the least-penalized team in all of men's D-I hockey, taking only 10.6 minutes per game. You might also guess that, with goal totals like that, Princeton is winning with defense, and you'd be right. Kalemba is the #2 goalie in the country by save percentage, just .005 behind Alaska's Chad Johnson (and .001 in front of Notre Dame's Jordan Pearce and Mercyhurst's Ryan Zapolski). This puts Princeton at fifth and Kalemba at 3rd in scoring defense.

Quick Hits:

• The Princeton "Offense". Princeton didn't put a lot of pucks in the net this year, ranking 31st in the nation on a goals per game basis. The only tournament team that was worse? Cornell, at #39. However, with their tough defense and Zane Kalemba in net, the Tigers rank 12th in scoring margin.

• They'll Thank You Not to Refer to Princeton That Way. Famous fictional Princetonians: Jack Donaghy of 30 Rock, Sideshow Bob's brother Cecil Terwilliger, the eponymous Doogie Howser, The West Wing's Sam Seaborne, and F. Scott Fitzgerald's fictionalized version of Hobey Baker, Amory Blaine of This Side of Paradise.