Face-Off Classic » Tigers get early jump on Blue Jays

BALTIMORE — Ninth-ranked Princeton took an early lead in the first game of the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic to beat No. 6 Johns Hopkins 14-8 Saturday.

Hopkins started well picking up the initial faceoff. Princeton sophomore Jack McBride and senior Mark Kovler took charge early though and put away a goal each. Hopkins middie Michael Kimmel answered back to end the first quarter 6-1 Tigers.

Hopkins freshman goalie Michael Gvozden had 16 saves off of Princeton’s 80 shots first three quarters. He calmed down as the game progressed, allowing him to focus more on the play of the ball and not see red.

“We just didn’t know our job we had planned over the week and it showed today,” Gvozden said.

The game leaned in the Tigers’ favor as McBride continued to score, finishing the game with four goals. The physicality of the game got a bit more brutal as the second quarter unfolded with Hopkins’ Mark Bryan colliding with Kovler, making the Blue Jays play a man down for the slashing call.

Half time came with a score of 9-3. The second half had Kimmel and McBride make shots for Hopkins, both coming from behind the net to score in the top corner and Gvozden made a nice save off of Princeton’s attacks with about eight minutes left in the quarter.

Hopkins’ play became more aggressive in the second half with an unnecessary roughness call against defender Matt Drenan and then Sam DeVore shoved McBride with a minute left in the game and resulted in Hopkins ending the game two men down.

“Princeton did a wonderful job of competing hard and did what they were coached to do,” said Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala. “We spent too much time whining about calls, too much time worrying about a goal we gave up, instead of spending enough time worrying about doing our jobs.”