Sophomore Zane Kalemba made 30 saves as he and No. 16 Princeton blanked Yale 3-0 on Friday night at Hobey Baker Rink in first game of the best-of-three ECAC Hockey Quarterfinal series. The shutout was Princeton’s first-ever postseason shutout.
Princeton jumped on the Bulldogs early scoring twice in the game’s first five minutes to jump ahead 2-0. Things got started 39 seconds into the game when junior Lee Jubinville caused a neutral zone turnover and sent play into the Yale zone where junior Brett Wilson fed Jubinville for his 12th goal and team-leading 38th point of the season.
Princeton added to that lead at 4:17 of the first period when senior Mike Moore scored for the third-straight game with a wrist shot from the point. Sophomore Kevin Kaiser won an offensive zone face-off cleanly back to Moore, who waited for a screen to develop, the beat Yale goaltender Alec Richards high on the stick side for his sixth goal of the season.
Princeton outshot Yale 16-10 in the opening period, then outshot Yale 11-10 in each of the next two periods. The Tigers got a break late in the first when Yale’s Denny Kearney appeared to have scored, but referee John Murphy immediately waved off the goal because it was scored off of Kearney’s skate.
The Tigers made the score 3-0 midway through the second period when freshman Matt Arhontas got his sixth goal of the season on the redirection of a point shot. Moore got the puck to freshman Taylor Fedun at the point who took a wrist shot that Arhontas deflected into the open part of the net.
Princeton held Yale at bay from that point on to come away with the 3-0 win and take a 1-0 lead in the playoff series. Kalemba made 30 saves for his third shutout of the season, while Richards stopped 35 of the 38 shots he faced.
Princeton improved to 18-12 with the win, while Yale fell to 15-13-4. The teams meet again tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. for the second game of the series.
