Off To New Haven

Congratulations to Princeton's new head coach of men's hockey, Ben Syer.

This is from the release on goprincetontigers.com:

A 25-year veteran behind the bench of Division I college hockey programs, Syer takes the reins of the program after recently concluding his 13th season overall at Cornell and his 12th as Associate Head Coach of the Big Red. His previous 12 seasons as a college coach came while serving as Associate Head Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Quinnipiac from 1999-2011.

In 2018, Syer was the recipient of the Terry Flanagan Award which is presented annually by the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) to an assistant coach in recognition of his superior body of work over a career.

“I am thrilled to welcome Ben and his family to Princeton and the men’s hockey program,” said Mack. “He has a proven track record of recruiting and developing student-athletes and positioning them for success on the ice and in the classroom. He has been part of championship teams throughout his entire coaching career, navigating one of the toughest conferences in college hockey year-in, year-out. Throughout this process, it was evident that Ben possesses the qualities we are looking for in a head men’s ice hockey coach at Princeton. He is a passionate recruiter, an innovative tactician and a commanding leader inside the locker room. Under his guidance, I am confident that Princeton’s best days on the ice are ahead of us.”

You can read the entire story HERE.

Syer's announcement came yesterday afternoon. He is a native of Kitchener, Ontario, which is a little more than two hours away from Peterborough, also in Ontario. That would be the hometown of Zach Currier.

Okay, give TB some credit. He'd already written the Currier part before the announcement came. 

Anytime TigerBlog can mention Zach Currier's 2017 season with the Princeton men's lacrosse team, he will do so. 

In case you forgot, this was Currier's line: 24 goals, 34 assists, 130 ground balls, 114x220 facing off (.564 percentage) and a team-best 21 caused turnovers. For putting together the best all-around season for a college midfielder in maybe forever, Currier was NOT selected a USILA first-team All-American, a slight that was laughable then and becomes even more ridiculous as time passes.

It still bothers TB. If you go to the record section for men's lacrosse, TB doesn't even acknowledge it. 

Currier's exploits from that season make their way into TB's pregame story for tomorrow's game at Yale in two different spots.

First, the 21 caused turnovers, which alone is an insane number for someone who, you know, didn't really play defense. Only seven Princeton players have ever reached at least 20 caused turnovers in a season since the stat was first officially kept in 2009, and Currier is the only one to do so with a shortstick. 

The reason it came up this week is that Michael Bath, a current starting defenseman, became the seventh player on the least a week ago, when Princeton defeated Penn 15-10. 

Next, there were the 24 goals. Going back 35 years — or as long as individual face-offs appear in Princeton's stats — only five Princeton players have taken at least 50 percent of the team's face-offs and scored at least seven goals, including Andrew McMeekin, who has done so this year. Currier took 46 percent of the team's face-offs that year, when he had the 24 goals.

Princeton is at Yale tomorrow in a noon start in New Haven. A Princeton win in the game clinches a spot in the Ivy League tournament and almost certainly the No. 2 seed for the Tigers. 

If Yale wins the game, then Princeton would still make the Ivy tournament should Harvard beat Brown in a game that begins at 3:30 tomorrow. The only way Princeton does not reach the ILT is with a loss and a Brown win, in which case the Bears would take the final spot. 

In Providence two weeks ago, Princeton dropped a tough 13-12 game to Brown. How would the Tigers respond against a Penn team playing for a share of the league title? 

Very well.

Princeton played its most complete game of the year, with emotion and intensity from start to finish. The result was a 15-10 win that sets up this weekend's final three Ivy games. In addition to the two TB already mentioned, Cornell is at Dartmouth, where a Big Red win means next weekend's tournament would be in Ithaca.

Yale has the nation's top scoring offense (16.54 per game). Princeton, with the No. 1 scoring defense in the Ivy League, has held eight of its 12 opponents below 12 goals, which is the lowest output for Yale this season.