Competing in the Mariucci Classic in Minneapolis, Minn. last weekend, the Princeton University men’s hockey team drew a tough opening round assignment.

The Tigers were matched against Northeastern, who brought a six-game winning streak into the game with victories over No. 18 UMass Lowell, No. 2 Notre Dame, and No. 11 Michigan during that stretch. Moreover, the Huskies held a 25-13-3 edge in the all-time series with Princeton.

Tiger head coach Bob Prier realized his team had its hands full with Northeastern.

“It was a tough challenge; they have eight [NHL] draft picks,” noted Prier.

Building on some good practice sessions last week after returning from the holiday break, the Tigers proved to be up for the challenge.

Battling back from three one-goal deficits, Princeton knotted the game at 3-3 midway through the third period and forced overtime.

Neither team could find the back of the net in the extra session, necessitating a shootout to determine which team would advance to the championship game.

The shootout turned into an eight-round marathon with Northeastern prevailing after Princeton goalie Mike Condon had stymied its first seven shooters.

“It was extremely disappointing to lose the shootout,” said Prier, who also got goals from Jack Berger and Tyler Maugeri in the game with junior goalie Condon making 38 saves.

“It is a lousy way to end a hockey game but it had to happen. I thought we had the advantage going into the shootout because Condon was playing great. He was great in the shootout, we just couldn’t get one past their guy.”

While the ending left Prier with a lousy feeling, he thought his players did gain from the experience of battling the Huskies.

“It was the right test for the guys,” said Prier. “We need to compete against those type of teams; we got a lot out of it.”

A day later, the Tigers got a second tough test as they faced another hot team in Niagara, which had gone 3-0-3 in its six games prior to the Minneapolis trip.

This time, Princeton held two one-goal leads. The Tigers went up 2-1 early in the third period on a goal by senior captain Marc Hagel and gained a 3-2 advantage with 7:34 left in regulation as senior forward as Brody Zuk found the back of the net.

But taking a penalty in the waning moments, Princeton got burned as Niagara scored on a 6-on-4 situation with 54 seconds left in the third to force overtime. That was the last tally of the contest as the teams skated to a 3-3 tie.

Prier wasn’t pleased by his team’s second tie of the weekend. “We didn’t play as well as we did against Northeastern; at the same time, they are also one of the hotter teams,” said Prier, whose team moved to 4-9-4 with the tie.

“I feel like it was a loss, when you have a lead like that. Not to take anything away from them, we let that game get tied. You take a late penalty that gives them a 6-on-4; that is a pretty good advantage. I hope that we have learned from that.”

In Prier’s view, the Tigers can take some good lessons from the weekend. “We played two tough teams on the road and came out of it with two points,” said Prier. “We need to take that kind of play when we come back to the league.”

Princeton got some tough play from senior defenseman and assistant captain Derrick Pallis as he played through illness to notch a goal and an assist against Niagara.

“Pallis had a very good game against Niagara,” said Prier, whose team got 35 saves from sophomore goaltender Sean Bonar in the tie with Niagara.

“Certainly offensively with a multi-point game and he was really good on defense. He competed like we need him to. He was under the weather; he had a flu and I didn’t play him against Northeastern. He still looked like death; I think he lost 12 pounds. It is nice to see him do really well, maybe it was good for him to watch a game and see that he needs to really bring it when he is on the ice.”

With Princeton currently in 10th place in the ECAC Hockey standings sporting a 3-7-1 league mark, the Tigers will need to bring it if they are going to get points out of this weekend when they play at Brown (6-6-1 overall, 3-3 ECACH) on January 6 and at No. 20 Yale (7-5-1 overall, 4-2 ECACH) on January 7.

“Brown is a lot better than people think; Yale is going to be tough,” asserted Prier.

“We have to be spot-on the whole time to get a sweep on the road. We have got to have focus and prepare well. We have to be prepared to outwork them. We need to pay attention to detail and be in the right place.”

The Tigers are in a good place health-wise, so Prier has the depth to make things tough for Princeton’s foes.

“Health will do that; we are in good shape,” said Prier. “People have to compete to play and practices are elevated. You have to work harder if you want to be in it. We have the legs and speed to get in the grill of other teams and frustrate them. At this point, you have to do it all the time; you can’t do it on eight of 10 shifts.”