RETURN TRIP: Princeton High boys’ hockey player Mike Wasson controls the puck last Friday against Robbinsville in the Mercer County Tournament semifinals. Sophomore forward Wasson scored the winning goal in the game as third-seeded PHS edged No. 2 Robbinsville 3-2 to earn its third straight trip to the title game. On Monday, Wasson added a goal and an assist but it wasn’t enough as PHS fell 6-3 to top-seeded Notre Dame in the county championship game. The Little Tigers, now 14-6-2, will next be in action when they compete in the upcoming state Public B tournament. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

For a nearly 35-minute segment of the Mercer County Tournament championship game last Monday night, the Princeton High boys’ hockey team outscored Notre Dame 2-1.

Third-seeded PHS battled the No. 1 Fighting Irish to a scoreless stalemate for the first 17 minutes of the contest and outscored Notre Dame 2-1 over the last 17:46 of the game.

But there was a 10-minute stretch in the middle of the second period where the Fighting Irish went on a 5-1 run and that proved decisive as they earned a 6-3 win and the county crown before a standing room only crowd at the Mercer County Park rink.

PHS head coach Tim Campbell liked the way his team started and finished the contest as it fell to 14-6-2.

“We were in really good shape in the first period at 0-0; a tie at the end of the first period against this team as far as I am concerned is getting up on them,” said Campbell, pointing out that his team generated several shots on goal in the first five minutes of the game.

“At intermission, I just said let’s not back down, let’s go out and win the period and we did. We battled in the third period; we didn’t let down. We won it 2-1.”

But Campbell acknowledged that things went awry in the middle portion of the game.

“We gave up a lot of goals right on top of each other in the second period which took some wind out of our sails,” said Campbell, noting the PHS suffered similar lapses in its two regular season losses to the Fighting Irish.

“We had one bad period. If you had a magic wand and could remove a couple of chunks of time we skated right with them.”

But one can’t take away anything from PHS and its fighting spirit. “They have a lot of pride,” said Campbell, who got goals from Mike Wasson, Will Greenberg, and Kirby Peck in the loss with goalie Josh Berger making 37 saves on a night in which the Little Tigers were outshot 43-16.

“If they are going to go down, they are going to go down swinging, figuratively and literally.”

It is a matter of pride for the PHS program to have made three straight county title games.

“For the third straight year, we are the best public school in the county,” said Campbell, whose team topped Notre Dame in last year’s championship game after losing to Princeton Day School in the 2010 final.

“There is a lot to be said for consistency; I am happy with that aspect. We walk out of here with our chins held high. We battled for the majority of the game. We are just dog-tired and exhausted. It has been a physically and emotionally taxing week. It is difficult to repeat and that is why you rarely see even professionals repeat two years in a row.”

Campbell is confident that PHS will put up a good battle in the upcoming state Public B tournament.

“We should  have a decent seed for the states and hopefully have at least one home game,” said Campbell, whose squad made it to the second round of the 2011 state competition.

“We do have momentum, even coming away with a loss. I look forward to it.”