Army Hockey Dazzles in 4-1 Win Over Princeton

By Phil Tor

WEST POINT – Army West Point hockey shined against the Princeton Tigers on Saturday night, defeating the ECAC foe by a score of 4-1 for its second win of the season. The Black Knights dropped the Tigers for the first time since 1988-89 behind a solid all-around effort from the team, and gave Army its second straight win over a team receiving votes in national polls.

Tonight was Army’s night, and the Tigers got word of that very early on in the contest after Daniel Haider scored from center ice just three minutes into the game. Haider’s center-ice goal was meantt o just be a simple dump-in play, but the puck picked up spin and ended up bouncing past the Princeton keeper. Haider gave Army a 1-0 lead that they would not surrender for the remainder of the game.

13 minutes later Brett Abdelnour scored his first goal of the season off a series of tape-to-tape passes from John Keranen and Anthony Firriolo. Abdelnour’s goal gave Army a 2-0 advantage heading into the locker room thanks in part to nine first-period saves from Gavin Abric.

Princeton got a goal back at 10:16 in the second period, but Army answered just two minutes later when Eric Butte netted his first goal of the year off the feed from Mitch Machlitt and Joey Baez.

Mitch Machlitt followed up with one of the best goals of the season so far at 17:37 in the second period. The sophomore flew down the right side of the slot, toe draged through his own legs to put the puck on his backhand and eleveated a shot that flew over the goalie’s shoulder and into the back of the net.

Abric would clean up the rest of the Princeton attempts to seal the win for the Black Knights.

Army will have the week off before returning to Tate Rink to play another Ivy League foe. This time, it will be Yale facing off opposite the Black Knights. Puck drop is slated for 7:05 PM on Nov. 12.