For Tommy Davis, his freshman season on the Princeton University men’s hockey team last winter turned into a lost year.
Hampered by a concussion, the highly-touted defenseman only played in seven games, tallying two assists.
Back at full speed this winter, Davis is making up for lost time. “It is kind of like my repeat freshman year so I am still getting used to playing all of the teams,” said Davis, a 6’2, 185-pound native of Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J. “I think now in my 17th game, I am fully adapted. I feel comfortable.”
Last Friday, Davis showed his increased comfort level, notching his first career goal as the Tigers hosted No. 9 Harvard.
“I was playing the right point on the power play and Aaron Ave made a great play where he just froze everybody,” said Davis, recalling his tally.
“It sucked everybody, including the goalie, to his side and it moved over to me and I knew just to put it on the low blocker right away.
While Davis was thrilled to finally find the back of the net, he was disappointed that it didn’t lead to victory as the Tigers fought back from deficits of 2-0 and 4-2 only to lose 4-3.
“I think it is special but at the same time, a win is more important, especially as the game went on,” said Davis. “When we tied the game at 2-2, I thought it was ours. It was kind of disappointing to have a slow start in the third like that.”
Davis was not disappointed by the Tigers’ pluck as his goal and freshman Joe Grabowski’s first career tally made it a 2-2 game going into the third period. After Harvard scored two goals in the first 6:39 of the third period, the Tigers battled back with an Aaron Kesselman goal but couldn’t get the equalizer.
“We are a very resilient team,” said Davis.” I think we just need to focus for 60 minutes. It is just little lulls and that can’t happen in college hockey, especially against a team that is as good as Harvard. They are so offensively gifted, you just can’t have those mental lapses.”
In Davis’s view, working harder in practice will help Princeton be stronger mentally in crucial situations.
“We are young and we are going to grind it out,” said Davis, who has two assists this season to go with his goal.
“I think we have just got to work on it in practice. If our practices are 100 percent all the time and focused, I think the games will follow suit. You practice how you play. We had a bad practice on Tuesday but Wednesday and Thursday were great and that was kind of how our game was, a couple of bad shifts but for the most part pretty good. But the margin of error is too slight in the NCAA so we have to shore that up.”
Princeton head coach Ron Fogarty concurs, asserting that the Tigers have to pay more attention to detail.
“That is a very good hockey team and quick so we just have to keep doing the little things well,” said Fogarty.
“We can’t complicate our small lapses or some of the mistakes that compound and result in goals against or penalties. We have to make sure that if we do make a mistake that we minimize.”
Fogarty, though, liked the way his team fought to the final horn. “The resiliency, you are down by two and you come back and tie it up and then down by two again and we had a chance to win,” said Fogarty. “That’s the team. The team dictates that effort to come back after being down by two. I applauded the leadership in the dressing room.”
The play of sophomore goalie Colton Phinney has drawn a lot of applause this winter.
“He is a very good goaltender and regardless of what team he is on, he would be the most valuable player,” said Fogarty of Phinney, who made a career-high 51 saves in the loss to Harvard.
“He is doing a great job. We are asking a lot of him and he is delivering. We have to rely on him a bit too much, he gives us an opportunity to counter. They had had a few more quality scoring chances, more than our previous four games. We have to make sure that we do a better job. They had a lot of team speed and they are a very good hockey team, they are 9th in the country for a reason.”
Fogarty was happy to see Davis capitalize on his scoring chance in the second period. “He’s very offensive minded and he is starting to realize how to pick his spots,” said Fogarty, whose team fell 4-2 to Dartmouth on Saturday to move to 2-9-1 overall and 1-7 ECAC Hockey.
“In the first couple of games, he was a little rambunctious and trying to force plays. Now he is sitting back and letting those plays occur and not trying to manufacture things that aren’t there. He’s an asset to our team and it is good to see him get his first goal by not trying to be overzealous.”
Although Fogarty is not happy with his team’s record so far in his debut season at the helm of the program, he is confident that good things are around the corner.
“It is a step forward but again you want the results to come quicker than they sometimes occur,” said Fogarty of his squad, which plays a two-game set at No. 3 Minnesota State (12-4) on December 12 and 13.
“As a coach, you have to remain focused and keep doing the better things. Our mission was around Christmas time to see what our team brings to the table and I am already excited about what they are doing ahead of schedule.”
Davis, for his part, is excited to be playing college hockey in his home state.
“I didn’t really realize that I would have an opportunity to play college hockey until about high school and then Princeton was definitely at the top of my list,” said Davis, a star for the powerful Delbarton School program who went on to play junior hockey for Youngstown in the USHL.
“I am fortunate enough to have a train station right in my town, all of my friends and family get to come down here. It is really nice. I usually have around 8-10 people in the stands for every home game. It is pretty awesome. I don’t think a lot of college kids get to do that.”