Who: Hamilton College Continentals(5-13-3; 3-10-2) at Connecticut College Camels (6-12-3; 3-9-3)
Where: Dayton Arena New London, CT
When: 4:30 PM Monday 2/11/13
Video/Audio: NA
Defense: 3.57 G/GM allowed (7th in NESCAC; 47th in Nation)
Power Play: 10/111 9.0% (10th in NESCAC; <60th in Nation)
Penalty Kill: 65/84 - 77.4% (7th in NESCAC; 57th in nation)
Offense: 2.45 G/GM scored (9th in NESCAC; < 60th in Nation) Defense: 3.57 G/GM allowed (7th in NESCAC; 47th in Nation)
Power Play: 14/77 - 18. % (6th in NESCAC; 44th in Nation)
Penalty Kill: 55/77 - 71.4 % (10th in NESCAC; <60th in Nation)
The Lowdown: Playoffs?...playoffs?!
Both the seventh place Camels and eighth place Continentals come in to today's Nemo re-scheduled affair having lost at Dayton Arena yesterday. Conn College lost to Amherst 4-2, while Hamilton lost 6-4 to Tufts, who had to move their "home" game against the Conts to the neutral site due to the storm.
With just one weekend of NESCAC regular season hockey to be played after the matinee, this game has serious playoff implications. While neither team can clinch a spot today, a victory would put both the Camels or Conts in the driver's seat for making the playoffs. Several weeks ago Hamilton looked like a lock for the NESCAC tournament, but the Continentals have lost five straight (all league games) and have looked like a team in disarray at times. Conn College was behind Hamilton in the standings until the Camels swept a home and home with Tufts last weekend to revitalize their season and leap frog the Conts in the standings.
The teams first met this season back on January 11th in Clinton and skated to a 2-2 tie. Conn College took a 2-1 lead into the final minute, but Dom Jancaterino (F/D, Jr.) scored the equalizer with 6.4 seconds remaining. Due to that tie, a win today would give the conquering side the tiebreaker in the event of a tie in the standings at season's end.
Key(s) to the game:
1.Goaltending
Back when the teams first met, Joe Quattrochi (G, Jr.) was Hamilton's solid work horse goaltender, while Conn College was working on a netminder rotation of Mike Petchonka (G, Jr.) and Tom Conlin (G, Fr.). Quattrochi is still a workorse - second in the NESCAC behind only Williams' Dougherty for minutes played- but the results haven't been as solid. After a tough loss to Trinity, in which Quatts gave up just one goal, the junior from Ontario has given up four or five goals in each of the last four games. Granted his defense has something to do with that, but if the Continentals want to win today, they'll need a better effort from their netminder.
As for CC, Conlin seems to have taken control of the starting job, having started both games against Tufts and yesterday against Amherst. To win today, the Camels will need the freshman from Norwood, MA to play more like he did in the three previous games before yesterday, when he made 30+ saves in each contest.
2. Power Play
As we discussed yesterday, Hamilton isn't just bad on the man advantage, they make matters worse by being good at drawing penalties. Going against one of the worst penalty kills in the NESCAC didn't solve their PP ills, but lucky for them, they now get a shot at the worst penalty kill (at least statistically). The Camels have given up a power play goal in four of the last five games. The Conts have a pretty meager penalty kill themselves, giving up power play goals in three of their last four, including five in the 11 goal debacle against Wesleyan.
Players to watch
Kenny Matheson (F, Fr.) In his return from injury, Matheson validated his player to watch status with two points (1-1-2), including his first collegiate goal. Just up the road in Boston, his younger brother Mike Matheson, the 23rd overall pick in the 2012 NHL draft, will be playing in the Beanpot championship tonight. Here's a radio interview the brothers did when they played for the same USHL team last fall.
JC Cangelosi (F, So.) has six points in the last three games (2-4-6). Cangelosi had hist first and only collegiate hat trick in a four point effort (3-1-4) last year against Hamilton.
In honor of today's playoff implication as well as the fact that Mondays are usually for practice, not games, in the NESCAC, we present DJ Steve Porter's remix "Pross Hop," which includes various press conference quotes including Allen Iverson's "practice" rant and Jim Mora's infamous "playoff" comments.
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