NESCAC Hockey Halloween costume ideas

Perhaps you already partook in Halloween debauchery last weekend and got your costume on. Perhaps you are a purist and will wait until this Thursday to dress up, but you already have your costume meticulously planned out. If you already have your nados sharked, your giant Arcade Fire heads paper mached or your Virginia Woolf in sheep's clothing outfit laid out, these suggestions aren't for you.

Maybe you wear the same costume every year.  Or you just don't give a flying expletive and won't dress up at all, thank you very much.

But for those of you that are NESCAC hockey players, fans, students, etc. looking for a last minute costume idea, we've got you covered. Below are some ideas.

Ted Orion from D3: Mighty Ducks  

Sure this was, by far, the worst of the Mighty Ducks movies. A prep school Varsity/JV game as climactic moment? Seriously? But terrible plots aside, we are talking about D-III hockey here, right? And the movie is called D3. Get it? Get it?! Ok, you got it. Plus, throw in the prep school connection and we have the makings of one 'Cacy costume.

And irony is all the rage these days, right? Anyone can be Coach Bombay or Charlie Conway or Goldberg, but no one is expecting you to be a fictitious Minnesota North Stars player that quits the NHL to coach prep school JV hockey in order to take care of his paraplegic daughter. This also has the added benefit of being an easy costume to make.

What you need:
-whistle
-white turtle neck
-Red Jacket with EH taped on 
-hair gel and comb 

Guy Hebert
Speaking of Mighty Ducks, how about everyone's favorite NESCAC player turned NHL franchise starting goaltender. Hamilton alum ('89) and original Mighty Ducks netminder Guy Hebert is already immortalized with a giant face banner in Sage Arena, so why not with a Halloween costume by a Hamilton student? 


What you need:
- Ducks Jersey/Hamilton Hat; or 
-Hamilton Jersey/Ducks Hat 
-if you want to be really authentic, and you happen to have a relationship with current Anaheim Ducks goalie Viktor Fasth, you could get the replica Guy Hebert helmet. 

courtesy Bowdoin

Sid Watson 
As long as we are on school specific costumes, it's probably not advisable to dress up as your current coach for Halloween. But what about paying tribute to a former coaching legend, especially one with an iconic sense of style? Former NFL halfback (Steelers and Washington's NFL team) turned Bowdoin hockey coach (1959-83) and Athletic Director Sid Watson is kind of a big deal in Brunswick, so much so that Bowdoin named their brand new hockey arena after him in 2009.

What you need
-Whistle
-Bowdoin jacket
-Fedora 



Another School's Mascot
It would be quite odd to dress up as your school's mascot. If you are already the mascot, that's just plain lazy. And if you aren't your mascot, people are going to wonder why the hell the school's mascot is at the party. And while we love mascots and are sure many people in the 'Cac share our opinion, we posit that maybe, just maybe, being the school's mascot is seen as a social faux pas by some less open minded students.

But what about other schools' mascots? Again, irony is a thing, right? And there are so many good mascots to choose from in the NESCAC. If you are at a Wesleyan party and a fluorescent anthropomorphized pig in a tri-corner hat shows up, or you are at a Colby party and a rooster in a hockey jersey shows up, you might do a double take. If you are feeling more punk rock, you could dress up as your arch rival school's mascot, such as showing up to an Amherst gathering in a purple cow costume.

Then again, if you are not in college and you are just a diehard fan, you could dress up your kid as your favorite school's mascot, but be prepared for some questions like "What is a Lord Jeff?"

What you need: varies 

Student Athlete
Costumes and celebrating Halloween are well and good, but if you are a NESCAC hockey player, official team activities start the day after Halloween on November 1. That means you might be keeping it low key and forgoing festivities to focus on your studies and rest up before the long awaited first official team practice of the season. 

What you need:
-nose
-grindstone 

USCHO has Bowdoin and Williams in Preseason top 15

First D3Hockey.com came out with their poll, in which Bowdoin came in seventh and Middlebury snuck in at number 15. Now USCHO has their poll out, and the Polar Bears come in at eighth (118 points), while the Panthers don't make the poll. Replacing Middlebury as the second NESCAC school is Williams, who makes the list at 15 (31 points). Middlebury was the first off of the poll with 27 points and Amherst, who received votes in the D3H poll, received 23 points from USCHO voters.  

October 28, 2013

	Team	(First Place Votes)	Record	Points	Last Poll
1	Wisconsin-Eau Claire	(12)	0- 0-0	206	NR
2	St. Norbert	( 2)	0- 0-0	194	NR
3	Norwich		0- 0-0	171	NR
4	Oswego		0- 0-0	151	NR
5	Plattsburgh		0- 0-0	145	NR
6	Utica	( 1)	0- 0-0	144	NR
7	Adrian		0- 0-0	132	NR
8	Bowdoin		0- 0-0	118	NR
9	Hobart		0- 0-0	72	NR
10	Babson		0- 0-0	70	NR
11	St. John's		0- 0-0	59	NR
12	Massachusetts-Boston		0- 0-0	50	NR
13	Wisconsin-Stevens Point		0- 0-0	47	NR
14	Neumann		0- 0-0	46	NR
15	Williams		0- 0-0	31	NR
Others receiving votes: Middlebury 27, Gustavus Adolphus 24, Amherst 23, Milwaukee School of Engineering 18, St. Thomas 14, Manhattanville 11, Castleton 10, Wisconsin-River Falls 10, Geneseo 9, St. Scholastica 7, Buffalo State 4, Wentworth 3, Massachusetts-Dartmouth 2, New England College 1, Wisconsin-Superior 1.

Read more: http://www.uscho.com/rankings/d-iii-mens-poll/#ixzz2j96mOtxh

These polls can be fun, but we must always take them with a grain of salt, especially in preseason. The 20 D3H voters had seven different schools, including Bowdoin, receiving first place votes, while USCHO had 12 of their 15 first place votes go to defending national champion Wisconsin-Eau Claire.  The Blugolds finished as the top team in the USCHO poll but only fourth in the D3H rankings.

Other slightly notable differences in the rankings include upstate New York foes Oswego (4th in USCHO, 8th in D3H) and Utica (6th in USCHO, 3rd in D3H). The only school that is identical in both polls is Wisconsin-Stevens Point (13th).

D3Hockey.com Faceoff '13: preseason poll, rankings, Keith Buehler interview and former Trinity defenseman's "Player's Perspective"

Another sign we're getting closer to the season: D3Hockey.com has released their preseason poll, rankings and "Faceoff 13" series of articles, which includes an interview with 2013 First Team All-NESCAC forward Keith Buehler from Wesleyan. They also have previews for the eight other D-III men's hockey conferences, but not the NESCAC yet, presumably because team activities don't officially start until Friday, when other teams start their game schedule. You know, because starting with the rest of the country a few weeks earlier would go against the 'Cac's mission statement of putting academics first, somehow.

Preseason Poll 

The NESCAC makes two appearances on the preseason  Top 15 poll, voted on by a panel of 20 coaches, Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country. Defending 'Cac champion Bowdoin comes in at number 7, receiving 1 first place vote and 165 points overall.  Eight time national champion (last in 2006) Middlebury squeaks in to the top 15 at number 15. 

D3hockey.com Men's Top 15: Preseason

#	School (1st votes)	Rec	Pts	Prev.
1	St. Norbert (5)	0-0	261
2	Plattsburgh State (5)	0-0	246
3	Utica (2)	0-0	244
4	UW-Eau Claire (4)	0-0	240
5	Norwich (2)	0-0	213
6	Adrian	0-0	178
7	Bowdoin (1)	0-0	165
8	Oswego State (1)	0-0	160
9	Mass-Boston	0-0	115
10	Neumann	0-1	104
11	Hobart	0-0	97
12	Babson	0-0	76
13	UW-Stevens Point	0-0	64
14	St. John's	0-0	56
15	Middlebury	0-0	46

Western Massachusetts rivals Williams (42 points) and Amherst (15 points) also received votes, but did not crack the top 15. 

Preseason Rankings

Also for the first time this year - as computers move ever closer to being self-aware - D3H has tried to predict the finish of all 79 teams in DII/III using a computer model. The 5 criteria for the rankings are as follows: 

1. Winning percentage (WP)

2. Enhanced winning percentage (EWP)

3. Opponents winning percentage (OWP)

4. Opponents’ Opponents winning percentage (OOWP)

5. Opponents’ Opponents’ Opponents  winning percentage (OOOWP)

Clearly any model that tries to predict performance before a team has ever played a game together will have flaws, and D3H admits as much. They tried to use the previous year's output, subtracting the contributions of outgoing seniors and projecting mathematically the input of incoming freshman, using their list of recruits as a basis. You can read about their methodology here. Limitations aside, it is still a fun exercise. The NESCAC teams rank as follows:

3. Williams

8. Middlebury

10. Trinity

12. Bowdoin

19. Amherst

32. Wesleyan

36. Conn College

49. Colby

51. Tufts

56. Hamilton 

The first thing you may notice - besides the ratings bias against lighter color blue schools- is that the voters like Bowdoin best but the computers have a thing for purple cows. Williams has a very tough out-of-conference schedule with games against Babson (11), Hobart (16), Plattsburgh (2) (potentially twice, if they meet in the Cardinal Classic Final) and Manhattanville (24). By contrast, Bowdoin's toughest out-of-conference opponent (according to these rankings) is interstate rival  University of New England (44).

Buehler Interview

Wesleyan senior captain Keith Buehler answered some questions for D3H about choosing to play D-III hockey, not getting as much attention as other top scorers around the nation last season, his goals for the season and more. You can find the full interview here. 

Player's Perspective
Peter Langella, a former Trinity/Norwich player, writes a column for D3H entitled, "A Player's Perspective". In his first installment for 2013-14, Langella bemoans the "attrition" on rosters that come from bringing in a crop of, say, 14 recruits when there were only 5 graduating seniors. This necessitates cuts of some returning players, something Langella  calls "just plain wrong." 

The former Bantam and Cadet, who had 49 points (4-9-49) in 84 games as a D-III athlete, points out that most players go to their specific school to play hockey. Using some NESCAC schools as examples, he says, "You’re not going to temp fate at the non-existent-we-only-hold-them-because-it’s-school-policy-walk-on-try-out at Bowdoin if the Colby coach has your name written in pen on the roster." 

So Langella balks at a player getting cut, not for academic or disciplinary reasons, but simply because the coach thinks it will help the team win. "Is winning that important?" he posits, "I say no."

The second half of his column discusses the time pressure of being a student-athlete. He starts with an anecdote about a teacher at Trinity that told him he needed to do three hours of reading for every hour in class.

Langella admits that he didn't spend that much time on class prep, but says that no matter what you need to spend a considerable amount of time on classwork to "make the grade." Add to that the hours of practice, team meetings, games, game travel, work-study, other extra-curricular activities and you are left with very little free time.

In his other column for the rollout, "351", he continues the trend of drumming up some respect for D-III hockey players calling them "elite athletes." Echoing part of  our "NCAA D-1 NCAA Tournament: Six Degrees of 'Cac Separation" article from last March, Langella points out that there are only 138 hockey programs in ALL of NCAA hockey, compared to 351 basketball programs in just division I. As he puts it: 

"That means that the worst player on the worst team in the worst league on that list, who almost certainly won't even get a chance to play for the worst D3 hockey team, would be an NCAA Division 1 basketball player."

Spot on, Mr. Langella. For those of you wondering, Langella only played one year at Trinity in 2002-03, when the second seeded Bantams won their first of two NESCAC championships (the other in 08) by beating first seeded Middlebury 4-2. Langella missed playing with current Trinity coach Matt Greason ('02) by one season.

Langella's '03 Bantams team would lose to eventual national champion and Middlebury rival Norwich in the NCAA quarterfinals. The Vermont native would return to his home state of Vermont, playing for Norwich from 2004-2007. Unfortunately for him, the only NCAA championship the Cadets won during his collegiate tenure was his freshman year at Trinity.

Read More: D3Hockey.com - - Faceoff '13

Throwback Thursday: The Bowdoin Orient 1982-83

Sid Watson retired after 24 years behind Bowdoin bench

I recently stumbled upon archives of most of the volumes of The Bowdoin Orient, Bowdoin's student run newspaper, dating back to 1871. Sifting through old newspaper can be a tremendously valuable experience, especially to see how people discussed historical events when they were still current events.Take for example the December 6, 1963  edition of The Orient, in which we find a speech from Bowdoin professor Lawrence S. Hall memorializing President John F Kennedy Jr., who was assassinated exactly half a century ago next month.
 
No NESCAC hockey story will ever be particularly historical since few outside of the small but dedicated cohort consuming Division III hockey will be interested in such stories. But if anyone or anything is historical in the 'Cac, it's the last two coaches at Bowdoin: legend Sidney Watson and current coach and living legend Terry Meagher. Up to and including this year, no person has held the head hockey coaching position at the Brunswick institution outside of this dynamic duo since before JFK was campaigning for the 1960 Presidential election. Watson manned the helm from 1959-1983 and Meagher has taken on the responsibility since.

Thanks to the archives of The Orient in 1982-83, we can track the last season of Watson's career and the announcement of Meagher taking over. Ctrl +F-ing our way through the 235 pages of Orient that year, we see how important Watson was to Bowdoin, from coaching hockey and golf to running the athletic department as AD and taking part in administrative committees for the college.

We see an article complaining about the conditioning of the team and the press box at Watson Arena in the Polar Bears 5-2 opening win over their "bitter rivals" from Waterville (Colby) and an article by Stephen Minklus bemoaning the Polar Bears awful road record that year. At 11-13-1, it wasn't a particularly memorable final season on the bench for Watson.. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, we also know that Mr. Minklus traded in his student journalism hat for a JD and now is a successful real estate lawyer in the Boston area. The Editor-in-chief that year, Marijane Brown, went on to Harvard Law and is also a lawyer in the Boston area. In 2012, she won The Bowdoin Alumni Service Award for her lifetime of service to the college. Thanks, internet.

And then there's the February 18,1983 front page article "Coach Watson Hangs up Hat" (a reference to his iconic fedora) (page 146) announcing that Sid Watson would be stepping down from his coaching post to focus on his role as Athletic Director. Later in the year, on April 22, 1983, (page 214) we find out that a young assistant coach from Clarkson University, Terry Meagher, was chosen as Watson's replacement after a search of 40 candidates. Watson described Meagher as "one of the finest young coaches in the business. He is highly respected by everyone and will do an excellent job in continuing the tradition of hockey success we have at Bowdoin." Good call, Sid. 

You might notice a familiar name in the first article of the first page of the first issue from the 235 pages of The Orient from 1982-83, "Greason convokes new Bowdoin year." The President of Bowdoin in 82-83 was A. Leroy Greason, grandfather of reigning men's hockey NESCAC Coach of the Year, Trinity's Matt Greason. It's a small NESCAC world, after all.

Read More: The Bowdoin Orient Archives on the Internet Archive 

NESCAC alumni in the pros update

Updated October 25

With NESCAC hockey just around the corner - official team activities in 10 days, opening night in 24 days - but not yet here yet, we thought it might be time to check in with NESCAC alums that are still trying to ply their trade in professional hockey. The list is only for North American leagues, but we'll try to get an update for 'Cac puckers overseas soon as well.

AHL
Jon Landry (Bowdoin '06)   The most successful NESCAC alum currently active, Bowdoin's Landry ('06)  plays for the Minnesota Wild's AHL affiliate Iowa Wild. It's not just Landry's first year in Iowa after signing a two-way contract with the Wild in July, it's the first year for the Wild in Iowa as well. The franchise was previously known as the Houston Aeros before moving to Iowa for the 2013-14 season.

Like he did with the Islanders last year, Landry opened NHL training camp with the top club, as can be seen from this Minnesota Wild's blog post  from day two of training camp. By September 24th, he was placed on waivers by the Wild. After clearing waivers, he made the three and-a-half hour commute down to Des Moines, Iowa to join the AHL club for training camp.

The Iowa Wild have played four games (3-1-0) with the blueliner Landry playing in three of them. Not much in the way of stats yet this early in the season, Landry has amassed 4 penalty minutes and a +/- of +1.  During training camp, Iowa Wild TV interviewed the former NESCAC standout and asked him about the upcoming season and moving to Des Moines (embed below). 

ECHL
Mike Baran (Amherst '12) After reaching the D-III Frozen Four and graduating from Amherst, 2012 All-NESCAC Second Team defenseman Mike Baran has had an interesting pro-hockey ride.  Like his Lord Jeffs teammate and 2012 D-III Player of the Year Jonathan La Rose, Baran started out the 2012-13 season in the Southern Pro-Hockey League. The 'Cac and all of NCAA hockey do not allow fighting, but, of course, that ban doesn't exist in minor league hockey. So we have video of Baran's first pro hockey fight as a member of the Mississippi RiverKings on November 17, 2012 (embed below).



While La Rose would never get past goaltending for the Huntsville Havoc, Baran would make the jump from the RiverKings up to the ECHL, thanks to some AHL call-ups and injuries.

Desperate for a defenseman, the Alaska Aces of the ECHL got Baran on loan from the RiverKings in January 2013.  One day Baran was in his Memphis apartment and the next day he was in Idaho playing for the Aces. When he finally got to Alaska, he stayed with the family of former Amherst teammate, Nathan Corey ('13), La Rose's backup.

Thanks to Baran's stellar play, what started as a stopgap for the Aces turned into a roster spot for the rest of the season for Baran. In 22 games, the blueliner produced eight points (2-6-8) and a +/- of +3. This season, Baran is playing for the the Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL, the team NHL goaltender and amateur astrophysicist/Liqueur connoisseur/Russian law expert Ilya Bryzgalov trained with while prepping to find a new NHL team.

Some of the best things about minor league hockey are crazy promotions. Last year, the Arizona Sundogs, a team in the Central Hockey League that Landry used to play for, created a sky prison to sell season tickets that got the attention of DeadSpin.  While not quite as crazy, Baran's Wranglers did a meet and greet with fans at the Stratosphere Casino, where some players (including Baran) jumped off the side of the casino. At 829 feet, SkyJump Las Vegas holds the Guinness World Record for highest commercial decelerator descent. Only in Vegas, baby.

#Skyjump #survivor what's a rush!
— michael baran (@baran_mike) October 7, 2013

Baran hasn't dressed for the Wranglers' first three games.

Nick Craven (Wesleyan '13) As we mentioned last season, Nick Craven won Spring Break among his friends, playing four games for the AHL's Binghamton Senators on an Amateur Tryout Contract last March. This year he entered training camp with the Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL. At the start of camp, Grizzlies coach  Tim Branham said, "Nick is a big body who protects the puck well, he had a short stint last season in the AHL and has shown the ability to put points on the board.” Unfortunately, Craven was not able to make the final roster for the Grizz. 

Craven got picked up by the Fayetville Fire Antz of the SPHL this week and is made his debut against the Hunstville Havoc Friday night, against fellow NESCAC alums Scott Harff (Colby) and 
on the Huntsville Havoc. The Havoc won the game 4-2.


Brandon Hew (Amherst '13) The 2012-13 First Team All-NESCAC defenseman got to try out with the Bakersfield Condor  in his native California, but unfortunately Brandon Hew was cut before the first pre-season game. 

SPHL
Nick Craven (Wesleyan) See above.

Scott Harff (Colby '13) Recent Colby defenseman and 2012-13 Mules co-captain Scott Harff made the trek down to Huntsville, Alabama to open training camp with the Huntsville Havoc of the SPHL a few weeks ago. The team had two exhibition games this past weekend against Baran's old team, the Mississippi RiverKings, with the Havoc winning both contests. This week the Havoc made final cuts, and Harff made the final roster of 18 players. The Havoc traveled to North Carolina on Friday when they opened their season against the Fayetville FireAntz.

Leland Fidler (Bowdoin '10) After graduating from Bowdoin in 2010, the 6'0" defender has been on a pro hockey roller coaster, with 10 different teams in four  different leagues (FHL, CHL, ECHL and SPHL). Fidler starts the 2013-14 season on the Havoc, a team he played with for part of last season, along with Harff. With Fidler, there were three NESCAC alums in the SPHL opening night game on Friday between the Fayetville Fire Antz and Hunstville Havoc (Craven, Fidler, Harff).

Tom Maldonado (Middlebury '08) The only player on this list to win a NCAA national championship (two, in fact), the 2008 First Team All-NESCAC defenseman has been in pro hockey since graduating from Middlebury in 08. He bounced around Europe and North America until landing with the Columbus Cottonmouths of the SPHL midway through the 2010-11 season. Maldonado has been on the Cottonmouths since, netting 71 points (15-56-71) in 134 games. One of those goals came on Friday in the Cottonmouths regular season opening 4-2 loss to the Pensacola Ice Flyers.

Nick Metcalfe (Tufts '13) Nick Metcalfe's NESCAC career did not end well. In his final game as a collegian, the 2012-13 Tufts co-captain and defenseman was ejected in the first period of a loss at Colby that sealed the Jumbos last place finish in the 'Cac, just a year removed from hosting their first ever conference playoff game.

But the fighting that was proscribed by the NCAA can actually be an asset at the next level. The past weekend, the Ice Bears played two exhibition, which they split with the Columbus Cottomouths, and Metcalfe got himself into quite a few fights. He also scored a goal in Friday's game, something he did only twice in four years at Tufts.

The Ice Bears open their season in Georgia on Saturday against the Cottonmouths. The Ice Bears released their opening day roster on Wednesday and Nick unfortunately did not make it.

If you know of any other NESCAC alums playing pro-hockey in North America, please let us know, so we can update (email: hockeynescac@gmail.com). 

Bowdoin releases "pre-season" roster, Trinity releases "veteran" roster

After Williams released their 2013-14 men's hockey roster earlier this week, Bowdoin and Trinity have their rosters posted as well...sort of.

Bowdoin has a tentative "pre-season" roster up on their site and Trinity has a "veteran" roster, which both boil down to a list of returning players. The Polar Bears have a list of 26 names while the Bantams carry 21 returning players.

Bowdoin's list of 26 matches up with the 25 non-seniors that made the roster in 2012-13.  One name initially left off the the roster that has been added is fifth year senior Ryan Carney (D, Sr.). Carney was granted a red shirt his freshman year (2009-10) after he played only three games and went on leave after first semester. If we add the projected recruits (7-9), the roster should be somewhere around the deep 33 man roster Bowdoin carried last year.

The defending NESCAC champions return six of their top eight scorers from a season ago, including leading scorer and 2012-13 Second Team All-NESCAC team member Ollie Koo (F/D, Jr.), who had 34 points (16-18-34).  Senior forward and second leading scorer Harry Matheson (F, Sr.) (13-17-30) will captain the team with senior blueliner Jay Livermore (D, Sr.).

Trinity returns all but one of their non-seniors from last year's NESCAC semifinalist roster. The lone omission is sophomore Ford Traff, who played in only seven games as a freshman. Traff remains at Trinity, where he likely left the team to focus on tennis. The Bantams have a large recruiting class coming in that the interwebs has listed as containing anywhere from eight to fourteen names. Trinity only carried 27 players last year, so something's probably going to have to give.

Whoever does end up making the final roster, they will have plenty of work to do in the offensive zone. The Bantams return 2012-13 leading scorer Jackson Brewer (F, So.), who had 24 points (12-12-24), but lose the next four top scorers to the workforce. On the other end of the ice, Trinity returns First Team All-NESCAC netminder Ben Coulthard (G, Jr.).

Read More: Bowdoin Athletics - - 2013-14 Bowdion Men's Ice Hockey Preseason Roster 

Read More: Trinity Athletics - Trinity College Men's Veteran Ice Hockey 2013-14 Roster 

Williams releases 2013-14 men's hockey roster

Williams has posted its 2013-14 men's hockey roster on their website. The Ephs carry a short roster, with nine freshman joining 15 returning players for a total of 24 players. The only two omissions from the returnees are sophomores Taylor Carmola  and Mike Erickson, neither of whom played a large role with the Ephs last season.

Up front, the defending NESCAC runner-up will return two of its top three scorers from last season in junior forward Peter Mistretta  and senior forward Nick Anderson. Mistretta was the team's leading scorer when he suffered a season ending concussion in early February and finished second on the team in scoring (14-6-20) despite missing the final seven games of the season. His 14 goals led the team, with Anderson's 8 goals (8-12-20) in a distant second. A healthy return from  Mistretta would go a long way in helping the Ephs get back to the NESCAC title game.

Anderson will co-captain the team with fellow senior Paul Steinig. If the Ephs roster is correct, Steinig will be switching from defense to forward for his final season in the purple and gold. The captains roster will be rounded out by the assistant captains, senior forward Tucker Dayton  and junior defenseman Dave Jarrett.

While the Ephs return two of their top three scorers, they are the only two returning in the top five and the Ephs lost 41% of their overall offensive production from last season. A strong recruiting class that includes forwards  George Hunkele (Lawrence Academy) and Alex Hagerty (Delbarton), as well as high scoring Minnesota defenseman Frankie Mork (Holy Angels) should help ease the offensive pain.

But Williams success recently has not been predicated on lighting the lamp. The Ephs were only sixth in the conference in scoring (3.00 goals per game in league games) last season but first overall in defense (1.94 goals allowed per game in league games). The blueliners that helped achieve that include a sophomore class of  Zander Masucci, who won the Ephs "Rookie of the Year" award last season, as well as Greg Johnson, who just participated in the Dallas Stars summer camp in July.

Junior defenseman Brian McNamara may only have three points in two collegiate seasons, but he has developed into a rock-steady stay-at-home defenseman. Brian, who earned the Ephs Most Improved Player award for 2012-13, will be joined on the Ephs by fellow blueliner and brother James McNamara (Choate). James won a Midget Tier I national title on the Neponset Valley River Rats along with fellow freshman Hunkele. Along with Mork and McNamara, the defensive neophytes include the NESCAC's approximation of Zdeno Chara, 6'5" Greg Zaffino (St. Paul's School). Intrigue in Zaffino led to his inclusion on NHL's Central Scouting "2012 NHL Entry Draft Players to Watch". 

Last, but certainly not least, are the Ephs net-minders. That conference best 1.94 goals per game average had a lot to do with now junior goaltender Sean Dougherty, who earned Team MVP and Second Team All-NESCAC honors in 2012-13. Dougherty (who was also First Team on our 'Cac All-Irish Team last St. Patrick's Day) will be backed up by sophomore Noah Klagg and senior Sam Kurland. 

Read More: Williams Athletics -- 2013-14 Men's Hockey Roster 

Schools officially announce Trinity vs. Williams game at Fenway Park on 1/7/14

As we reported yesterday, Trinity and Williams will play an outdoor game at Fenway Park on January 7, Trinity and Williams.
2014, as part of the Frozen Fenway series. Today, the schools made it official with press releases from both

As expected, Williams will be the home team and the game will take the place of  conference match-up between the Bantams and Ephs scheduled for January 11th in Williamstown. The outdoor game will be at 7:30 PM, the second half of a D-III doubleheader that will start with Salem State. vs U-Mass Boston at 4:00 PM.

Though Williams is the home team, Fenway Sports Managment (FSM) apparently contacted Trinity first:

"Fenway Sports Management approached NESCAC through Trinity and we were able to move our home game with Trinity to January 7th to play in Fenway," said Williams Athletic Director Lisa Melendy."

The two teams last met at Bowdoin in March for the NESCAC semifinals, with the second seeded Ephs vanquishing the third seeded Bantams 4-2 before going on to lose to Bowdoin in the finals. An outdoor game at Fenway is not a bad little encore to a conference semifinal game. The teams return the NESCAC rivalry indoors for a Trinity home game on February 9th.

Read More: Trinity Athletics - - Trinity Men's Ice Hockey To Play Outdoor Game at Fenway Park in January

Read More: Williams Athletics - - Ephs to play Trinity at Fenway Park in January, 2014 

Players: Williams vs. Trinity at Fenway Park January 7, 2014 at 7:30 PM

When the complete list of Frozen Fenway games was released in late September, one cryptic game noticeably stood out, at least for Division III hockey fans. The second half of a D-III doubleheader on January 7th, 2014 was listed as "TBA."

Last week, there were rumors on the interwebs of that "TBA" game being a NESCAC game, Trinity vs Williams, specifically. The Sports Information Director at Williams would not confirm, so we were left with the rumblings still being rumors.

Yesterday, the likelihood of that match-up coming to fruition under the lights in Boston increased when 2013-14 Ephs co-captain Paul Steinig (D, '14) tweeted out the following:

Williams Ephs vs. Trinity under the lights at Fenway Park January 7th. Bring your friends
— Paul Steinig (@pauliewallie4) October 13, 2013

And if you don't trust blueliners, fellow Williams senior Matt Doyle (F, '14)  also tweeted out that the Ephs and Bantams would clash by the Green Monster.

The Best Rink in the NESCAC: A Primer

The other week, Colby coach Blaise MacDonald tweeted out the following, which ESPN personality John Buccigross (he of #bucciovertimechallenge fame) subsequently re-tweeted.

@Buccigross Colby College Mules Alfond Arena drenched with character and a fresh season of memories ahead. pic.twitter.com/BstOunZtPl
— Blaise MacDonald (@MacDBlaise) September 27, 2013

With hockey not yet here to occupy our time and the ice now down at the rinks, what better time than now for a rink poll? From the oldest sheet of ice in all of Divsion III to a municipal rink and the first green certified hockey arena, there's plenty of variety among the ten NESCAC schools. Below is a primer so you can vote in our "Best Rink in the NESCAC" poll that will be up until opening night on November 15th. Rinks are listed in alphabetical order by school.  Poll located on left sidebar.  If you are viewing in mobile format, you need to switch to full site view in order to access the poll.