Bowdoin Men's Hockey 2013-14 preview

2012-13 Review
23-4-2 Overall
13-3-2 NESCAC (1st in NESCAC)


Overall  (Conference Rank)             Conference Games (conf. rank)
Offense: 4.38 G/GM (1st)                                 Offense: 4.22 G/GM (1st)

Defense: 2.58 G/GM (4th)                                Defense: 2.61 G/GM (4th)

Power Play: 29/107 - 27.1% (1st)                       Power Play: 21/78 -26.9% (2nd) 

Penalty Kill: 101/125 - 80.8% (6th)                    Penalty Kill: 74/93 - 79.6% (6th)

After finishing first in the NESCAC regular season and ranked in the top 10 in national polls, the Polar Bears needed a third period comeback to defeat Hamilton 5-3 in the NESCAC Quarterfinals. NESCAC championship weekend host Bowdoin then took care of business to win the NESCAC title, defeating Middlebury 4-2 in the semifinals and holding on to beat second seed Williams 2-1 in the final.  It was the school's first official NESCAC men's hockey title, as the 2011 win was controversially vacated by the administration after a hazing incident.  The NESCAC championship earned the Polar Bears an automatic bid in to the 11 team NCAA tournament.

In the first round of the NCAA tournament, Bowdoin soundly defeated Massachussetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) champion UMass-Dartmouth 5-2 to advance to the quarterfinals.  In the midst of midterms, Bowdoin traveled to upstate New York to play Utica College at the historic "Aud" . Bowdoin took a 2-1 lead into the third period, but Utica ultimately won 4-2 to deny the Polar Bears the school's first ever trip to the D-III Frozen Four.

2013-14 Preview 
Key losses (all stats for 2012-13)
Tim McGarry (D) (29 GP: 5-12-17; 62 PIM); 1st Team All-NESCAC
Dan Weiniger  (F) (29 GP: 17-12-29); 1st Team All-NESCAC
Rob Toczylowski (F) (29 GP: 13-10-23)


Key Returners (all stats for 2012-13)
Ollie Koo (D/F, '14)) (27 GP: 16-18-34) 2nd Team All-NESCAC
Harry Matheson (F, '14) (28 GP: 13-17-30); 2013-14 co-captain
John McGinnis (F, '15) (29 GP: 11-18-29)
Colin Downey (F/D, '14)  (23 GP: 8-18-26)
Jay Livermore (D, '14) (28 GP: 2-5-7); 2013-14 co-captain
Gabe Renaud (D, '16) (28 GP: 1-1-2)
Make Fenkell (G, '15) (14 GP: 10-1-1; 2.10 GAA, .929 Save %)
Steve Messina (G, '14)  (17 GP: 13-3-1; 2.73 GAA, .901 Save %)

Key Recruits
Zak Kokosa (F'17)
Kendall Culbertson (F, '17)
Jay Kourkoulis (D, '17)
Joe Lace (D, '17)

After the most successful season in modern Bowdoin history, the Polar Bears look to repeat as NESCAC champions and make their first ever trip to the D-III Final Four, which they will be hosting in Lewiston, ME at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. With many of the core players from last year's NCAA Quarterfinals squad returning, championship aspirations are not unfounded.

30 years into his tenure as head coach, Terry Meagher sits only two Ws away from career win number 500. The 500 win club is rarefied air, with only 22 members in all levels of men's college hockey. At the D-III level, only six men have done it, including Middlebury coach Bill Beaney and John Rolli, the man Meagher defeated in last year's NCAA first round game.

The Polar Bears also have three players who are within striking distance of the 100-point club if they have solid senior years: Matheson, Koo, and Downey.

Predictions/Projections: Bowdoin enters ranked seventh nationally in the USCHO poll and ninth in the D3Hockey.com poll. The D3Hockey.com (D3H) computer projections have them finishing 12th in the nation. In the NESCAC, everyone projects them to win the conference, from USCHO/D3Hockey.com/WordPress blog, to our preseason fan poll.

Out of Conference Schedule: Being in the middle-of-nowhere Maine makes it difficult to schedule out-of-conference games. 2/3 of Bowdoins non-conference matches come in home-and-homes with interstate rivals University of New England (Nov.26, Jan.7) and Southern Maine (Dec. 10, Jan. 28), the later being coached by Bill Beaney's younger brother Jeff Beaney. The ECAC East coaches predicted UNE would finish ninth and Southern Maine would finish eighth in the 10 team conference. D3H's computer projections have UNE at 44th and Southern Maine at 58th.

The only other two non-conference games come in the Colby-Bowdoin Faceoff when the Polar Bears play Suffolk University at Colby on November 30th and then the next day when they return to Brunswick to face  UMass-Dartmouth (55th D3H), a re-match of last year's NCAA tournament game. The weak out of conference schedule could keep Bowdoin from a Pool C NCAA Tournament bid if they don't end up winning the NESCAC tournament.

Song for the Season: Ok Bowdoin, you won the NESCAC championship last year. Now you have to try and do it again.  Steely Dan - "Do It Again"