Colby Men's Hockey 2013-14 Preview

2012-13 Review
2012-2013 Record:
7-15-3 Overall
5-11-2 NESCAC (7th in NESCAC)

Stats:
Overall  (Conference Rank)            Conference Games (conf. rank)
Offense: 2.75 G/GM (8th)                                Offense: 2.61 G/GM (7th)

Defense: 3.58 G/GM (7th)                               Defense: 3.83 G/GM (9th)

Power Play: 16/95 -16.8% (8th)                      Power Play: 11/70 -15.7% (8th) 

Penalty Kill: 64/83 - 77.1% (7th)                      Penalty Kill: 50/65 - 76.9% (7th)

Not much was expected of first year head coach Blaise MacDonald and his Colby squad last year and through most of the season, not much was achieved. But then the Mules went 4-1-1 in their last six conference games and climbed out from the cellar and into the playoffs as the seventh seed. They lost to Williams 2-1 in the NESCAC Quarterfinals, but gave the Ephs all they could handle.

2013-14 Overview 
Key losses (all stats for 2012-13)
Cory McGrath (F, '13) (24 GP: 7-15-22)
Scott Harff (D, '13) (23 GP: 2-8-10)


Key Returners (all stats for 2012-13)
Nick Lanza (F, '14) (25 GP: 12-25-27); 2013 2nd Team All-NESCAC; 2013-14 co-captain
Ben Chwick (F, '14) (25 GP: 7-16-23);
Matt Gelnaw (D, '14) (25 GP: 4-7-11)
Brendan Cosgrove (D,'14) (22 GP: 3-3-6); 2013-14 co-captain
Sam Parker (654 minutes: .897 Save %, 3.03 GAA)
Jordan Nathan (629 minutes: 0-8-3; .894 Save %, 3.43 GAA)

Key Recruits
Kevin Doherty (F, '17)
Brandon Willett (F, '17)
Geoff Sullivan (D, '17)
Alex Walsh (D, '16); former Middlebury player

If the Mules, who return most of their top scorers, albeit from a low scoring team, can play the way they did at the end of the season, they will make life tough for other 'Cac opponents. The goaltending was a question for most of last year, but Sam Parker played very well down the stretch, giving up only 7 goals on 107 shots (.934 save %) in the final four games.

In his first year of full recruiting, Coach MacDonald recruited hard and ended up with 13 recruits to join 15 vets. While the class is more impressive in depth rather than top-end talent, it's still impressive enough. How much the new Mules and the old Mules buy into MacDonald's system will be a key question for the season. In his second year as Trinity coach, Matt Greason saw a six game improvement from his Bantams squad. How will MacDonald do in his second year?

Predictions/Projections The WordPress blog has the Mules finishing eight, while USCHO, D3Hockey.com (D3H) and our preseason poll have Colby at seventh.  The D3H computer projections have Colby finishing 49th out of 79 -II/III schools.

Out of Conference Schedule As with Bowdoin, scheduling out-of-conference games is tough for the geographically disadvantaged Maine school. So Colby's OOC is book ended by a home-and-home with interstate rival Southern Maine (58th D3H) on November 19th (home) and January 7th (away) with a pair of tournaments/invitationals in between.

The Mules kick off the Colby-Bowdoin Face-Off Classic with UMass-Dartmouth  (55th D3H) at home and then Suffolk (62nd D3H) the next day in Brunswick. Colby then opens the new-year at another tournament, the Salem State Tournament, where they play defending ECAC Northeast champs Wentworth (18th D3H) and then either Babson or Salem State (45th D3H) in the second game to complete their non-NESCAC play.

Song for the season In honor of the 'Cac's northern-most school fighting to climb up the standings to relevancy in coach Macdonald's second year, we present The Music's "Freedom Fighters" off of their sophomore album, Welcome to the North. 
The Music - "Freedom Fighters"