Friday morning skate: Catching up with the student newspapers

Bowdoin concluded NESCAC OOC play with a 4-1 win over Southern Maine on Tuesday. The Polar Bears and the Mules of Colby - the only other 'Cac team with 12 games played - will be off this weekend, leaving everyone with six regular season games to play come kickoff of the Superbowl on Sunday night.

Before we get into previews of this weekend's games, let's catch-up with the student newspaper coverage of NESCAC. Amherst, Bowdoin, Tufts and Wesleyan's papers have the most up-to-date coverage with articles that include the most recent games played, while Middlebury, Hamilton and Williams' papers have articles that are as recent as last weekend.

As for the laggards, Colby Echo has had no coverage this year (at least online), the Trinity Tripod has an article from this week about Fenway that has no text and Conn College's The College Voice has not posted anything since a brief mention of hockey in a December 9th article.

The Amherst Student
An article posted this week recaps Amherst's rocky 3-4-1 journey since coming back from break. Luckily for the Jeffs, two of those losses came against non-conference opponents, including dropping a contest against Lake Forest in a 0-1-1 road-trip out to Wisconsin last weekend. Includes this quote from senior Elliot Bostrom:

“We have moments when we look like an elite team, and then we have moments when we make critical mistakes and give away opportunities to win games. This is something that we are still battling with and will have to fix in order to win the NESCAC championship. We are most certainly capable of winning every game we play for the rest of the year — we just need to go out and fight for it because its not going to be given to us."

Read More: The Amherst Student, Greg Williams - - At 9-6-1, Men's hockey Looks to Improve Record 

The Bowdoin Orient 
Some of the most consistent student newspaper coverage comes from The Bowdoin Orient. This week's article recaps the Bears 2-1 week at home, which saw them win a thrilling OT game to Middlebury on military appreciation night (tio support the very worthy Wounded Warrior Project) on Friday, lose to Williams and close out Out-of-Conference play with a win over Pine Tree State rival USM on Tuesday.

Includes quotes from senior Jay Livermore  and coach Terry Meagher, who said that Williams was not in first place by accident and said that Ephs junior netminder Sean Dougherty (G, '15) is arguably the "best goaltender in the east."

Read More: The Bowdoin Orient, Marisa McGarry - - Men's hockey tops Midd in OT thriller 

The Tufts Daily 
Tufts may be the worst team in the NESCAC, but Tufts Daily is near the top of the standings in student newspaper coverage. This week's article covers the home losses to Wesleyan and Trinity over the weekend and includes some unsurprisingly dejected quotes from senior Kyle Gallegos and sophomore Brian Oullette. Things don't' get easier this weekend as the Jumbos travel to take on Middlebury and 9th ranked Williams, so it's likely TD will have some more depressing quotes in their coverage next week. 

Read More: The Tufts Daily, Ross Dembar -- Tufts loses two more close games to Trinity, Wesleyan 

The Wesleyan Argus 
The Wesleyan Argus goes over the nine games since the last Argus article, a time period which saw the Cardinals go 4-5. After winning four straight OOC games, Wesleyan returned to conference play with a four game losing streak, before splitting a pair with Tufts and Conn College to end up tied with the Camels for the eigth and final playoff spot.

Lot's of quotes from coach Chris Potter, though it is mostly standard coach speech. Potter says his team has played "okay" and that his team played with a "swagger and a lot of energy" in the OOC games.His team needs to "improve on finishing games and playing in the important moments of games."

Read More: The Wesleyan Argus, Gili Lipman - - Winter Break Hangover for Cardinal Men's Ice Hockey


Hamilton Spectator
The Hamilton Spectator article covers the last two conference games - - a win against Tufts and loss to Conn College - - in the context of the school's quest to become relevant in NESCAC sports. It was published before last week's 0-1-1 OOC finale against nationally ranked foes Geneseo and Utica. Includes quotes from senior Evan Haney and Conor Lamberti, mostly about the team's need to focus on the "little things" the team needs to do to take the next step from consistently making the NESCAC playoffs to actually doing something in them.

Read More: The Hamilton Spectator, Sterling Xie - - M. Hockey Aims for Playoff Push 


Middlebury Campus  
The Middlebury Campus piece was published last week, before the Panthers OT loss to Bowdoin and potentially season saving victory over Colby in Maine. The article covers the home loss to then fourth ranked Plattsburgh and road loss to then fifth ranked Norwich in the 147th meeting of the two Green Mountain State rivals.

The article has quotes from seniors Tom Freyre and Ben Wiggins with both offering words of support for senior goaltender Nick BonDurant, who lost both of that weekend's games and was pulled after tow periods against Norwich. While BonDurant may have players support, apparently he does not have coach Bill Beaney's vote of confidence. After this article was written BonDurant would start the Bowdoin game only to be pulled in favor of freshman Drew Michals just 1:42 into the game. The next day against Colby, Mike Peters made his first start since November. Beaney needs to make up his mind sooner or later.

Read More: The Middlebury Campus, John Wyman - - Men's Hockey Bested by Local Rivals on Home Turf 


The Williams Record
The Williams Record's most recent article was written after the Ephs big win against nationally ranked Plattsburgh a couple weeks ago, so it doesn't include the Ephs first conference loss of the season to Colby last Friday.  Includes quotes from senior co-captain Paul Steinig, who thinks the Ephs are one of the top teams in the nation. It would be hard to back that sentiment up if they lose either of their games this weekend to Tufts and Conn College.

Read More: The Williams Record, Evan Wahl - - Men's ice hockey overwhelms non-conference foes