Colby at Bowdoin, Bowdoin at Colby. Again.

199….200….201….202….

Friday will mark the 203^rd meeting between the men’s ice hockey teams of Bowdoin and Colby College. With the 200th meeting between the Polar Bears and the Mules marked the New York Times and our own focus on the sibling rivalry between the teams last season this season’s 203^rd and 204^th meetings may be more about the hockey than their storied history.

What’s new? This season's first years:

For Bowdoin the most obvious change in this year’s group of first years is size. Last year’s entering class turned a few heads when Mitch Barrington checked in at 6’3” and Joe Lace loomed at 6’5” but those two stood out. Of this year’s ten rostered first years, seven are 6’2”, two are 6’1” and the tenth, Matthew Lison comes in at 5’11”. Belying his Lilliputian frame Lison notched 3 assists in his first game, a 6-0 blow-out of Middlebury, while partnered with high flying seniors John McGinnis and Connor Quinn.

Five Bowdoin first years—Daniel McMullan, Matthew Lison, Matthew Melanson, Spencer Antunez and Cullen Geary---saw action during the opening weekend’s 6-0 win over Middlebury and the 3-3 draw with Williams. Camil Blanchet played against Middlebury while first year goaltender, Peter Cronin, occupied the crease against Williams.

Four Bowdoin First Years in action against Williams: Spencer Antunez, Goalie Peter Cronin, Daniel McMullan, and Matthew Melanson.

For Colby, it’s geography. The entering class comes from far and wide. Early contributors to the Mule’s 0-1-1 opening weekend against Williams and Middlebury include Slovakian Mario Benicky who has taken an early lead in the scoring race. Benicky got in on both goals in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Middlebury with a goal and an assist, and picked up a helper in Saturday’s 4-2 loss to Williams.

With his home country listed as Switzerland, first year Michael Rudolph looked nothing but neutral. Rudolph brought down a momentum killing, third period, five-minute major for hitting from behind against Middlebury.  Though the Mules successfully killed the penalty, Rudolph was ushered off the ice just 1:07 after Colby had drawn even after fighting back from a 2-0 deficit.

While the European Connection figured prominently in the Mule’s opening weekend Coach Blaise MacDonald had to look no further than the breakfast table to find Colby’s first goal of the year. Freshman Cam MacDonald, Macdonald’s son, broke the ice first for Colby earning his first point with a first period goal against Williams.

The continental flair may be a welcome addition to central Maine but it’s worth noting that, like many members of NESCAC rosters, the two prepared for college right here in New England, Benicky at Westminster and Rudolph at South Kent.

Goaltending:

The youth movement continued for both teams in goal. First year Emerson Verrier, got both starts for Colby turning away 21 Saturday in the 4-2 loss to Williams while making 31 saves against Middlebury. The Panthers pelted Verrier with 15 first period shots and the freshman had to survive overtime to preserve the tie. But it’s too early to tell if Coach MacDonald intends to go all-in with the newcomer; it seems unlikely Colby would shelf senior Sam Parker given the numbers put up last season. Parker backstopped a rebuilding Mules team to a 6^th place NESCAC finish with a 10-10-2 record with a respectable 0.894 save percentage and a GAA of 3.37. As was pointed out by the Colby Magazine, Parker made 606 saves on the ice last year but none was bigger than one made off the ice when he rescued a swimmer in the Potomac River last spring.

Bowdoin’s Coach Terry Meagher has typically favored splitting goaltending time evenly between his two top goaltenders. The weekend NESCAC series are shared while the goalie with more seniority tends to pick up the extra mid-week, non-conference starts; playoffs tend to go to whoever is hot, sometimes Coach Meagher relies on a committee of team elders to make the call.

If the opening weekend is any indication the pattern will continue this season with Senior Max Fenkell showing the ropes to first year Peter Cronin. Fenkell was solid in the opener stopping all 20 shots the Middebury Panthers mustered. Complicating Fenkell’s pace a bit Middlebury managed just 2 shots in the first period making engagement difficult.

Against Williams on Sunday first year Peter Cronin got the nod. Cronin who had an outstanding high school career at Boston College Highs School spent last season the USPHL playing 13 games with the South Shore Kings. Cronin stopped 27 shots while allowing 3 goals.

Scoring:

Both teams took big hits to their bottom lines. Graduation took a full 48% of last seasons goals for the Mules. Just two players, Concannon Award semi-finalists Ben Chwick and Nick Lanza accounted for 31 of Colby’s 73 goals last season. Last season's highest scoring underclassmen, rated 5^th and 6^th respectively on the team netted just 8 goals between them in the 2013-14 campaign. Now sophomores, E.J. Rauseo and Devin Albert, have already contributed, but have a lot of ground to cover for the Mules; they’ll need big help from newcomers.

Bowdoin also took some big hits. Commencement saw a group of seniors depart who had won three of four NESCAC Championships. Its senior class featured two members of 100 point club, Colin Downey and Harry Matheson. Downey, like Chwick and Lanza from Colby had been a Concannon Semi-finalist. Though injury kept him out of all but just 7 games last season Ollie Koo, another much decorated member of the class of ’14, had put up 66 points in his first three seasons.

While Bowdoin lost a lot in terms of scoring they retained much more than Colby. Senior John McGinnis, is fast closing in on 100 points; his 3-3-6 weekend puts him at 96 for his career. The playmaker has 61 career assists including a helper on Connor Quinn’s tying goal with 52 seconds remaining against Williams. Quinn, the senior speedster spent the bulk his first two years on an aggressive fore-check and PK line but came into his own as scorer last year. Of the 46 points he put up in his first three seasons half of them, including 13 goals, came during his junior campaign. Junior Matt Rubinoff also lit the lamp 13 times last season.

Intangibles, the X-factor:

It may be too early to call it a pattern but Colby got whistled for 6 minor penalties against Williams and gave up 2 power play goals. A total of 21 minutes in penalties against Middlebury resulted in playing man-down for 11 minutes; 10 of those minutes were a misconduct that didn’t affect on-ice strength. Meanwhile Bowdoin had just 4 minors over the opening weekend.

Coach Meagher may have been using the first weekend to help sort out the newcomers but with one of the bigger rosters in NESCAC look for Bowdoin to work more upper classmen into the line-ups for Colby. With 30 skaters on the roster it has been typical of Coach Meagher to rotate players through the third and fourth lines. Look for some returning faces from last season’s line-up, particularly seniors, who sat out the first weekend in favor of newcomers, especially given the primacy of the Bowdoin Colby series to the college hockey experience.

One player we doubt we’ll see is first year Stevie Van Siclin. The goaltender for the men’s soccer team just completed his season with a second round NCAA loss to Brandeis Sunday. He may need some time to find his skates.