The NESCAC men's hockey season faces off with three matchups, including travel partners Amherst and Hamilton squaring off as well as a rematch of last season's NESCAC Quarterfinals in which Tufts stunned eventual national champion Trinity.
Hamilton at Amherst
7 PM Orr Rink Amherst, Ma
Live Stats Video Amherst Season Preview
Goalie Heal Thyself
This is a travel partner matchup, but it hasn't been much of a rivalry recently as the Conts have lost all nine times to the LJs in the Rob Haberbusch era. Amherst enters the game as the defending NESCAC champions and NCAA playoff run that ended in the semis, while Hamilton heads to Mass. after a heartbreaking OT loss to Conn College in the Quarterfinals of the NESCAC tournament to end the 2014-15 campaign.
Amherst made their playoff run without starting goaltender and budding sports journalist Dave "Papa Cunny" Cunningham (G, '16), who missed over half the season due to injury. Cunningham will likely make his return in net against another highly touted goalie who missed a significant portion of last season. Conts sophomore goalie Evan "Boots" Buitenhuis (G, '18) broke onto the scene in his rookie campaign with a 77 save/1 goal allowed weekend at Wesleyan/Trinity, but a variety of ailments kept the Ontario native oot (is that how you pronounce it up north?) of all but five contests. One of those contests happened to be a January visit to Amherst in which Boots gave up two goals on thirty shots in a 3-1 Amherst win.
For the skaters, Amherst lost more on the blue line ( Turin/Deutsch) than up front (Rowbotham), but a strong recruiting class that the WordPress blog ranked the best in the 'Cac will help ease some of that pain and the LJs enter the season ranked top 10 in both polls (USCHO/D3Hockey.com). The Conts didn't come away with quite the same haul, but they also didn't lose much outside of Pat Curtis up front and offensive minded blueliner Marko Brelih. They'll likely need a repeat performance of Boots collegiate opening weekend to come out with their first win against Amherst since before the ECAC-E/NESCAC interlock ended.
On a broadcasting sidenote, we certainly hope Hugh Campbell will return for another season of calling Amherst games. Hugh lost his wife during NESCAC championship week but returned for the thrilling OT win over Norwich in the NCAA Quarterfinals.
With a song as good as Explosion in the Sky's "Catastrophe and the Cure" we only need something as tangential as the returned health of the netminders to justify its inclusion
Connecticut College at Wesleyan
7 PM Spurrier-Snyder Rink Middletown, CT
Wesleyan Season Preview Conn College Season Preview
Crossing Paths
The Camels and Cardinals enter the season having had very different 2014-15 campaigns. The Camels ended a four year NESCAC playoff drought, earning their first ever home 'Cac playoff game and a trip to NESCAC championship weekend. The Cardinals, on the other hand, dropped from back-to-back sixth place finishes to fall to the cellar of the league and a 3-21 overall record.
The Cardinals barely lost any output from last year, which could be a good thing or bad thing when you consider their record. One name that is conspicuously absent from the roster is Elliot Vorel, who broke out like gangbusters in the first half of his rookie season, but slowed down in the second half and was limited to only eight games in his sophomore campaign. On the other side, the Camels return Second Team All-NESCAC goalie Tom Conlin, but were decimated on the blueline with 2/3 of the defense lost to graduation.
Conn College looks to avoid a step-back into the bottom half of the NESCAC, while Wesleyan is just looking to step out of the Cac basement. So, we present Vampire Weekend's remix of their song "Step" which includes a verse from Wesleyan alum Himanshu Kumar Suri aka Heems ("We went to Wesleyan and she scoffed at Vassar/I Met Her at a Wine-and-Cheese and looked right past her").
Tufts at Trinity
7:30 PM Koeppel Community Sports Center Hartford, CT
Live Stats Video Tufts Season Preview Trinity Season Preview
Revenge is a Dish Best Served Frozen
I don't think Trinity will have too many regrets from a season that ended with the school's first ever men's hockey NCAA title, but if they have any it's the loss to Tufts in the NESCAC Quarterfinals. The loss helped galvanize the Bantams in their NCAA tournament run, but don't expect any thank you notes for the Jumbos in Hartford tonight.
It will be tough for the Jumbos to repeat their performance from February. Tufts is led by a rookie head coach in Pat Norton, who was only hired late in August, and who inherits a team missing Second Team All-NESCAC defenseman Blade Edwards. The Bantams lost even more on the blueline, including first Team All-NESCAC/Third Team All-American Mike Flynn, but they also return the reigning NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding player in senior netminder Nate Heilbron.
Don't expect the top ranked (in both polls) Bantams to take this game lightly, as fifth year bench boss Matt Greason has proven he knows how to make adjustments, posting a 70-28-6 all time record as head coach at his alma mater. Everyone knew the Bantams would be a good offensive team heading into last season, but the main questions were how they would hold up on the other end of the ice. The Bantams responded with a top five defense statistically in the D-III nation.
Teams will be motivated to hunt down a win against the defending national champs all season long. The Bantams will have to be strong to defend their crown. We present Herbie Hancock collaborators, Headhunters with "Gotta Be Strong"
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