2016-17 Trinity Men's Hockey Year in Review

The Bantams celebrate a second straight NESCAC title after an OT goal from
Ryan Cole

3.Trinity
2015-16 Reccord
11-5-2 (3rd in NESCAC)
21-7-3 Overall

Stats:
Overall (Conf. Rank)                                     Conference Games (Conf. Ranks)
Offense - 3.97 G/GM (1st)                                                       Offense - 3.61 G/GM (1st)
Defense - 1.87 G/GM (2nd)                                                       Defense - 1.94 G/GM (2nd)
Power Play - 31/147 21.1% (4th)                                              Power Play - 15/87 17.2% (5th)
Penalty Kill - 118/132 89.4% (3rd)                                              Penalty Kill - 66/76 86.8% (4th) 
Penalty Minutes - 11.1/Gm (5th)                                             Penalty Minutes - 12.0 /Gm (3rd) 

Season Review
The defending NESCAC champs entered the season as the prohibitive favorites returning most of the firepower from the best offensive unit in the 'CAC.

But the game is played on the ice, not paper, and the Bantams stumbled out of the gates, at least when one considers the expectations. Eight games into the conference schedule Matt Greason's squad sat at a pedestrian 4-4 after a weekend sweep in Maine including a 5-1 loss to the newly lowly Bowdoin Polar Bears.  But the firepower could not be held back and the Bantams would only lose twice more all season after that day in Brunswick, once against Williams in February and then not again until the national title game.

In order to get to that national title game, they first had to claim the Iron Throne of the NESCAC. After disposing of Tufts in the Quarterfinals, the Bantams scored four unanswered to get past Williams for a matchup with first time NESCAC finals host Hamilton. In an absolutely electric finals, Trinity prevailed 3-2 in overtime on an off-angle shot from senior Ryan Cole.

In the NCAA tournament opener, Trinity took care of Plattsburgh for the second time in three years, before needing 69 shots and double overtime to defeat Endicott and earn a trip to the Utica Memorial Auditorium for he DIII Phrozen Phour. The Bantams went 4-1 in five NCAA tournament games in three seasons at the Koeppel Center between 2015 and 2017.

In Utica, the Bantams held off a physical St. Norbert's Knights team to reach their second national title game in three seasons and an All-East final against the mighty Cadets of Norwich. The Bantams never really found their flow in the game, something not uncommon against a Cadets team that lost one game all season, and finished the first runner-up in the DII world after a 4-1 loss.

High Point
Coach Greason was absolutely gushing about his team after the St. Norbert's victory, admitting he needed to give pretty sanitized answers to avoid getting emotional. The icing on the cake was senior captain Sam Johnson scoring only his third collegiate tally for the game winner.

Low Point 
It's hard to call losing the national title game a low in terms of achievement, but in terms of emotional gut punches, there's not much more painful in the immediate moment.

MVP
The Seniors  With due respect to junior Anthony Sabitsky, who made the First Team All-NESCAC team, we are giving this to the senior class (Sean Orlando, Ethan Holdaway, Will Sleeper, TJ Sherman, Sam Johnson, Ryan Cole and Brandon Cole). The seven man class of '17 made 3 NCAA Tournaments (15, 16, 17) in which they went 7-2, won 2 NESCAC titles (16 and 17), finished 1st in the NESCAC regular season standings twice (14 and 15), made 2 DIII Frozen Fours (15 and 17) and won the program's first ever NCAA men's hockey title (15). In addition, Ryan Cole (59-84-143) and Orlando (64-67-131) joined the 100 point club during their time in Hartford. Also, they apparently killed it in the classroom. 

The class of 2017 will graduate with a cumulative class GPA above 3.45 and numerous departmental academic awards. pic.twitter.com/PWOgxRYPMt

— Trinity Men's Hockey (@TCBantamsHockey) May 13, 2017

The Bantams wouldn't stop moving their feet towards the national title game despite a lackluster start. In honor of the  Trinity senior class, here is a song from my senior year in high school that I couldn't get get out of my friggin head at the time. Godspeed to wherever Junior Senior are these days.