2016-17 Williams Men's Hockey Year in Review

David Italiano led the Ephs in scoring

Next up is fourth place Williams

4.Williams
2016-17 Reccord
10-5-3 (4th in NESCAC)
14-6-2 Overall

Stats:
Overall (Conf. Rank)                                     Conference Games (Conf. Ranks)
Offense - 3.00 G/GM (7th)                                                       Offense - 3.17 G/GM (2nd)
Defense - 2.58 G/GM (7th)                                                       Defense - 2.72 G/GM (6th)
Power Play - 24/101 23.8% (2nd)                                              Power Play - 16/66 24.2% (1st)
Penalty Kill - 73/94 77.7% (8th)                                              Penalty Kill - 47/60 78.3% (8th) 
Penalty Minutes - 9.1/Gm (7th)                                             Penalty Minutes - 8.7/Gm (8th) 

Season Review
Williams entered the season with a sense of optimism despite graduating All-American Zander Masucci from a team that saw the Ephs finish first in the NESCAC regular season and earned an NCAA Tournament win for the first time in school history. The optimism came from what still remained: nine of their top ten scorers and an Al-Conference goalie and Co-NESCAC Rookie of The Year in netminder Michael Pinios.

Pinios, however, suffered a bit of a sophomore slump, allowing over one more goal per game in his second collegiate season and dropping .50 in save percentage on the season. Williams was still a strong team but they never strung together more than a five game unbeaten streak and backed into the playoffs with a four seed after a final regular season sweep at the hands of Amherst and Hamilton.  They took care of the Purple and White just a week later in the NESCAC quarterfinals before falling to Trinity 4-2 thanks to four unanswered from the Bantams in the semis.

Out of conference they had the hardest non-conference schedule in the league that included a win over then top ranked Oswego in OT and a one-goal loss to eventual national champion Norwich the next day in the Northfield Bank tournament finals.

High Point
In early February, Williams avenged a road blanking at Trinity earlier in the season with three unanswered third period goals against the Bantams in Williamstown for a 3-1 victory in early February. The win left the Ephs in the driver's seat for first place...

Low Point 
...but a sweep by the Purple and White and Buff and Blue killed that hope.

MVP
David Italiano (F, '18)  Italiano led the league in conference scoring (9-16-25) and had 31 points overall on the season (12-19-31) for his first All-NESCAC selection.

The Ephs survived Pinios' sophomore slump to comeback for a solid, if not still disappointing season for their aspirations.