Hamilton 2 SUNY Canton 1

by LPfan2004

The Hamilton Continentals rounded out non-conference play when they faced off against the SUNY Canton Kangaroos at Sage Rink on Sunday, January 21st. The two teams had met earlier in the season at the Skidmore Invitational when Hamilton prevailed 3-1. Hamilton came into the game ranked 10th/ 13^th  (D3hockey..com/USCHO) in the nation with a 9-5-1 record, while Canton came in 5-11-2. Anthony Tirabassi started at goalie for the Continentals, while the Kangaroos gave the job to Austin Washkurak.

Hamilton’s Sterling Bray broke the ice for Hamilton with a goal 17 minutes into the opening frame. It was his first goal of the season and it was assisted by fellow sophomore Sam Jones, who stopped a Canton clear to keep the puck in the zone and setup his classmate. The Conts took a 2-goal lead seven minutes into the second period on a power play goal by freshman Sean Allen, his first collegiate goal season, and helpers on the tally went to senior Brandon Willett, who setup Allen on the give-and-go, and University of Maine transfer Stephen Cochrane. Canton responded late in the second with their own power play goal courtesy of Josh Sova, his 8^th of the season. No more goals were scored in the game, and Hamilton earned a 2-1 victory over SUNY Canton.

Canton lost despite Washkurak’s valiant effort. He stopped 31 of the 33 pucks he saw,  while Tirabassi stopped 17 for Hamilton in a victory after three rough in-conference starts. The Continentals went one for five on power plays in the affair, while the Kangaroos were one for two.

Because this win does not matter in conference standings, it leaves Hamilton at 7^th in the NESCAC. Hamilton’s next game will be Saturday when they travel to NESCAC top dawgs, Trinity. The Continentals have 8 more games left in their regular season.

LPfan2004 is going back to the Panic at the Disco well for Hamilton's perfect 6-0 victorious non-conference schedule, a welcome respite from a conference three game losing streak. 

Conference Roundup 1/19/18 - 1/20/18

Trinity (11-3-2; 8-1-1 NESCAC) created space between themselves and the rest of the conference at the midway(ish) point. After this weekend, every team in the conference has played ten games, except for Bowdoin (6-11-0;4-8-0) and Colby (8-8-0;7-5-0), who have played twelve. The Bantams have 17 points, three more than the next nearest team with Colby at 14, though the Mules have played two more games than the defending NESCAC champs. 

There is a three-way jam at twelve points between the resurgent Camels of Connecticut College (7-9-0;6-4-0), Williams (10-6-0;6-4-0) and Wesleyan  (9-4-3;5-3-2). The Mammoths of Amherst (6-6-3;4-3-3) come in next at 11 points after separating themselves from nine pointed travel partner Hamilton (9-5-1;4-5-1) with three third period goals for a 4-1 win in Clinton on Saturday. The Polar Bears of Bowdoin got a much needed weekend sweep at home to move up to eight points, three points ahead of Tufts (3-11-2;2-7-1) at five and Middlebury (4-12-0;2-8-0) at four points. We will have a better snap shot after next weekend when all teams will have played twelve games. 

On the ice, Trinity took care of business on the road with wins over Tufts  4-1 (Box) on Friday and Conn College 5-2 (Box) on Saturday. The Bantams now have a five game wining streak, all in conference and all by a comfortable margin of three goals. Shots on goal can be a rather crude statistic, but it is telling that the Bantams have outshot NESCAC opponents in every game this season and have outshot every opponent but one (one of the two Hobart games) in non-conference games as well.  In total, Trinity holds a whopping 677-393 SOG advantage for the season.

The shot disparity appears to wear opponents down. Trinity trailed Tufts after two periods and were tied with Conn College after two this weekend. On Friday, it was the blueliners who got the job done in the third with two tallies from James Callahan, Griff Martin's second goal in three games after only one in his first three collegiate seasons, and Blake Carrick's first career goal. Mike Grande got in on the first collegiate tally train in the third against Conn with Ryan Pfeffer and Andy Chugg providing the other firepower. Earlier in the game senior Anthony Sabitsky had a goal and an assist to join the hallowed 100 point club (8-52-100). He should be joined soon by classmate Tyler Whitney, who has 97 points currently. Whitney and Sabitsky are the last remaining players who saw ice time in the national title game Trinity won in 2015.  Senior netminder Alex Morin only needed to make 28 saves on the weekend.

Conn College's loss to Trinity stopped a four game winning streak, which included a sweeping of the season series with Wesleyan thanks to a 3-2 overtime victory on Friday (Box). Freshman Paul Capozzi, who had his team leading eigth goal in the loss to Trinity, notched his seventh of the season for the OT winner on Friday. The other two goals were scored by sophomore Jacob Moreau, who leads the team in points with 14 (7-7-14). Included in the youth movement was last week's NESCAC Player of the Week and sophomore Connor Rodericks, who made 31 saves for the victory. The youth driven Camels, who went 2-28-6 in conference the past two seasons, are 6-4-0 through the first ten conference games this season.

The Cardinals salvaged their weekend on Saturday with a 2-1 victory over Tufts (Box) thanks to senior Cam McCusker's poke in from a melee in front of the net in the third period. Tim Sestak recovered from only 18 saves in the loss to Conn on Friday for 27 saves in the victory, while Nik Nugnes made 30 saves in defeat. Dylan Holze from Wesleyan, who is second in the conference in goals scored with eight was held to one assist on the weekend. Tyler Scroggins scored the lone goal each game this weekend for the Jumbos.

Up in Maine, Bowdoin kickstarted their sluggish season thanks in part to the goaltending of sophomore Erik Wuman, who appears to have taken the reigns for starting netminder duties over senior Peter Cronin after the injury to freshman Alex Zafonte earlier this month. Wurman stopped 55 of 57 shots to backstop the PBs to their first weekend sweep of the 2017-18 campaign and on Monday the NESCAC rewarded Wurman with Player of the Week honors. Senior Matt Lison netted two tallies in the 4-1 victory over Williams (Box)  to pull into a three-way tie for the team lead in goals at four along with Bradley Ingersol, who also scored his fourth of the season against Williams. The Polar Bears are only scoring 1.92 goals per game in conference, second worst only to the Middlebury Panthers at 1.00 per game. The Panthers got their season average in the 2-1 loss to Bowdoin on Saturday (Box) thanks to Holy Cross transfer Owen Powers fifth conference goal of the season . Junior Cody Todesco, who leads the PBs in points with 11 (2-9-11) scored a goal and added an assist for a four point weekend (1-3-4).

The Panthers did not squander the whole weekend as they opened on Friday with a 3-2 victory at Colby (Box), the largest offensive output in conference all season for Middlebury.  Senior Stephen Klein stopped 39 shots and big boy Frank Cosilito, who led Middlebury football in the fall with six TDs as a Tight End, broke the 2-2 tie with a rip in the third for his first goal of the season. Middlebury went 0/2 on the Power Play on Friday and 0/1 on Saturday for an unprecedented 1/45 (2.22%) conversion rate on the season. Elias Sports Bureau was not available for comment if this is the worst conversion rate for any collegiate hockey team in history.

Colby ended their four game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over Williams on Saturday (Box) thanks to three first period goals - two of which were setup by Phil Klitirinos' team leading 12th and 13th assists of the season - and 35 saves from Sean Lawrence.  Cam Macdonald potted an empty net goal, his team leading eigth lamp lighter of the season, to seal the game. The Mules kept Williams' NESCAC leading power play to only one fruitless special teams opportunity. Sophomore Kienan Scott scored a power play goal for Colby, who went 1/5 on the man advantage. It was the fifth tally of the season for Scott, who is the only underclassmen among the top eight scorers for the Mules.  Speaking of underclassmen, freshman Nick Van Belle scored one of the two Ephs goals to pull into a four way tie for leading goal scorer on the team at seven with upperclassmen Roberto Cellini, David Italiano and CJ Shugart.

In the lone travel partner game of the weekend, Amherst downed Hamilton 4-1 (Box) thanks to three goals in the second half of the third period, including Will Vosepjka and Noah Gilreath's first goals of the season. At least two of those goals were caused at least in part by miscues from goal Anthony Tirabassi, who made 31 total saves on the evening. Tirabassi, who looked great early on in the season in non-conference games, has allowed 11 conference goals on only 72 shots (.847 save%) in his first three games as taking over as full-time starter for an injured Evan Buitenhuis.

The Mammoths may have changed names and Hamilton may have finished higher in the standings the past few seasons, but Amherst still owns theirs travel partners. The Continentals defeated the Purple at Sage almost two years ago to the day for their first win over Amherst in decade but have gone (0-2-2) since.

Conference Roundup 1/12/18-1/14/18

With LPfan2004's conference debut with contributions for Wesleyan vs Bowdoin and Hamilton vs Tufts. 

Trinity (9-3-2;6-1-1 in NESCAC) looked to right the ship at home vs the Maine clubs after a sluggish 1-3-2 stretch which saw the PK unit kill only nine power play opportunities in their opponents' last seventeen man advantages headed into a matchup with Colby.  The Bantams remedied this malady, at least temporarily, with two kills in the first period. The only tally of a back-and-forth first frame, which saw only two iceings, came with less than a minute to play when senior Anthony Sabitsky knocked home a power play goal set up by a blast from James Callahan.

The second period in Hartford was bonkers with five penalties as well as five goals. Nick O'Connor took the opening faceoff and nearly scored seven seconds into the frame. While Alex Morin turned aside the first attempt, O'Connor put in the equalizer just ten seconds later. The Mules would take the lead three and a half minutes later just two seconds after a power play expired when Mike Rudof finished off a tic-tac-toe play from Phil Klitirinos and Kienan Scott. the Bantams would own the rest of the period with a beaut of a shorthander from Connor Hegarty, a power play goal from Tyler Whitney (his first goal in eight games) and Griff  Martyn's first goal in nearly two years. The Bantams cruised to a 5-2 victory (Box) with Sean Lawrence making 37 saves in defeat and Morin collecting 27 saves to start to get back on track.

On Saturday afternoon the Bantams took care of Bowdoin (4-11-0;2-8-0 NESCAC) 4-1 (Box) in a game which saw Trinity pepper PB senior netminder Peter Cronin with 52 shots. The Bants had a second straight game with a short handed tally - though no power play goals from either team - and blueliner Nick Fiortento, he formerly of Northeastern and Fordham Prep before (Hail men of Fordham, Hailscored his first collegiate power play tally on a give-and-go from Liam Feeney.

 The Polar Bears started the weekend the night before at Spurrier-Snyder Rink facing off against the then 6-2-3 Cardinals of Wesleyan. Neither team went with their starting goalie, as George Blinick made his 5^th start for Wesleyan and Erik Wurman made his 2^nd start for Bowdoin.

Both goalies played great in the first two periods, with neither one letting in a goal. There was, however, many penalties committed. There were two occasions in which the teams played four on four, and one in which it was three on four. Wesleyan went 0 for 2 on power plays in these periods, while Bowdoin went 0 for 3.

Bowdoin made the third period much more interesting, as Spencer Antunez scored his second goal of the season less than six minutes in off an assist from Austin Ricci. Wesleyan soon evened out the score, as Vincent Lima made up for an unconverted power play less than a minute after the power play ended. The period went on without any more major events, and it looked like it was going into overtime when Wesleyan got the puck with less than 10 seconds left. Sean Ross fired a shot of desperation with four seconds left, and it looked like it was going high. Wurman tried to catch it in his glove, but didn’t handle it cleanly and it slipped into the back of the net. Wesleyan obviously won the game 2-1 (Box) on this goal and avoided overtime. Both goalies finished with a respectable 29 saves, but the one extra shot from Wesleyan proved costly. 

Wesleyan (8-2-3;4-2-2) then swept the weekend with a 5-1 (Box) win over a Colby (7-6-0;6-4-0) team that left the Nutmeg State empty-handed thanks to Tim Sestak's 42 saves for the red and white. Senior Dylan Holze scored two tallies to end the game with 21 points (12-9-21) in 14 games on the season. Holze had a total of 30 points (13-17-30) total in 66 collegiate games headed into the season. Lawrence gave up five goals on 33 shots before being pulled for junior Mack Burton, who made nine saves in his first fifteen minutes of action on the season. 

Rounding out the Connecticut action, Connecticut College (5-8-0; 5-3-0 NESCAC) completed their first weekend sweep in at least two seasons behind NESCAC player of the week Conner Roderick's strong goaltending. On Saturday, Roddericks made 33 saves to shut out Hamilton 3-0 (Box), despite the Continentals having eight power plays and limiting the Camels to just nine shots. The Conts goalie, Anthony Tirabassi, who had been stellar in net heading into the game - one goal allowed on 98 shots - gave up six goals on eight shots faced in his first NESCAC start. Starting goaltender Evan Buitenhuis did not dress for either game on the weekend after leaving the Bowdoin game in the 1st period on January 5th. 

The Camels survived the visiting Amherst (5-6-3;3-3-3) Mammoths on Sunday 3-2 (Box) after jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the 2nd. Freshman Paul Capozzi netted his team leading sixth of the season while frosh Kyle Moss scored his first collegiate tally on a wrap around and sophomore Brendan O'Connell also scored his first career goal on a redirect. Jack Fitzgerald and Joey Lupo's shorthanded tally in the third period were not enough to bring the Purple and White back. 

The Mammoths droped their contest a day earlier in Medford, MA against a resurgent Tufts (3-9-2;2-5-1) team that saved their season with two home wins after tying second ranked Endicott earlier in the weekend. On Saturday, sophomore Giancarlo Ventre made his second career NESCAC start (both have been against Tufts) for Amherst and gave up four goals on 23 shots. Reigning Second Team All-NESCAC goalie Nik Nugnes earned his first win of the season in style with 33 saves and a shutout. Four different Jumbos scored on the evening, including leading scorer, senior Brian Brown, for the 4-0 victory (Box). 

On Sunday, the Jumbos rolled over Hamilton (9-4-1;4-4-1 NESCAC) with a 5-3 victory (Box).  Tufts got on the board less than a minute in from a Brendan Ryan goal, his second of the season. Other goals in the period came from Hamilton’s Brandon Willett and Tufts’ Charley Borek. Besides these three goals, nothing else happened in the period, not even one power play. Hamilton, feeling a little jealous, started the second period faster than Tufts started the first with a Jason Brochu goal 11 seconds in. This goal tied the game at 2, however, the tie didn’t last long because Mason Babbidge scored his third goal of the season less than four minutes into the period. A couple penalties came after this, but no more goals were scored.

The Tufts fourth line gave them a 2-goal lead with about 13 minutes left in the game. The goal was scored by Ross Delabruere, his first of the season, and it was assisted by Clay Berger and Jordan Haney. The aformentioned Brown scored his team leading 7^th goal of the season with less than five minutes left in the period to give the Jumbos a 3-goal lead and secure them the game. 

Tufts’ Jordan Haney and Cory Gottfried each got a penalty with less than two minutes left. This, combined with Hamilton’s pulled goalie, gave the Continentals a 6 on 3 opportunity, which is something very rare in hockey. Hamilton used this to score one goal, Jason Brochu’s second of the game, but it was not enough to give them a victory, and Tufts won the game 5-3. Both teams will not have play until next weekend. Tufts plays Trinity on Friday and Wesleyan on Saturday, while Hamilton plays Amherst on Saturday and SUNY Canton on Sunday. (This is LPfan2004, signing off.)

The main take aways from the weekend are that the NESCAC is gonna NESCAC. Colby and Hamilton, pre-season favorites to be at the top, both showed significant chinks in the proverbial armor, especially the Continentals with the uncertain future of Boots in net. Trinity asserted itself as the class of the conference again, as they did last year, after a mediocre start in non-conference play. Surprising sweeps of the weekend by Conn College and Tufts also will make the rest of the season interesting. We didn't have to Make The NESCAC Competitive Again™, because it always has been. 

Welcome to the NESCAC, LPfan2004, where the standings can breakdown at any moment.

LPfan2004: Tufts-Endicott, Part Deux

Our junior correspondent,LPfan2004, is back with Tufts-Endicott, part deux.       

Tufts 2, Endicott 2 FINAL OT (Box Score) 

The Tufts Jumbos men’s hockey team sought revenge when the Endicott Gulls made the trip to Malden Valley Forum for a regular season game on Tuesday. In the consolation game of the W.B. Mason Winter Classic on Saturday, both team’s most recent game, the Gulls embarrassed the Jumbos with an 8-1 stomping. Tuesday  was also the last non-conference game of the 2017-18 season for Tufts, so a win here would have been huge for the 1-9-1 Jumbos, especially against the 14-1-1 nationally ranked Gulls (#2 in both polls), who came into the contest with a 15-game unbeaten streak. A win here would have given Tufts huge momentum and confidence going into their NESCAC games. Starting in net for Endicott was Justin Ketola, while Nik Nugnes got the nod for Tufts.

In the first period, Endicott won the opening faceoff, and no major action occurred until aJack Musil interference penalty six  minutes in, which gave Tufts their first power play. After not converting their power play, Tufts gave one back with 7:48 left because of an Andrew Hadley hooking call. Tufts defended well on the power play, and used this momentum to score a goal less than a minute after their penalty ended. The goal was scored by Brian Brown, his fourth of the season; Tyler Scroggins and Cory Gottfried picked up the helpers. The last major event of the period came on a Bump Lisk holding with 1:16 left, which would give the Jumbos a 2-minute power play that would continue in the second period.

With 2 seconds left on the power play - only 42 seconds into the period - Brown scored his second tally of the game. A Charley Borek hooking call came less than two minutes after this, giving Endicott their second power play of the game. Ross Olsson converted the penalty for Endicott, scoring his ninth goal of the season and putting Endicott within one goal of Tufts. There were a couple more penalties in the period, including a Craig Uyeno cross-checking that would give Endicott a minute of power play going into the third period.

Endicott did not convert their power play, however a few more came in the period. The last one, a Craig Uyeno hooking, gave Endicott a 2-minute power play with three minutes left in regulation time. With less than a minute and a half left in the game, Daniel Kucerovy converted Endicott’s power play with his 16^th goal of the season. This goal was assisted by Josh Bowes and Logan Day, and it sent the game into overtime. The overtime period was very boring, however, with neither team scoring a goal or earning a power play. The game ended in a 2-2 tie, with both sides feeling like that was a game they could have and should have won. 

Tufts stays at home (well, at Malden Valley Forum, at least) this weekend against Amherst and Hamilton on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. 

"Always workin' OT, overtime and outta town" - Drake

Only two more Tuesdays of non-conference play before it is NESCAC only the rest of the way. In honor of this Tuesday, overtime game in which Tufts almost pulled off the huge upset, here's iLoveMakonnen(featuring Drake) with Tuesday (the clean version, of course, we got kids reading - and writing - here)

LPfan2004 debut: Tufts gets routed by Endicott

Aaaannnd we are back, baby! Our apologies for the radio silence over the last month as the travails of the holiday season and life events have tripped us up at HITC headquarters. We will be back at it this week, but first, a debut from 13 year old junior HITC correspondent, LPfan2004, with a  recap of Tufts loss to nationally ranked Endicott College yesterday in a tournament consolation game.

As part of the W.B. Mason Winter Classic men’s hockey tournament hosted by the Plattsburgh State Cardinals, the Endicott Gulls faced off against the Tufts Jumbos in a consolation game for third place in the tournament. In the first round, the Jumbos lost 5-1 to Plattsburgh State. The Gulls tied Babson 1-1, but lost a penalty shootout to move on to the final round.  Mark Specia made the start in net for Endicott , with rookie Drew Hotte making his seventh appearance this season for Tufts . 

The first half of the opening frame proved  uneventful, with neither team getting a goal or a power play. There were three time stoppages, and only ten shots taken by both teams. The next ten minutes had much more action, with Brian Brown of Tufts scoring his third goal of the season with 4:59 left in the first period. The goal came after Endicott netminder Mark Specia came out of net and slipped on the ice;Tyler Scroggins and Peter Hatton earned helpers on the tally. Endicott responded with 1:17 left in the period. The goal was scored by Logan Day, his tenth of the season, and it was assisted by Josh Bowes and Jason Kalinowski.

Endicott wasted no time in the second period, scoring less than two-and-a-half minutes in. Luke Rodgers got the  goal, his sixth of the season, and he  was assisted by John Carricato and Anthony Petrella. Tufts got their first two-minute power playabout three minutes later , but they could not convert and get a goal. Endicott scored two quick goals in the middle of the second period, one by Jack Musil with 11:15 left, and the other by Daniel Kucerovy with 10:12 left. Musil’s goal, his seventh of the season, was assisted by Luke Rodgers and Carter Horwitz, while Michael Heidkamp and Jack Kilty earned helpers on Kucerovy’s, the fifteenth of his junior campaign . The period ended with Endicott’s Jake Simons getting a tripping penalty, which gave Tufts another two-minute power play that would begin in the third period.

Tufts could not convert their power play, but conceded one 4:51 in because of a Jordan Haney holding  call. This power play was not converted by Endicott, who subbed in Justin Ketola at goalie to begin the third period. Endicott had a great third period, including Ross Olsson’ s seventh and eigth goals of the season. The Gulls had two other goals in the period, one from Josh Bowes, his tenth of the season, and the other from Thomas Daniels, his sixth of the season. After Bowes’s goal with 9:57 left, Ryan McConnell subbed in  for Drew Hotte  at goalie for Tufts.. These four third period goals made the final score 8-1, with the Endicott Gulls cruising to an easy victory over the Tufts Jumbos . The Gulls won the shots on goal battle handily, 42 -26. (Box Score) 

It has been a rough first half for the Jumbos (1-9-1; 0-5-1 in NESCAC), who began the season with what appeared to be realistic dreams of a home playoff game in their head. The Jumbos have struggled in all aspects on the ice, including reigning All-NESCAC second team goalie Nik Nugnes posting a 4.22 Goals Against Average and sub .900 save percentage in six contests.

The Jumbos wrap up out of conference play against the very same Endicott Gulls on Tuesday at home before returning to conference action, also at home, against Amherst and Hamilton next weekend.

LPfan2004 is also a PATDfan2004, so here is Panic at the Disco with Nine in the Afternoon in (dis)honor of the nine goals scored in this one. The album the song is on, Pretty.Odd, was released when LPfan2004 was four years old, which makes me feel Pretty.Old.