Friday, February 2, 2018

Roundup 1/26/18 - 1/30/18

Well, folks, we finally reached the point of the season when all teams have played twelve games (2/3 of regular season) and we can discuss standings without hedging.  Trinity (13-3-2; 10-1-1), ranked fifth in both national polls, swept Amherst/Hamilton (more on the Amherst game from LPfan2004 here ) this weekend and they lead the way at 21 points with a commanding six point cushion over surprise second place team Conn College (8-9-1;7-4-1).  The Camels now have as many wins in league games this season than they did overall victories in the past two seasons combined (7-34-6). Despite suffering the ignonimy of allowing the second Middlebury power play goal of the season, the Camels fought through to a tie with the Panthers and victory over Williams, both on the road. Camel sophomore Ryan Petti scored the game tying goal and set up the eventual winner against Williams to earn NESCAC Player of the Week honors.

Colby  (10-8-0;7-5-0) sits at third after  a weekend off from conference play and only a 6-2 victory over Fitchburg State from the NESCAC whipping boy, MASCAC, to occupy their time.  They rounded out non-conference play with a 5-1 victory over University of Southern Maine two days later to put the NESCAC at 30-27-3 to close out non-conference regular season action.


Wesleyan (9-5-4; 5-4-3) appears in the final home playoff spot for now despite only garnering one point on the weekend with a 5-2 loss to Hamilton on Sunday following the NESCAC's first 0-0 shutout in league play in two years in a 0-0 tie with Amherst (a blocked shot fest with 23 saves for Connor Girard and only 18 for Tim Sestak) . The aformentioned Mammoths of Amherst (7-7-4;4-4-4) are appropriately in the fifth spot with a symmetric 4-4-4 mark, tied at 12 points with historical frienemies Williams (10-8-0;6-6-0), who has lost four straight in conference, including losses to Tufts and Conn College this past weekend despite the return of senior Roberto Cellini to the lineup.

The Continentals of Hamilton (11-6-1; 5-6-1) finally broke a four game in conference losing streak with the victory over the Cardinals (a game which saw neither Neil Conway nor Jason Brochu dress) but not before falling to Trinity on Saturday. Anthony Tirabassi was strong in net vs Wesleyan with 34 saves but the Conts have sorely missed Evan Buitenhuis.  He played as much hockey last weekend as Bowdoin (7-11-0;4-8-0), who were idle both in and out of conference and are tied for  the eighth and final playoff spot with a Tufts (4-11-3;3-7-2) team that rode two Tyler Scroggins third period goals to a 4-2 victory over the Ephs and 32 Nik Nugnes saves to a 1-1 tie with Middlebury (4-12-2; 2-8-2). Stephen Klein matched Nugnes in that game with 39 saves of his own. The last place Panthers tied both of their contests on the weekend, and perhaps more importantly, went 2 for 7 on the power play to improve to...a D-III worst 3-of-52 (5.77%) for the season.

With a third of the season left, we are all wondering, how's it (the standings) gonna be come playoff time? 


No comments:

Post a Comment