The 'Cac, It's Back!

Hellooooo, sports fans, and welcome back to another exciting season of NESCAC puck. As has been the case for the past few seasons, life gets busy and we were derelict in giving you previews or recruiting updates. Sorry about that.




We'll get back into the flow in the next few weeks, but for now let's take a quick look at tonight's opening night games. There's no staggered Friday, Saturday, Sunday schedule, so we have a slate of five conference games tonight at 7 PM and then four conference games tomorrow afternoon with Hamilton traveling to SUNY Brockport for a Saturday night out of conference tilt.




Amherst at Hamilton
7 PM Clinton, NY




It's year 1 A.B. (After Boots) for the Continentals tonight as they open up at home against travel partner Amherst, whom they tied for third in the standings with last season.  Junior Anthony Tirabassi, who had an up-and down time filling in for Evan "Boots" Buitenhuis - who is currently making SportsCenter Top 10s with the ECHL's Worcester Railers HC - last year after transferring from Holy Cross will likely get the nod in trying to fill the boots of the former DIII Player of the Year.




The Continentals losses outside of Boots were mostly upfront with solid contributors Brandon Willett and Neil Conway graduating. They return, however, all conference forward Jason Brochu and we'll see if any of the four frosh forwards can make an impact. On the backend, they still have the likes of Bennett Morrison, Sean Allen and 6'6" Maine transfer Stephen Cochrane.




On the other bench, Jack Arena enters his 36th season as Amherst head coach with an unknown at goalie as well. Workhorse Connor Girard's graduation leaves a Mammoths netminder trio (Giancarlo Ventre, Michael Cullen and Alex Einarsson) that have a grand total of 10 collegiate appearances. Look for junior Ventre to get the nod in net tonight.




Amherst will be led by 1st team All-NESCAC defenseman Phil Johannson. The Mammoths lost all conference second team forward Tom Lindstrom up front, but did not lose much else to graduation, which accounts for  the small freshman class of five. 






Williams at Bowdoin
7 PM Brunswick, ME




The Polar Bears start off the 2018-19 campaign at home, looking to turn the page on a 2017-18 that saw them miss the NESCAC playoffs for the first time since conference playoffs started in 1999-2000. They enter the season with "chips on their shoulder" according to head coach Jamie Dumont.


In net, RPI transfer Kyle St. Denis should compete for time with sophomore Alex Zafonte, who split time with now graduated Peter Cronin and current senior Erik Wurman. St. Denis is joined by six young frosh (three of the six are 2000 birth years, which Holy Old Man Feelings batman), who look to bolster the Polar Bears needed improvement in all three aspects of the game. The frosh should get a good shot to help light the lamp, as the PBs return leading scorers Cody Todesco and Bradley Ingersoll, but no other ten point scorers from a season ago.




Like the 'CAC, Williams head coach Bill Kangas is back after a year sabbatical. He inherits a team that lost top contributors like leading goal scorers CJ Shugart and Dave Italiano, but returns senior goalie Mike Pinios - who has had an up and down career but has shown flashes of brilliance - and key contributors like now captain Keanu Hillaire and last year's leading scorer, Roberto Cellini.




An eight man freshman class of mostly prep starts (whom coach Kangas expects an immediate impact from) will look to help Williams rise back up into the top half of the NESCAC after finishing seventh last season. Of course, in the NESCAC, that meant being only three points behind second place Conn College, whom the Ephs beat in the NESCAC quarterfinals. Parity y'all, it's real!




Wesleyan at Conn College
7 PM New London


Speaking of the the Camels, they open up at home against fellow nutmeggers Wesleyan. Conn College looks to build on their best ever regular season finish and they have a good shot with the return of junior First Team All-NESCAC goalie Connor Rodericks, junior second team All-NESCAC forward Jacob Moreau and the reigning NESCAC Rookie of the Year in forward Paul Capozzi.


Despite returning much of its production, Conn College is prepared for the war of attrition that is a hockey season with eight freshman and Quinnipiac transfer Matt Creamer joining the team. The Camels have had success with in-state D1 transfer, including recently with Joe Birmingham from UCONN, who dished out three assists in the Camels lone NESCAC playoff win in program history back in 2015.




The Cardinals haven't hosted a NESCAC playoff game since 2007 but they have had success recently with back-to-back trips to the semis the past two seasons. They'll be lead by a junior class of Tyler Watt, Walker Harris and Spencer Fox that trailed only All-NESCAC Dylan Holze last season. The Cards lose Holze, but keep the core of their team, including a smooth skating blueliner in senior Chad Malinowski and their starting goaltender in junior Tim Sestak.  They'll be joined by an eight-man, junior heavy recruiting class and Skidmore transfer Gregg Quincy.






Trinity at Tufts
7 PM   Medford, MA




Trinity enters the season having not played in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2013-14 campaign, after the Bantams narrowly missed an at-large bid to the 2018 tournament following a loss to Colby in the NESCAC title game. They enter the season as the NESCAC favorites and the only 'CAC team to be ranked in that national polls - for whatever that is worth - at 7 in the D3Hockey.com version and 11 in United States College Hockey Online( USCHO)'s poll.




The Bantams lost key contributors from last season, including senior goalie Alex Morin, a pair of 100 point members in Anthony Sabitsky and Tyler Whitney, and blueliner Griff Martin. 8th year head man Matt Greason's arsenal will hardly be depleted, however, including junior Barclay Gamill coming off a ten goal season, new team captain Ryan Pfeffer and assist man extraordinaire Laim Feeney.  Morin's backup the past two seasons, Tedy Loughborough, will slide into starting netminder duties for his junior season.




Greason has also had sustained success thanks to replenishing the talent pool. This year he'll look to a five man freshman class of 20 year old junior players and Quinnipiac transfer Devin Moore to join the cast of returning characters in their quest to end the one season NCAA tournament drought.


The Bantams face a Jumbos team they have played four straight seasons in the NESCAC playoffs. Tufts gave Trinity all they could handle last year until a third period goal and a late empty netter sealed the win for the Bants. The Jumbos lost the 41 save netminder from that game, Nik Nugnes, and sophomore Drew Hotte, who saw time in seven games last season but never got a win, will look to be more successful as Nugnes' successor tonight. 




Coach Pat Norton loses leading scorer Brian Brown, but even he didn't have 10 goals for a Jumbos squad that struggled to light the lamp. What they lacked in goal scoring last season they hope to make up for in experience this season from a roster loaded with sophomores and juniors that made up the bulk of the scoring last season. The Jumbos return only one senior in captain Clay Berger, who will be joined on the opposite end by an eight man class of mostly junior players from the North American Hockey League.






Middlebury at Colby
7 PM Middlebury, VT




Tonight defending NESCAC champ Colby starts the follow-up to their magical run from NESCAC sixth seed to the 2018 national semifinalist. Ironically the defense of the title starts at home, a place the road warrior Mules haven't played at since February 11th of this year. The run to the NESCAC title included three road wins and the first two NCAA tournament round games and the Frozen Four were on the road as well.




The Mules hitting the ice at Alfond Rink this season will look rather different than that February 11th squad. Goalie Sean Lawrence is gone, as are forwards Cam MacDonald and Phil Klitirinos, and a good chunk of their blue line in Dan Dupont, Mike Decker and Andrew Reis. To add injury to graduation, veteran Mark Leprine will be out the first four weeks with a broken foot, so Thomas Stalhuth is the only veteran on the blueline to open the season. That last tidbit comes from Travis Barrett, who did an excellent job covering the Mules playoff run last season for CentralMaine.com.




Andrew Tucci, who was supplanted by the transfer of Lawrence mid season in the 2016-17 campaign, returns to the Mules net. Barrett did a pre-season piece on Tucci, which includes quotes from another loss for the Mules: long-time assistant Chris Hall, who now serves as an assistant for the D1 Merrimack Women's program.




The eight man freshman class will have its most immediate impact on the blueline, but incoming rookie Logan Clarke has also been skating on the second line in practice with JP Schulen and Spencer Hewson. The top line includes last season's leading scorer in Kienan Scott along with Nick O'Connor and Justin Grillo, all of whom had a major role in last season's Cinderella run.




If the host Mules are Cinderella, the visiting Middlebury Panthers are the pumpkin right now. The fall of the once might Panther program has been recited ad nauseum, but fourth year head man Neil Sinclair hopes last season's program first last place NESCAC finish is the nadir of the decline. The Panthers return most of their top scorers, but that is from a team that only scored 33 goals in 24 games and saw only Owen Powers cross the ten-point plateau.




As with Tufts, Middlebury can hope the experience of the remaining roster can be a plus. The only real loss for the Panthers to graduation was goalie Stephen Klein, who currently rotates with former Tufts goalie Mason Pulde for the Peiora Rivermen of the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL). A shining replacement does not appear to be in sight, with only junior Brian Ketchabaw .763 save % last season) and Henry Cutting (.750 save%) returning to the team alongside freshman Adam Wisco (894 save% in the OJHL).






Oh yeah, the music is back too, baby. A new season calls for some new tunes. The third period of the offseason has ended and the buzzer has sounded. Now it's time to light the red lamp and listen to sweet music of the goal horns. Red Fangs "Listen to the Sirens"