Offense - 4.79 G/GM (2nd) Offense - 3.33 G/GM (24th)
Defense - 2.18 G/GM (17th) Defense - 1.70 G/GM (5th)
PIM - 15.04/GM (28th) PIM - 10.93 /GM (63rd)
Power Play - 28.15 % (2nd) Power Play - 22% (17th)
Penalty Kill - 87.23% (17th) Penalty Kill - 87.83% (12th)
A lot has changed since Trinity and University of New England last met in the 2010-11 season, a 5-4 victory for the Nor'Easters in their second year in the ECAC-East, as part of the NESCAC/ECAC-E interlock. The Nor'Easters only reached double digit wins once in their first six years of existence as an NCAA program, but then Kevin Swallow took over and they have won 14, 15, 20 and 20 games, respectively. Before coming to UNE, Swallow took over a Nichols program in 2012, just two years after completing a DI playing career at Dartmouth (pre-titans of hockey twitter days) and University of Maine, and took the Bisons to the 2015 NCAA tournament when they lost to eventual national champion Trinity, led by their own young upstart coach, Matt Greason, who took over the program the year after that loss to the Maine based squad.
Last season, UNE lost the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Tournament but received their first ever trip to the NCAA DIII Men's Ice Hockey Tournament with a Pool C bid thanks to their 20 wins. This year, they got into the tournament by defeating last season's national runner-up, Salve Regina, in the CCC title game to earn the automatic bid and at trip to 2017 national runner-up Trinity in the opening round.
UNE comes in with the same goals per game average (a very dangerous 4.79) as they did when they hosted Colby in the opening round last season. Swallow hopes going on the road as an automatic qualifier against the NESCAC is better than an at-large bid at home as the Mules quelled the Nor'Easters 4-2 in that game. Then sophomore Tate Sproxton got the start in net over Ben Churchfield (a Brit in DIII hockey with a very British name) after then freshman Churchfield gave up five goals in the CCC title game. Churchfield rebounded this season to earn the starting job outright and to earn All-CCC Second Team honors with a 2.15 GAA and .920 save percentage.
Up front, UNE returns much of their firepower from last season, including Brady Fleurent, who earned CCC Player of the Year honors and would be in the 100 point club even if he only had assists in his career with a whopping 181 points (61-120-181) headed into his second and final NCAA Tournament. Ryan Bloom, who scored last season against Colby, leads the Nor'Easters with 21 goals this season.
But while the offensive firepower is what stands out for UNE, Churchfield and co.'s defensive stinginess is what coach Swallow credited to a resurgence in the second half of the season. UNE had a three game losing streak that culminated in the Green Mountains at the Middlebury Classic with an opening round loss to fellow NCAA Tournament team Hobart. Since then the Nor'Easters have gone 13-2-2 and have seldom given up more than two goals in a game, the last time coming in a 7-5 loss to Wentworth in January.
Trinity has been even stingier with a 1.70 goals against average, good enough for fifth in the nation and a starting goaltender in Teddy Loughborough that has a 1.54 GAA .940 save percentage stat line and who let up only three goals in a NESCAC playoff run that included two OT games. Unless you were living under a rock, you know by now about Trinity's buzzer beating (or was it?...eh, let's not relitigate that now) 3-2 OT win over Amherst in the NESCAC title game that made ESPN Sportscenter's Top 10 last Sunday. The narrative was made even richer by the one timer being hammered home by Taggart Corriveau - son of former Hartford Whaler Yvon Corriveau - who earned the home ice throughout the NESCAC playoffs in Hartford by scoring in the final ten seconds of the regular season finale against Wesleyan to give the Bantams the top seed. Considering the New England fan reaction to the Carolina Hurricanes wearing the Hartford Whalers jerseys against Boston this week, it was nice to have a positive Hartford Whaler reference point, at least in the NESCAC universe.
Speaking of Hartford, this will be UNE's first game in the state of Connecticut this season. The two teams have common opponents in Colby and Bowdoin, with Trinity sweeping both Colby and Bowdoin this season in home-and-homes and UNE beating both the Mules and Polar Bears in their respective visits to Biddeford, ME.
While I expect a lower scoring game, all bets are off in the playoffs, and these two teams have enough firepower to make this in to an ole fashion New England shootout. UNE hasn't faced many teams that have outshot them but when they have, the Nor'Easters have gone 0-4-1. Trinity has only been outshot twice this season going 0-1-1, the last time coming in a tie at Amherst in January. The Bantams have had eight straight games of at least thirty 30 shots and have reached the 40 shot plateau 14 times this season. While total shots are a crude metric and have all sorts of confounding variables, it is pretty clear that Greason's gang knows how to get the puck on net in droves and it is a large key to their success.
The winner of the game travels to Northfield, VT for a quarterfinal game with D-III powerhouse Norwich. The Bantams lost to the Cadets in the 2017 title game and the last NESCAC team to head to Kreitzberg Arena in the playoffs was Hamilton, who got blown out in the quarterfinals in that same 2017 tournament.
Pre-game Tweets/Gram
Final weekend of #toomuchhockey in Hartford!— Hartford Whalers (@WhalersPlates) March 8, 2019
Tonight: UConn vs. #2 UMass, 7pm, XL Center
High School Quarterfinals, 5:45 & 8pm, Koeppel Center
Saturday: NCAA Division III First Round, Trinity vs. Univ of New England, 7pm, Koeppel Center
Sunday: AHL vs. Hershey, 3pm, XL Center
It's all about Hartford this week. It might be appropriate to go with the Zambonis version of the Hartford Whalers' goal song, Brass Bonanza, but instead we will go with Hartford's Bronze Radio Return and their new single, Entertain You, in hopes of an exciting game that ends with Trinity making Vermont travel plans for St. Patrick's Day weekend.
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