Showing posts with label Game Recaps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Game Recaps. Show all posts

Saturday, March 24, 2018

NCAA semis: St. Norbert's 4 Colby 3

St. Norbert   4
Colby           3
Box Score    Central Maine Recap   D3Hockey.com  NCAA.com Video Recap

 "I'm never displeased with the effort (in this game), this team typically brings it" Colby coach Blaise MacDonald said immediately after the game. St. Norbert coach Tim Coghlin coach would concur  as he said his team needed to earn all sixty minutes against the Mules.

But for the fickle mistress that is hockey, sometimes that isn't enough. Colby found itself down 2-0 within the first three minutes and then 3-0 (Colby gave up 3 goals in entire NESCAC tournament) by the close of the first period, and despite a valiant effort in the final two frames, the Mules were never able to find the equalizer.

St. Norbert got on the board just 1:28 in, as Green Knights defenseman Nick Lesage fed third-line winer Roman Uchyn, who beat Sean Lawrence high glove side from between the dots for the first tally. The real puzzler came less than a minute later when Brooklyn native Dominic Sacco just floated one in on net that somehow found its way through Lawrence's five hole for a goal that MacDonald called "a crazy one." Sacco, as those NESCAC fans with a better memory than is likely humanly possible may remember, assisted on one of St. Norbert's two goals in a loss to Trinity in last years semis and almost had an equalizer that just went wide in the closing minutes of that game against the Bantams.

Green Knight captain and ACHA First Team All-American Tanner Froese gave the tournament top seed a three goal advantage about nine minutes later.  The Saskatchewan native took the puck in and had a good backhanded chance that was turned aside by Lawrence. Moments later, Froese made an effort play to poke check Mule captain Mike Rudolf trying to clear in front of the net and it went in. Froese would say afterwards that the coaches emphasized tracking pucks on getting on defenders as part of the game plan.

The Miracle Mules did not give up and cut the shots advantage to 23-19 by the end of the first. It was the first time in this six week run on the road that the Mules gave up three goals in a game, let alone a period, and it is the first time they gave up three in a period since their last loss on February 3rd to Amherst.

Despite the score, both MacDonald ("it looked different on the scoreboard than it did on the bench") and his son Cam MacDonald ("We knew we could do it, we've scored three goals in five minutes before") were confident in their squad.  Both teams seemed to settle in the first half of the second with some back and forth play but generally no great scoring chances. Mike Decker got called for roughing in an altercation behind his own net but the Mules killed off the penalty.

Things picked up in the final five minutes of the second frame. Colby got on the board when Kienan Scott entered the zone wide on a breakout, using all the extra square footage of the Olympic rink, and got a shot off from the right circle. TJ Black saved it but left a juicey rebound for JP Schuhlen, who beat TJ Black gloveside high. The Knights looked to respond shortly after with a two-on-one, but Lawrence, who returned to form after the first half of the first period, made a sprawling, sliding save in which he lost his stick to keep the deficit at two.

Colby found itself with a golden opportunity less than two minutes later on an interference call on St. Norbert's winger Tommy Nicksic. On the ensuing power play, Thomas Stahluth from behind the net worked it over to MacDonald, who dangled a bit on All-American defenseman Sean Campbell and wristed it in shortside high from the odd angle.

Less than a minute later, with the Mules faithful and players alike amped,  Colby got another break with another interference call on the Green Knights. Nicksic elbowed Schuhlen high, and the officials turned to video review (new this year at DIII level) and determined that it was a two minute minor and not a more egregious infraction.

This time, however, it was St. Norbert that had the scoring opportunity, as Froese stole a flat cross ice pass at the blue line and raced down the wing before cutting in and going five hole on Lawrence for the 4-2 lead with 35 seconds left in the 2nd. Blaise would identify this as the turning point in the game and Froese and the Knights recognized how important the tally was to breaking the Mules momentum.

Early in the third, Justin Grillo, the hero of the Quarterfinals, was checked into the boards and was slow to get up, requiring the assistance of the training staff to get back to the bench. The refs went to the video replay to determine if there should be a penalty on St. Norbert's and ultimately decided the hit was clean. When asked about the replay after the game, Coghlin admitted to not knowing a non-call could be reviewed as the whole review process is new this season.

Thankfully for the Mules, Grillo was able to return to the game.  The freshman entered the zone with about six to play and riffled it through two defenders and a frozen Black. It was a bang-bang play that looked like a snipe perched from upon high, but after the game Coghlin said the puck was deflected off of defenseman Alfred Johansson's pad.

The Mules never stopped the pressure and pulled Lawrence for the extra attacker with 1:10 left, but Black stood his ground and the buzzer sounded with the Mules on the wrongside of the scoreboard for the first time in over a month. Black, a back-to-back All American, made 40 saves and has now set a school record of 26 wins in a season .

That's a program record for a school that is headed to their ninth D-III finals, tying Middlebury for most finals appearances, and all since 2004. Speaking of Middlebury, Coghlin shouted out now retired Panther legend Bill Beaney in the post game presser, crediting Beaney with imparting the wisdom upon him that if you have done your job as a coach correctly through the year, things are pretty much autopilot in that department come championship time.

The Green Knights last played in the title game here in Lake Placid two years ago, when they lost to Wisconsin-Stevens Point, who lost to Salve Regina in the other semifinal thanks to over 50 saves from the Seahawks goalie. Froese spoke of the "unfinished business" this team has at Herb Brooks Arena. The Green Knights have ten freshman but they also have six seniors that are looking to avoid being the first senior class to not win an NCAA title since the 2003 class. The Knights last won in 2014 in Lewiston, ME in a championship hosted by Bowdoin.

Norbert's will face off against a Salve Regina school, coached by rookie bench boss Zech Klenn , that is making their first ever NCAA title game not only in hockey, but in any sport. The Seahawks Blake Wotjala had to make 55 saves to defeat the Pointers 3-0 in the semis.

He will likely have to stand on his head again in the title game (and the Seahawks might want some luck from their winger Danny Eruzione's uncle Mike Eruzione) against this balanced Green Knights squad that had 47 shots but no one individual player with more than five of his own. Mules MVP Lawrence ended up with 43 saves and only one goal allowed in the final two periods in a testament to his fortitude rebounding from the early, "unfortunate" goals as Blaise called them. The Mules, at least according to the box, only blocked ten shots, much less than the 20+ they had become accustomed to on this playoff run.

Said dream run comes to an end, but there is no shame, especially considering how hard the Mules fought back. Even in the loss, Colby became the first team to score three on Norbert's since the Green Knights last loss, way back on January 26th to Adrian.

Thanks to the Mule Train for a joyful ride and thanks to everyone for another terrific NESCAC season. Only 236 days until the start of 2018-19 team activities...







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Monday, March 19, 2018

Lake Placid Bound, a play in 3 Acts with 280 Characters

As you are aware, Colby defeated Genseo 2-1 in the final seconds of the third period . Thankfully the Mules avoided OT to keep it to a classic three period  acts. In honor of this narrative structure preserving win, we present Lake Placid Bound, a Play in Three Acts and 280 Characters.

Pre-Game









1st Period 









2nd Period 









3rd Period 








Post Game 







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Sunday, March 18, 2018

Colby downs Geneseo 2-1 with last second tally

Colby (17-10-2)    2 
Geneseo (20-6-3)   1

Box Score   Colby Recap    Geneseo Recap D3Hockey.com  CentralMaine 

Justin Grillo scored in the final two seconds of regulation and Sean Lawrence had his ninth straight game with 30+ saves as the Colby College Mules punched their first ticket to the DIII Frozen Four in program history. They'll meet St. Norbert, who Trinity defeated in last year's Frozen Four, in Lake Placid, NY next Friday.

The winning goal came at the end of a third period that Geneseo absolutely dominated, 18-4 in shots. The Ice Knights, who had outscored opponents at the IRA 63-13 this season headed into the contest, found themselves down 1-0 entering the final frame. Midway through the period, Joe Schuler was called for a knee and Mike Rudolf was called for a subsequent trip, and the Knights found themselves on a five-on-three power play. They took advantage at the 8:18 mark when Andrew Romano fed Arthur Gordon (who Colby coach Blaise Macdonald says has an NHL shot) at the right dot for an absolute riffle of an upper-90 one-timer for the equalizer. NESCAC fans may remember Gordon from the 2016 Quarterfinals, also at Geneseo, when he scored two goals to end Williams' bid for a trip to the Frozen Four.

The Knights nearly took the lead with five minutes left when Dan Bosio took a shot from the left circle. Sean Lawrence went down to stop the shot but it was actually coraled by Romano who found himself moving across Lawrence's poke check with a chance to put away the go-ahead goal. He wasn't able to lift it (something that he said after the game is going to kill him all summer) and Lawrence was able to make the sprawled out save seen below. (You can watch the highlight at the Geneseo BoxCast site here).

What's only visible in the video is Mike Rudolf diving to stop a follow up effort by Romano on an open net. This playoff run has been about Lawrence's great play, certainly, but as he would be the first to tell you, it has been a team effort. 

After the game, coach MacDonald admitted he was thinking about what to say to the boys in the locker room before the start of what seemed to be an inevitable overtime period. And with eight seconds left and the puck in the Colby end, no one would have bet on the Mules winning this in regulation (well, maybe UMBC fans). But Dan Dupont got a quick outlet pass to Cam Macdonald, who back handed it immediately to Thomas Stahlhuth. The junior entered the zone and had his shot blocked, but Grillo followed it up and fired it past Devin McDonald's blocker. McDonald, understandably, just looked down in disbelief without moving for several seconds after he realized it went in. Grillo said after the game that he didn't even see it go in but he saw the goalie's head turned toward the net. He also admitted he had no idea that there were only 1.6 seconds left on the clock as in the heat of the moment the exact time is one of the last things on a player's mind.

A transition play with Stahlhuth and Grillo finishing it off led to the first goal of the game as well. In the opening minute of the second period, Dupont from behind the net began the breakout and shuffled it over to MacDonald, who immediately gave it to Rudolf leaving the zone. Rudolf took a hit into the boards just outside the Colby zone and found a streaking Grillo at mid-ice, who maneuvered his way to the left dot on a two-on-one with Stahlhuth out in front. Stahluth later said that he thought Grilo, with his "unbelievable release" would take the shot, but Grillo fired it over to Stahlhuth for the Mules opening salvo.

The scoreless first was key to the Mules success, MacDonald would say after the game. The Knights have a tendency to jump out in front and had beaten every single opponent they played at the IRA save one this season, and that was a tie against perennial powerhouse Oswego. Geneseo coach Chris Schulz said the first half of the game was probably the worst period-and-a-half of hockey his team has played this season.

Survive and advance has been the credo of the Mules this postseason, and they pulled out their fifth straight win in an elimination game dating back to the Quarterfinals of the NESCAC tournament. While the games have been on the road, the Mules faithful have done a bang-up job of bringing a small but mighty contingent to the games. "Col-by" chants were audible at the NESCAC championship and opening round game at UNE, and they were again audible in the final second of the game at Geneseo, some 584 miles from Waterville, ME. Colby College's twitter was all over the game, including the nice info that Louanne Tobias, Colby women's hockey '77, came to the game from her home 20 minutes away.




It's been a magical run for this squad, who becomes the third NESCAC team to make the DIII Frozen Four in the last four years (Trinity 2015 and 2017, Amherst 2015) and the first NESCAC team since Amherst in 2012 to go to Lake Placid, NY for the final games of the NCAA Tournament.


We are going back to the Dropkick Murphy's well for Colby's St. Patrick's Day last second upset at the IRA. The Mules have survived the gauntlet of the NESCAC Tournament and NCAA Tournament thus far. 


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Saturday, March 10, 2018

NCAA Tournament Live

1st Period
Good Colby contingent made the trip down from Waterville. After Ben Churchfield gave up five goals and was yanked from the Commonwealth Coast Conference championship game, Tate Sproxton got the start in net.  Colby went with Sean Lawrence, of course, and the Rudolf, Macdonald, Grillo line, with Dupont and Stahlhuth at the blue line.

Two minutes in Joe Schuler was called for a trip and the best power play in D-III - that went 4/7 against Colby in two regular season games - went to work. In general the kill was good, but at the very end, on a bang-bang play, Tyler Selterneich from behind the net sent it to Brady Fleurent who threw it over to Ryan Bloom for the 1-0 lead four minutes in. Colby would get their own power play later int he period butsdu were not able to do much with it. Nor'EAsters led 13-4 in shots by the end of the opening frame.


2nd Period
If the 1st period was a New Hope for the Nor'Easters, the second period was the Mules Strike Back.  Colby scored three goals, including a power play light lamper and a short handed tally, to take a 3-2 lead into the 2nd intermission.

About 4:30 into the 2nd, a Mule defender broke up a pass in the defensive zone and Nick O'Connor was off to he races on a 2-on-1 into the Nor'Easter zone. O'Connor faked the shot and found Kienan Scott in front of Sproxton for the equalizer, Scott's tenth of the season. The Nor'Easters would respond less than six minutes later, when one of the Macrones twins for UNE fired in a wrister from just inside the blue line, which Liam Neuman followed up to beat Lawrence for the 2-1 lead.

The Mules would respond a little over three minutes later on their second power play of the game, when Cam MacDonald couldn't put in a wrap around but Mike Rudolf was there for the follow-up knock in. Another three minutes later, Colby almost scored short handed when Grillo pick-pocketed a Nor'Easter and fed it to Scott, who could not beat Sproxton one-on-one with the backhand. Shortly after the ensuing faceoff, Nick O'Connor outhustled UNE behind the net and found Scott to the right of Sproxton and this time Scott buried it for his second of the game.  By the end of the period, Colby had fought back to cut the shots lead to 25-21 in favor of UNE.

3rd Period
Schuler gave the Mules some insurance with a single handed effort nine minutes in. Schuler took the puck from a UNE player in the neutral zone, skated down to the goal line, toodled back to the far edge of the circle and beat an unexpecting goaltender. The Mules killed off another penalty and almost scored another short handed goal when a giant block on a slap shot led to a Nick O'Connor breakaway that Sproxton turned aside.

The rest of the period was what a large part of the game was, blocked shots by Mules like Dan Dupont and timely saves by Sean Lawrence. The Colby faithful travelled well again as they did for the NESCAC title game. The "Let's Go Colby" chant was audible in person in Hartford and it was audible down the stretch again on webcast tonight.

When the buzzer sounded Lawrence ended an eighth straight game with 30+ saves and the Mules were on their way to the NCAA Quarterfinals, for which they will travel to SUNY Geneseo, who defeated Hobart on the road, also 4-2 tonight. The Knights ended Williams season in 2016 in the NCAA Quarterfinals as well. That was one of five losses so far in the NCAA tournament for the NESCAC since 2015. In that time span, the CAC is 11-5 with five different teams winning at least one game (Trinity, Amherst, Williams, Hamilton, Colby).


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Tuesday, February 27, 2018

NESCAC Quarterfinals in Tweets

We all know the parity in the NESCAC and it showed on Quarterfinal Saturday with three of the four road teams earning victories. Top seeded Trinity was the only home team to win, 2-0 over 8th seed Tufts, despite 41 of 42 stops from Nik Nugnes, and they will host the NESCAC semis and finals next week.

The Bantams will take on seventh seed Williams, who survived a third period come back from Conn College to down the Camels 4-2 and earn the Ephs' seventh trip to the semis in the last nine seasons.

The other semi will pit fifth seed Wesleyan, who took out fourth seed Hamilton 2-1 with a late goal, vs sixth seed Colby, who scored five unanswered goals to eliminate Amherst 5-1.

We used to do these stories more often back in the pithy days of 140 characters, but this is the first time in the era of 280 characters. Enjoy the extra prose!



Trinity 2   Tufts 0
Pre-Game




 1st Period


2nd Period 

3rd Period






Wesleyan 2 Hamilton 1 
Pre-game



1st Period 

2nd Period 
Men's Hockey score: @ContinentalPuck 1, Wesleyan 1; end of the second. Morrison '20 slaps home the game-tying goal!!! #BackOurBlue pic.twitter.com/95voquyFcV
— Hamilton Athletics (@HamCollSports) February 24, 2018


3rd Period


Walker Harris circles all the way from the bottom of the circle to the point and throws it in with Andy Espinoza tipping it past a screened Butienhuis. Welseyanup 2-1 with 1:46 left in 3rd
— Hockey in the 'Cac (@hockeyinthecac) February 24, 2018




Williams 4 Conn College 2
Pre-Game




1st Period



2nd Period 


3rd Period


7th-Seeded Men's Hockey Scores 3 Goals in 5 1/2 minutes in 2nd Period & an Empty-Netter to down 2nd Seeded Conn College 4-2 to Advance to NESCAC Semifinals https://t.co/mhwCU7CEop pic.twitter.com/b7Qu48GQlm
— Williams CollegeEphs(@EphSports) February 25, 2018



Colby 5 Amherst 1

 Pre-Game




1st Period 


2nd Period 





3rd Period 






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Friday, February 16, 2018

Colby Stuns Trinity 3-0

The Colby Mules played the Trinity Bantams at Alford Rink on Saturday, February 11. Trinity came into the game 15-3-2, 12-1-1 in conference play, ranked 5th in the nation and first in the NESCAC. Colby was 10-10-0, 7-7-0 in conference play, ranked sixth in the NESCAC. Both teams went with their usual goalie,  Alex Morin for the Bantams, and Sean Lawrence for the Mules.
        
AFter 18 scoreless and penalty free minutes Colby’s Kienan Scott broke the ice with a tally assisted by J.P. Schuhlen and Nick O’Connor. The second period saw a couple minor penalties, but no goals.         

The third period was when Colby took command of the game. They did this through a short-handed O’Connor goal four minutes into the period followed up by O’Connor's second of the night on an empty netter late in the period. 

Lawrence played amazing in the affair, amassing 46 saves in his second shutout of the season. Colby tied their next game on Sunday and Trinity won theirs, with both of their Sunday games going into overtime. Trinity is still at first in the NESCAC and Colby is still at sixth. Shutouts are very rare for the Trinity. Before this game, the Bantams hand not been shutout since the 2016 NCAA opening round against UMass-Boston and had not been shut out in the regular season since December 2013 in a non-conference tilt against Stonehill. 

Thank you all for reading Hockey in the `Cac. As always, I’m LPfan2004, and I’ll see you soon.
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Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Roundup 2/9/18 - 2/11/18

Trinity (16-4-2;13-2-1 NESCAC (27 pts) ) could not solve Sean Lawrence on Saturday and they needed OT to survive on Sunday, but the end result was the Bantams locking up their first regular season crown since 2015 and their third of the Matt Greason era ('14,'15, '18). Against Colby in Waterville, Lawrence posted a masterful 46 save shutout to end Trinity's nine game winning 3-0 (Box).  More from LPfan2004 later on this game. On Sunday, Trinity needed OT but they downed Bowdoin 4-3 (Box) to lock up the top spot in the conference headed into a final weekend tilts against Wesleyan.

Connor Girard's solid play in net powered Amherst (11-7-4;8-4-4 20 pts) into second place thanks to a  3-1 (Box) win over Tufts and a convincing 4-1 (Box) win over now third place Conn College (9-10-3; 8-5-3 19 pts). The Camels fought to a 2-2 tie the night before that contest against fourth place Hamilton (14-6-2;8-6-2 18 pts) in a game in which the Conts outshot the Camels 52-16. The Conts goalie only stopped 14 of the 16 shots, but Hamilton was glad that the offending netminder was senior Evan Buitenhuis, who returned to action at the Clinton Arena in the Celebration of 100 years of college hockey on Saturday. Boots then put in a decidedly better performance the next day back at Sage with a 25 save, 2-0 shutout of the Jumbos (Box). The celebration of 100 years of hockey in Clinton included former Hamilton and NHL goalie Guy Hebert receiving an honorary doctorate with Stan Fischler MCing and a general salute to former Hamilton AD Albert Prettyman, "the father of college hockey," who brought the sport to the school and convinced them to build Sage Rink three years later.

Next up is Wesleyan (11-6-5; 7-5-4 18 pts) who heads into the final weekend locked with Hamilton after a close 4-3 loss to Bowdoin (Box) and a disappointing 3-3 tie (Box) with current sixth seed Colby (11-10-1; 8-7-1 17 pts). Cardinal goalie Tim Sestak nearly shut down the Mules (49 saves) as Lawrence had done to Trinity the night before in the same rink, but Colby scored three goals in the third (two from Justin Grillo) to earn the tie.

In seventh, Williams (12-10-0; 8-8-0 16 pts) rebounded from a rough stretch with a pair of 2-1 victories (Box, Box) over last place Middlebury (4-16-2; 2-14-2 6 pts). Senior forward CJ Shuggart scored three of the four Ephs goals en route to player of the week honors in conference. The Friday night game was particularly interesting, as the Panthers, desperate to make a push for a playoff spot, pulled Stephen Klein in overtime for the extra skater.

The Panthers sit three points behind the Jumbos (4-14-4; 3-10-3 9 pts), who are also on the outside looking in, and four points behind Bowdoin  (8-14-11; 5-11-0 10 points) whose two points on the weekend in the upset of Wesleyan leapfrogged the Polar Bears into the last playoff spot position headed into the final weekend against Conn College and a Tufts team that sits one point out of the aformentioned final playoff spot.  

 Only four points separates second place Amherst from bitter rivals, seventh place . Don't look now, but the team one spot behind you might be coming for your home playoff seeding. 
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Friday, February 9, 2018

Roundup 2/2-2/3

Trinity (15-3-2;12-1-1 NESCAC (25 pts) ) virtually locked up the NESCAC regular season crown with an entertaining 4-3 win over Williams (Box) and 3-0 handling of Middlebury (Box). The Friday night game against the Ephs featured a fun final minute with a 6-on-4 for Williams (pulled goalie + power play) in which Alex Morin made the save below (courtesy of Jake Donnelly) to help the Bantams hold on. Morin would then make 24 saves for the shutout the next day against the Panthers. In a testament to head coach Matt Greason's recruiting and coaching abilities, Tyler Whitney became the sixth Greason player in the last four years to join the 100 point club with an assist on Friday night, joining Anthony Sabitsky who joined the prestigious club earlier this season. The Bantams now have a seven point cushion headed into the final four games of the regular season.

 

In a distant second are the surprising Camels of Connecticut College (9-9-2; 8-4-2 18 pts).  The Camels skated to a 0-0 tie (Box) at Tufts on Friday - the second such score in the NESCAC in two weeks after two years between 0-0 games - before a dramatic 4-3 OT come from behind win (Box) in New London the next night against the same Jumbos. USCHO did a feature on the surprise second place team this week, focusing on how much fun the team has. Winning is fun, and the Camels have ridden the stellar play of Connor Rodericks in net and the ability to win close games - (6-1-2) mark in the last nine, including five one goal games- to have said fun winning.
Wesleyan (11-5-4; 7-4-3 17 pts) leads the 3-6 pack that are all within four points of Conn College. Tim Sestak stopped 36 of the 37 shots he saw all weekend to earn NESCAC Player of the Week honors and power the Cards to 3-1 (Box) and 3-0 (Box) victories over Middlebury and Williams, respectively. Saturday's game included  Dylan Holze with his NESCAC leading tenth conference goal of the season. The senior from Lynbrook, NY has fourteen total goals on the season, or more than he scored in his first three collegiate seasons combined.

Amhest (9-7-4; 6-4-4 NESCAC 16 pts) and Hamilton (13-6-1; 7-6-1 15 pts) after sweeping hte Maine teams.  Colby (10-10-0;7-7-0 14 pts) lost to Hamilton 4-2 on Friday (Box) and 5-1 (Box) to Amherst. The usually potent Mules offense (2nd behind only Trinity in goals per game) was stiffled by Anthony Tirabassi and Connor Girard. Tirabassi has stabilized a bit in replacing the injured reigning D3 player of the year with the two goals allowed to Colby and a 5-3 victory over Bowdoin (Box). Neil Conway had a goal and an assist in his return after missing a weekend, while Brandon Willett and Nick Ursitti each had multiple-goal games on the weekend. Bowdoin did not have much better luck the night before in a 4-2 loss (Box) to the Mammoths thanks to two goals from Pat Daly .

Coming up in seventh are the aformentioned Ephs of Williams (10-10-0;6-8-0 12 pts), who have had an uncharacteristic fall from grace with a six game losing streak. Williams hanged tough with Trinity, including the NESCAC's best power play unit (13/29) notching two tallies and an Alex Morin glove away from a third. They followed it up by being shutout by Wesleyan, being outshot by -14, and having their coach say they didn't play their game on Saturday.

Tufts (4-12-4; 3-8-3 9 pts) rounds out the current playoff spots in eight after a hard fought but disappointing one point weekend against Conn College. It could have been a three point weekend, with the Jumbos up by two in the third period at Conn, but turnovers in the final frame cost them .

On the outside looking in are Bowdoin (7-13-0; 4-10-0 8 pts), who are very much in contention for a playoff spot with a Tufts team they will face the final weekend, and a Middlebury team (4-14-2; 2-10-2 6 pts) that has only been able to muster one goal a game in conference this season and that will probably miss the playoffs for a second straight year.

 Considering the histories of the two programs with recently retired legends in Terry Meagher and Billl Beaney (who are both still on their respective campuses), it feels very odd to see these two on the outside looking in.  Bowdoin got some good news this week, however, as good guy senior Camill Blanchet was named one of five finalists out of all of college hockey for the 2018 Hockey Humanitarian Award.



Should be a fun final two weekends of the regular season!


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Friday, February 2, 2018

Trinity Cruises Past Amherst 5-2

As a follow-up to the roundup, here's LPfan 2004 with a recap of Trinity Amherst from last weekend. 

 On Sunday, January 28, the Amherst Bantams traveled to Trinity Community Sports Center to face off against the Trinity Bantams. Earlier in the season, on December 3, the two teams tied 3-3 in a game that went into overtime. Both sides went with their starting goalies, Amherst's Conor Girard, fresh off a shutout, and Alex Morin for Trinity.

 It took a while for either team to get on the board; the first goal came 17 minutes into the game from Trinity’s Mark Knowlton. They scored 2 minutes after this, with a Barclay Gammill lamp lighter. Amherst responded with 15 seconds left in the first period off a power play goal from Jack Fitzgerald. Trinity scored two more goals in the middle of the second period, the second of which was Gammill's second of the game.  The sophomore from New Canaan CT now has two multi-goal games this season. The first goal was assisted by Tyler Whitney and James Callahan. The assist from Whitney was significant because it marked the 99th point of his collegiate career. Each team scored one goal in the final period, and Trinity earned a 5-2 victory.

 This victory puts Trinity at six points ahead of any other NESCAC team, and it gives them control over the conference. They have a 13-3-2 record, and their conference record is 10-1-1. The loss puts Amherst at 7-7-4 and 4-4-4 in conference play. They are currently fifth place in the CAC.

 As always, thank you for reading Hockey in the `Cac. This is LPfan2004, and I’ll see you next week.

 No, thank you, LPfan2004. Now here's a song released 35 years before your birth. 
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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? 


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Tuesday, January 23, 2018

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/ 13th  (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 8th 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 7th 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. 

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Monday, January 22, 2018

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.









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