Showing posts with label News and Notes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News and Notes. Show all posts

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Offseason News and Notes

It's 158 days until the start of NESCAC men's hockey team activities and it's currently graduation season, so let's catch up on some news and notes while we wait. We'll throw together some recruiting items in a separate post later on this summer, but for now, here are some tidbits to mull over for the time being. 

 Bill Kangas to Take Sabbatical for 2017-18 Season
Next season would have been Williams coach Bill Kangas' 29th as Ephs bench boss, but it will also be his son Ryan's senior season at SUNY Brockport. Kangas is taking a sabbatical in 2017-18 to both watch his son's senior season and to travel the country and study other hockey programs. Now retired Middlebury coach Bill Beaney took a sabbatical in 2002-03 to watch his son Trevor play his senior season at Princeton, so this isn't unprecedented. Current Panther coach and then Panther assistant Neil Sinclair coached Middlebury that season.

Like Sinclair, Williams assistant coach Mike Monti will take over behind the bench for a season. Monti is in his second stint as a Williams assistant. He was with Kangas in 2011-12, before leaving to join the staff of DI University of Vermont for three season until returning to Williamstown for the 2015-16 season. He'll take over a team that is losing eight seniors, including NESCAC first team blueliner Frankie Mork, and gaining nine recruits.

Williams is in the market for a new assistant coach for the 2017-18, so if you are interested, you can find out more and apply here.

 Tufts Hockey Documentary
Tufts graduating senior and men's hockey player Pat Lackey released a documentary (broken up into 16 episodes of about four minutes each) covering the 2016-17 Tufts Jumbos season entitled "Inside Tufts Hockey 2017" by Penalty Kill Productions. We got a glimpse of Lackey's production skills with his preseason Game of Thrones "Winter is Coming" preview for Tufts hockey, which you can watch here.

The doc series covers the season from preseason stairs workouts at Harvard Stadium until the aftermath of the NESCAC Quaterfinal  loss to Trinity. The series features interviews with players and coach Pat Norton, game and locker room footage, as well as some footage from around campus.

It captures the a capella talent of frosh blueliner Evan Haney, the chronic hip struggles of goalie Nik Nugnes, the career ending injury of Mason Pulde and more. A particularly poignant moment comes in Episode 15 with a candid soundbite from coach Norton talking about how players ending their careers have lost something they'll never get back again. Coach Norton, a D1 player at UNH himself (there's some old footage of his college days early in the season), admits that even coaching does not completely fill that void of  completing a collegiate playing career.

The final episode has some encouraging news for the Jumbos as Norton hints that an on-campus rink might be in the works. The lack of rink is one of the biggest hindrances for the Jumbos program, which has traditionally been weak in hockey but strong in other sports.

You can watch episode 1 below, and find all episodes here.



NESCAC in the Pros
In the North American pro ranks, the only postseason play for NESCAC alums came at the SPHL level.  Jon Landry's Bridgeport Sound Tigers failed to make the AHL playoffs. The 34 year old former Bowdoin star finished with 18 points (4-14-18) in 53 games for the New York Islanders' AAA affiliate. If Landry is back with the Islanders farm team next year, I still stand by my offer to the Islanders to pay top dollar for the god awful obstructed seats in Barclays if they call up Landry for just one game. No NESCAC players has graced an NHL sheet of ice since Guy Hebert last played for the organization that fleeces an obscene amount of money from me on a yearly basis come playoff time, the New York Rangers, in 2001.

Way down south in single A, several CACers plied their trade in the playoffs. Middlebury alum Louis Belisle ('14) made it to the SPHL semifinals with the Pensacola Ice Flyers before being ousted by the eventual champion Macon Mayhem. Belisle had a cup of coffee in the ECHL with the Florida Everblades, but spent the vast majority of the season with the pan-handle puckers of Pensacola. The former Panther had 50 points (18-32-50) in 52 games for the Ice Flyers en route to SPHL Defensemen of the Year.

Former Belisle teammate Evan Neugold ('16) spent 48 games with the Columbus Cottonmouths, Belisle's first pro team and now a defunct franchise, before finishing off the season with the Knoxville Ice Bears, where he joined another former Panther in Robbie Donahoe ('14). Donahoe began the year in the ECHL with the Manchester Monarchs and Utah Grizzlies, before spending the final 33 regular season games with the Ice Bears, a team with which he won an SPHL title in his first pro season back in 2014-15. The two former Middlebury stars went down in the first round of the playoffs.

Trinity alum Jackson Brewer ('15) spent the 2016-17 campaign with the Roanoake Rail Yard Dawgs for their inaugral SPHL campaign. They failed to make the playoffs but Brewer put up a 41 spot (  16-25-41) for the season. He had a welcome reunion with Sean Orlando, who spent a few games with the Virginia club on an ATO after he wrapped up his career at Trinity with a loss in the national title game against Norwich. The Cadet goalie in that game? None other than Ty Reichenbach, who joined both Brewer and Orlando on Roanoke for those final games of the season.

Colby's Jack Burton had the highest level of ATO experience spending four games with the ECHL's Indy Fuel during spring break.

New Rink for Colby in 2020
The NESCAC has a variety of shelf lives on their rinks, from Hamilton's Sage Rink - the oldest rink in all of D-III - to Bowdoin's Sid Watson Arena, opened in 2009 and the first rink to earn a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. Colby will have the newest rink in the conference come 2020 when a new,$200 million multi-sport athletic complex will be completed.  Unclear if Joe Biden made any hockey references in his commencement speech at Colby this past weekend.


Upwards and Onwards
The end of the year means picking new captains for the upcoming season and saying goodbye to former captains. I could tell you who some of these graduates or new captains are, but let's be lazy and let the NESCAC team twitter feeds (most have them now in #2017) tell us.











 As NESCAC seniors prepped last week for the next stage of their lives post hockey and college, the world tragically lost Chris Cornell on May 17th. I never saw Cornell with Soundgarden, but I did see him with Audioslave on Halloween 2005 - one day before Jon Landry officially began his final year of Bowdoin hockey - at the Tsongas Center, the current home of now UMass-Lowell coach and former Hamilton coach Norm Bazin. 

 In honor of the NESCAC seniors moving on and in remembrance of Chris Cornell and his legendary pipes, here's Audioslave with "Your Time Has Come" 
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Saturday, July 30, 2016

Offseason News and Notes 7/30/16

We have plenty of time to kill until the start of NESCAC MIH team activities -  94 days to be exact - so let's catch-up on what has been going on around the 'Cac (that is not recruiting) in the offseason.

Dumont Hired as Meagher's Replacement at Bowdoin
Before the 2015-16 season, Bowdoin head coach Terry Meagher announced that his 33rd season as Polar Bear bench boss would be his last. After an NBC Sports Hockey Day in America Segment and a loss in the NESCAC Quarterfinals, Meagher took a golf vacation to Hawaii before being honored at an event in May mced by NHL announcer and Bowdoin alum Dale Arnold.


The next week Bowdoin announced that assistant Jamie Dumont would slide up the bench to take over the head coaching position. In between stints as Meagher's assistant (2001-2005; 2011-2016), the 1998 Oswego State graduate knotched head coaching experience in Europe and North American Juniors as well as assistant coaching experience at the DI NCAA level at Bowling Green. Dumont, a Lewiston,ME native, becomes just the third Bowdoin coach since 1959 (Meagher and Sid Watson). He is also the only member of the current 'Cac coaching brethren that earned an internal promotion to the head coaching position. Neil Sinclair, who took over for another legend in Bill Beaney at Middlebury last year, had been a Panthers assistant but was most recently the head coach of Skidmore before taking over Middlebury.

The vacancy at the assistant coaching position left by Dumont's promotion was filled earlier this month by Eric Graham, a former University of Southern Maine Player, who spent the last four years coaching prep school (North Yarmouth Academy).


Stanley Cup in Brunswick? ...Or Waterville?
Bowdoin blueliner Matt Sullivan's dad, Mike Sullivan, started the 2015-16 season as the head coach of the Penguins AHL affiliate Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Penguins. Mike had a 12 year professional career in pro hockey, including stints with the Sharks, Flames and Coyotes, before moving on to coaching. The Marshfield, MA, native helmed his hometown Bruins from 2003-2005 and proceeded to a slew of assistant gigs in the NHL. He spent 2014-15 as a player development coach for the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks in the same organization as former Conn College player Adam Rogowin ('03), the 'Hawks Director of Public Relations. 

 Fast forward to December 2015 when the underachieving Penguins fired head coach Mike Johnston and replaced him with Sullivan. The 'Cac dad helped the flightless birds soar into the playoffs all the way to the franchise's fourth Stanley Cup title last month with a six game series win over the San Jose Sharks. Pretty safe to say that a NESCAC player's dad will be coaching an NHL team next season #JobSecurity. 

 And so, the Stanley Cup will be making an appearance in Central Maine on August 2nd at a NESCAC school...in Waterville.  Andy Saucier, Waterville native and grandson of Colby coaching legend Jack Kelley, is the Penguins video coach and has decided to share the Cup with the Colby community next Tuesday. The hallowed hardware will be on display from 1- 3 PM at Alfond Rink.  Speaking of the rink, looks like Colby has some plans for a new building. 
Former Tufts Coach Passes Away
Former Tufts coach (1994-97)  Steve Hoar passed away earlier this month. Hoar was the head coach of Becker's men hockey team at the time of his death. An age and cause of death were not included in the Becker College release, found here.


NCAA OT Rule Change Walked Back
In June, the NCAA Rules Committee reccommended that overtime in NCAA hockey be changed to a mandatory four-on-four format, a move that mirrors the junior and pro-ranks (the NHL actually went down to three-on-three last season) designed to reduce the number of ties in the sport.

 But there was a six week gap between the proposal and the final vote by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel on July 20th to make it official. And apparently a fair number of NCAA coaches weren't too pleased with the tinkering of the format.  So the new rule was abandoned, though the experimental rule to allow for three-on-three overtime after the normal five-on-five minute overtime in conference games was approved. The extra period (shootouts are already allowed) would only be to determine conference standings or in-season tournaments and the game would still go down as a tie. You won't see the NESCAC taking advantage of this option anytime soon. 

 A rule requiring players and refs to wear helmets on the ice at all-times on the ice, besides the national anthem, was also passed. The change comes after D-I ref Butch Mousseau died tragically in March from head injuries suffered from a fall in pre-game warmups for the WCHA Final Five.

Linls, Links Links

 Alex Walsh ('16) talks about his time at Colby.

Former Conn College captain Keith Veronesi ('14) reflects on his relationship with the recently departed Gordie Howe 

Incident in wee hours of morning leads to arrest of Colby MIH senior hours before he was set to graduate. 

Trinity Athletics recaps their 2015-16 season, which included a NESCAC MIH title and an end to their NCAA title defense in the NCAA Tournament opening round. 

Former Wesleyan assistant Rick McKenna earns head coaching job at UW-Superior

Middlebury alum Robbie Donahoe ('14) will be back with the ECHL's Manchester Monarchs next season

Tufts goalie Mason Pulde named to CoSIDA Academic All-America Team

Six NESCAC schools make 32 team field, Hamilton makes it to Elite Eight of Sports Illustrated's Great Mascot Bracket 



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Thursday, November 19, 2015

The 'Cac is Back: Catching up on the offseason

Welcome back, Hockey in the 'Cac fans! Another exciting season of NESCAC men's ice hockey faces off tomorrow night. We've been derelict in our duties, but we'll heat up as the season gets underway. For now let's catch up on what happened in the off-season on the non-recruiting front. 

Trinity's National Championship
In case you forgot, the NESCAC's own Trinity College conquered the D-III men's hockey world and won a national title in March. The Bantams did quite a bit of celebrating - and rightfully so - with everything from visiting the Connecticut Governor to getting honored at Fenway and even getting team tattoos.

The Bants keep nearly all their offensive firepower from last year's title team (though they lost a majority of their blue line corps) and enter the season with quite a deal of hype. The USCHO and D3Hockey.com pre-season polls both have Matt Greason's squad in the number one position and New England Hockey Journal did a cover story on the team and interviewed junior forward Sean Orlando.

Coach Greason did a couple of interviews this fall with D3Hockey.com Managing Editor and friend of HITC, Ray Biggs, as well as ESPN Radio's Hartford Affiliate. Greason talked to Biggs about recruiting, defending the title, the strength of the 'Cac his out of conference schedule and the retirement of some NESCAC hockey legends.   The ESPN 97.9's "Pulse of the Region" interview starts around 19:30.

Coaching Carousel
You should have heard by now that legendary Middlebury coach Bill Beaney retired in March  from coaching men's hockey and was replaced by Skidmore coach and former Middlebury assitant, Neil Sinclair. Beaney did, however, remain on as Middlebury men's golf coach and won his third straight NESCAC Coach of the Year award this fall.

Tufts longtime head coach Brian Murphy also left in May and his position wasn't filled until the university announced his replacement, prep school coach Pat Norton in August. Norton played his college puck at University of New Hampshire in the early 90s before going on to a career as a college assistant at both the DI/DIII levels and then as a head coach at the prep school level for the past decade.

The hits just kept on-a-comin' when NESCAC establishment and Bowdoin men's hockey coach Terry Meagher announced in October that this season, his 33rd behind the bench,  would be his last.  With Meagher's mentor and arena namesake Sidney Watson coaching the team before him, this offseason's coaching hire will be just the third for the Polar Bears since 1959.

NESCAC in the Pros
This is the first time since 2010 that the NESCAC won't have an alum at the AHL level as Bowdoin alum Jon Landry ('06) didn't land on a AAA hockey roster despite leading his team, the Hershey Bears, in +/- last season.

At the AA level, Middlebury alum and golf standout Robbie Donahoe ('14) moved up from the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) - in which he won a league title with the Knoxville Ice Bears in his first pro season - to the ECHL's Manchester Monarchs. The Monarchs were the LA Kings AAA affiliate last season, but that team switched places with the Ontario Reign for this season in the AHL's massive migration (5 teams) to California.

Donahoe has 3 points (0-3-3) in nine games with the Monarchs, but was placed on injury reserve  yesterday .

At the A level, the most common for NESCAC alums, several players have taken their talents south of the Mason Dixon in the SPHL. Middlebury alum Louis Belisle ('14) is in his second season with the Columbus Cottonmouths with whom he earned SPHL All-First Team honors as a Defenseman last season. This year he has moved up to forward and is currently sixth in the league in scoring with nine points (4-5-9) in eight games.

The Hunstville Havoc feature two rookie forwards in Trinity's Jackson Brewer ('15) and Bowdoin's John McGinnis ('15). Brewer went from national champion Trinity to SPHL champion Knoxville, where he notched four points (2-2-4) in eight games before being released this week. He was quickly picked up by the Havoc, who have included McGinnis on the roster since opening day. The Cocoa, FL native has three points (1-2-3) in eight games for the Alabama based team.

Everbody's Shufflin, Shufflin
D-III hockey leagues saw some shaking up during the offseason. In October, it was announced that the sixteen team ECAC-East would break off from the ECAC and form a new league, the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) effective this season. The league keeps its ten men's member schools and will keep it's automatic bid to the NCAA D-III men's hockey tournament (the women's will as well).

The ECAC will also lose the ECAC-E within a year as the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) also announced that they will have a D-III league starting in 2016-17. The current nine team men's ECAC-E (including new member Endicott) will join University of New England - which means UNE will break away after only one year in the NEHC - to form the new ten team conference The new CCC

That leaves only the ECAC-West left as the ECAC brand for D-III. Since the seven member ECAC-W doesn't have an automatic bid (it is adding an eighth team in Stevenson University in 2016-17) to the D-III tournament, we all have to wonder if the ECAC is in its final days of the D-III level.

The NESCAC will certainly not disband anytime soon and we'll just leave you with this little tidbit...



Movember 
November is not just the start of NESCAC Men's hockey season, it's also Movember, an international movement where men grow moustaches to raise money and awareness for men's health issues such as prostate cancer.

If you have ever watched Minnesota high school hockey or the NHL playoffs, you know hockey players are fans of the facial hair - from shitty to stylish - so clearly NESCAC hockey players, who are also men of moral character (hopefully), participate in Movember.

Last year, the NESCAC puckers raised over $26,000 (led by Amherst) and the ten teams of the Cac have set a benchmark of $30,000 this season. To donate to your favorite team and see some pics of the boys muzzles, check out the NESCAC  site.
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Monday, March 9, 2015

NCAA D-III Tournament field announced; Trinity and Amherst set to host games

Seniors Jackson Brewer (left) of Trinity and Aaron Deutsch (right) of Amherst
We'll have at least two more weeks of NESCAC hockey talk for the 2014-15 season.

The NCAA released the 11 team field for the 2015 D-III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament today and two 'CAC teams made the cut. Amherst, who earned an automatic bid with their 1-0 victory over Williams yesterday in the NESCAC Championship, will host a Quarerfinal game. Trinity received one of the three Pool-C or "at-large" bids and will host a play-in round game.

Both teams will have two weeks off between their last game and their first NCAA tournament game. Trinity - the overall first seed in the conference and the then top ranked team in the NCAA regional rankings - was upset by eigth seed Tufts in the Quarterfinals of the NESCAC tournament on February 21st. They had to play the waiting game for over a week to see if they would get in to the tournament. The Bantams, ranked 2E in the final public regional rankings last Tuesday, will host ECAC-Northeast champion Nichols (21-3-3) this Saturday, March 14th. The Bantams last played Nichols in December 2012, losing 3-2 to the Bison in a game that saw current Trinity senior Jackson Brewer (F, '15) score.

If the Bantams handle their business against underdog Nichols, Trinity will travel to frequent 'Cac foe Plattsburgh St. (20-5-2) on Saturday, March 21 for a Quartefinal game. The Cardinals made the tournament by beating bugbear Oswego in the SUNYAC champoinship on Saturday. As D3hockey.com editor Ray Biggs noted on twitter today, it's interesting that Platty, who likely wouldn't have gotten a Pool C bid if they had lost to OZ, got a bye.  Two of the Cardinals five loses came at the hands of the 'CAC, as Middlebury and Williams both traveled to Plattsburgh in mid-January and beat the Cardinals in the same weekend. Two weeks prior, Amherst also tied Platty 0-0 and ended up claiming the host Cardinals tournament in a shootout. Overall, the NESCAC is 2-1-1 against Plattsburgh this season.

For NESCAC champion Amherst, they are off until the March 21st Quarterfinals when they host the winner of the play-in round game between ECAC-East champion Norwich (24-3-1) and MASCAC champion Plymouth State (16-8-3). Barring a major upset, the Jeffs will face the Cadets, who are 1-1 against the NESCAC this year, beating Colby and losing to Middlebury in January. Amherst, who hasn't played on the road since Valentine's Day, is 14-1-0 at Orr Rink this season. One more win at home and they'll make it to the Final Four.

If both Trinity and Amherst make it to the Final Four in Minnessota on March 27th (knock on wood), they would not face each other until the championship game on March 28th should they both win. The Final Four is at Ridder Arena, home of the University of Minnesota's women's team.

Find the full bracket here.

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Thursday, March 5, 2015

Bill Beaney retires as Middlebury MIH coach

At a presser at Middlebury yesterday, Panthers men's hockey coach Bill Beaney announced he would be stepping down as men's hockey coach. Beaney will remain at Middlebury as men's golf coach, a position he has held for the last 21 years.

There will be plenty of time to reflect on Beaney's legendary (sure that word is overused but in this case, at least for D-III, it's true) career and wonder who will replace him (Neil Sinclair, maybe?), but for now let's just look through some of the reaction to the news on twitter.

Beaney ends his career as the winningest coach in D-III NCAA men's ice hockey history at 602-260-59, with 28 of his 35 seasons being spent  as Middlebury's bench boss (1986-2002; 2003-15). Beaney also spent seven years at New England College (1977-1984). The Lake Placid, NY native (not the only memorable Panther from Lake Placid) had an odd year in his final hockey season, as his Panthers defeated the #2 and #3 teams in the country (and Middlebury rivals), Plattsburgh and Norwich, but his team also finished in seventh place in the regular season standing for the first time and the Panthers were eliminated from the NESCAC playoffs in their first game for back-to-back years for the first time ever.

The Middlebury job will not be an easy role for a coach to step into. Whoever ends up taking over the whistle will deal with the pressures of rebuilding an eight time national champion pedigree program after its worst regular season finish since the NESCAC started league play in 1999. Oh and that All-Time coach that you are taking over for? Look over you shoulder, he's still on campus coaching the golf team.

Beaney's retirement also comes just two months after his younger brother, Jeff Beaney, retired from his longtime post as the men's hockey coach of the University of Southern Maine.

Below find the video about Beaney's retirement, as well as some of the twitter reaction. For the official Middlebury release, click here.







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Tuesday, August 12, 2014

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge hits the NESCAC

Unless you still use Myspace or think the Hurricanes play in Hartford, you are probably aware of the latest viral social media phenomenon, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (err #IceBucketChallenge).

The challenge is pretty simple: You film yourself dumping a bucket of ice water over your head, post it on your social media outlet of choice, and tag specific people to the challenge. The newly nominated then have 24 hours to dump a bucket of ice water on their heads or they are supposed to donate money to an ALS charity of their choice.

The challenge has taken off by any metric you choose, from the google search trends below, to the numerous celebrities and athletes taking part, to the $1.35 million the ALS Foundation has raised from July 29th to August 11th. The non-profit organization received only $22,000 in donations in the same period last year.

Aymotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease as it is known colloquially, is a serious neurodegenerative disease that affects nearly 30,000 Americans. The average survival time is two to five years after diagnosis with only 4% of those afflicted surviving longer than 10 years. The disease's namesake, immortal Yankees slugger Lou Gehrig, died of ALS in 1941 at the age of 37, just two years after his initial diagnosis.

There's obvious criticisms for a charity challenge in which the donation part is the "punishment" and the origin mythology of the challenge seems to be a bit apocryphal, but at the end of the day awareness and money are being raised for a worthy cause. Plus, we got to see NHL free agent and twitter hero (@BizNasty2point0) Paul Bissonnette do this, so that's worth it, right?

But what does this have to do with the NESCAC? you astutely ask. Well, besides the numerous men's ice hockey players that have taken to social media for the cause, several NESCAC coaches have taken the challenge and even everyone's favorite Mighty Duck/Hamilton alum, Guy Hebert, indicated on twitter tonight that he would take a break from making us jealous of his life  to pour some ice water on his head for charity.


The first coach to accept was 2013 NESCAC  coach of the year, Matt Greason. As part of his video, Greason announced that the Bantams charity game for the 2014-15 would be to benefit ALS research. Greason then called out three people, including reigning NESCAC coach of the year, Conn College's Jim Ward. The Camel coach did accept the challenge and posted his freezing cold video on Facebook instead of twitter.
Traveling northword to the Pine Tree State, Colby coach Blaise Macdonald tapped his assistant coach, Chris Hall, who promptly dumped a bucket over his head lakeside.

Whether you dump ice water over your head or not, I nominate all of you to donate to a worthy charity of your choice. If you want to donate wisely, check out charity navigator  to make sure altruism is not wasted. And remember, soon those buckets of ice water will turn into actually ice as the start of NESCAC men's ice hockey team activities on November 1st is (just?) 80 days away.


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Friday, May 30, 2014

2014 NESCAC recruiting as told by the twitterverse

We will have to wait until November until we find out who officially makes the 2014-15 NESCAC men's hockey rosters, but with the age of the internet we are aware of who the vast majority of recruits will be.

The WordPress blog currently has 83 names and with five months until team activities can begin, we'll have plenty of time to discuss which school has the best haul, the breakdown of juniors/prep, age of incoming class, favorite animals,etc.

But for now, let's talk a look at who twitter has confirmed as incoming recruits. This list is by no means comprehensive and is mostly just for fun. We'll update it as more tweets are discovered and as always, let us know if you know of any more twitterfirmations.

AMHERST 


BOWDOIN  

COLBY  


HAMILTON  
MIDDLEBURY 
TRINITY
TUFTS  

WESLEYAN 
WILLIAMS

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Friday, March 21, 2014

Trinity's Jackson Brewer wins 2014 Joe Concannon Award, named runner-up for Sid Watson Award

Jackson Brewer (F, '15) and his flowing locks had quite the season 
Trinity junior forward Jackson Brewer was named the 2014 Joe Concannon Award winner this week by the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston. In addition, the Newton, MA native was also named the runner-up for the 2014 Sid Watson Award, given to the best player in D-III men's hockey by the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA).

The Joe Concannon Award is awarded to the best American born D-III men's hockey player in New England. NESCAC players have taken home the hardware in seven of the award's 14 year existence. Brewer becomes the first 'Cacer since Amherst's Jeff Landers (D, '09) won Conncan honors in 2009. The Trinity forward also becomes the first Bantam to win since Joseph Ori (F, '05) in 2005. Back in February, 18 semi-finalists for the award were announced, including Brewer and seven other NESCAC players.

The Sid Watson Award, named after the legendary Bowdoin Coach, is the D-III version of the Hobey Baker Award. This year, St. Norbert's goalie David Jacobson (G, '15) took home the award after posting a 22-1-1 record thanks to a 1.24 Goals Against Average (2nd in D-III) and a .935 Save % (7th in D-III). Jacobson's Knights will play Geneseo in one half of the D-III semifinals, hosted by Bowdoin, this afternoon in Lewiston, ME.

While Jacobson won, Brewer was named the runner-up for the award. The last NESCAC player to win the Sid Watson Award was Amherst goalie Jonathon La Rose (G, '12) in his senior season of 2012 when he took the Jeffs to the national semifinals. La Rose was not eligible for the Concannon Award that year as he is a Canadian national. Seven 'Cacites have won the award since its inception with Middlebury taking home the hardware four times, Amherst twice and Bowdoin once.

The Concannon Award win and Sid Watson runner-up designation cap off an impressive 56 point season for Brewer (14-42-56) in which he was named to First Team All-NESAC and was selected NESCAC Player of the Year. After amassing only 32 points (15-17-32) in his first two seasons in Hartford, Brewer now sits just 12 points from joining the hallowed 100 point club. Brewer will end up leading the D-III nation in points despite Trinity not playing in any NCAA Tournament games. The Bantams lost, 5-4, in the NESCAC semis to eventual tournament champion Bowdoin. Despite coming in at number one in the east in each of the three public NCAA Regional Rankings, Trinity was denied one of three at-large bids for the 11 team NCAA tournament.

Read More: Trinity Athletics - -  Trinity's Brewer Named New England's Top American-Born Division II/III Men's Ice Hockey Player

 Read More: ACHA - - David Jacobson is D-III Ice Hockey Player of the Year 

 Read More: Benet Pols, Hockey in the 'Cac - - 8 NESCAC players among 18 semi-finalists for the Concannon Award 

Read More: Mike Zhe, New England Hockey Journal - - Brewer, High flying Trinity are all grown-up 
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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Bowdoin at Oswego NCAA Tournament game postponed until 3 PM tomorrow

The NCAA D-III men's hockey first round game between the NESCAC champion Bowdoin College Polar Bears at the SUNYAC champion Oswego Lakers has been postponed, per SUNY Oswego's website. According to the Oswego State Lakers official twitter feed, the game will be played at 3PM on Thursday.

Oswego, located on the eastern border of Lake Ontario, has been slammed by blizzard like conditions all day and the snow will continue through the evening. Earlier today, Oswego cancelled afternoon classes but said the hockey game would be on. Later, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared  a State of Emergency for all of western New York, including Oswego County.

According to The Oswegonian (Oswego's student newspaper), Bowdoin's team bus knocked into Canale's Italian Restaurant in Oswego this afternoon, though thankfully no one was hurt. Other chatter on the twittersphere also clarifies further  that no one was on the bus when it slide into the dining establishment. We can definitively say that the bus incident had nothing to do with the cancellation of the game.

We will update the situation with more info as it becomes available. 
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Sunday, March 9, 2014

Bowdoin travels to Oswego for First Round game, Trinity left out of NCAA Tournament

The NCAA announced the 11 team field for the D-III Men's Ice Hockey Tournament on a live webcast tonight. Bowdoin (17-8-2), who won the NESCAC championship today in double overtime against Amherst today as a fifth seed, is headed to Oswego, NY  to face the Lakers, the automatic qualifiers from the SUNY-AC. The perennial powerhouse Lakers were supposed to be in rebuild mode this year, but had a solid season at 20-6-2 and upset Geneseo (21-6-0), 7-6, in a shootout of a SUNYAC championship game.

Ironically enough, the Lakers might have held Trinity (21-5-0) from getting an at large bid. Geneseo ended up taking one of the three at-large Pool-C bids. The other two went to Norwich (19-6-3), the ECAC East runner-up and Adrian (22-2-4) of the NCHA. The Bantams are shutout from the tournament after coming it at the first spot in the East in each of the three public NCAA regional rankings, which are supposedly used for seeding and deciding at-large bids.

In order for Bowdoin to get to the NCAA D-III Frozen Four they are hosting in Lewiston, the Polar Bears will have to beat the Lakers and then the ECAC-E champion Babson Beavers (22-4-2). The Lakers are no stranger to Bowdoin, as the Polar Bears lost 7-5 to Oswego in the 2011 NCAA Quarterfinals and the year before, 9-2, also in the NCAA Quarterfinals. Bowdoin has faced Babson 53 times with the Polar Bears holding a 32-19-2 edge. The Beavers and Bowdoin last met in 2010 with Terry Meagher's team winning 7-3. Babson faced off against three NESCAC teams this year, defeating Amherst and Colby at home and losing to Williams in Williamstown.

Below is the full NCAA Tournament bracket from NCAA.com .


First Round
March 12

SUNY Geneseo
MAR. 12
Nichols

Norwich
MAR. 12
Salem State

Oswego State
MAR. 12
Bowdoin
Quarterfinals
March 15

St. Norbert
MAR. 15
Adrian

MAR. 15

Babson
MAR. 15

St. Thomas (Minn.)
MAR. 15
Wis.-Stevens Pt.
Semifinals
March 21, Lewiston, Maine

MAR. 21
4:00P.M.

MAR. 21
Championship
March 22, Lewiston, Maine
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
MAR. 22
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