Coaches Gone Wild
–Dan Rubin–
Vince Lombardi once said that he hated being quoted on his famous axiom, “If it’s not about who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?”
He hated the fact that he was portrayed as obsessed by winning. He talked at length about giving it everything on the field of battle, leaving it out there, knowing that if you gave it your all and you looked at the scoreboard, knowing that your point total was your very best was all anyone could ask. He hated to think that his team gave anything less than their best, that they might’ve given up or quit. From end to end in a game, he wanted to know that his team, his boys, were out there playing to the final whistle. He wanted them to be aware that they kept score for a reason, and that to cheapen your efforts was to cheapen the result. If you lost, at least know that you gave it your all so that you could know you lost to someone truly better.
Instead, everyone only remembers that one line. If it’s not about winning or losing, then there’s no reason to keep score. That’s become the mantra of coaches from day-to-day, driven by an obsession for winning. They have a reason to be that way, simply because of job security, but at the same time, the drive to win has now overshadowed why men and boys compete, what they’re supposed to learn about competing, and why they do what they do.
Thanks For The Ride
–Mike Rubin–
If you had told me four years ago, on the heels of a three-win regular season and a span in which the team had lost three more games than it had won (27-79-22 sound familiar, anyone?), that the Brown Bears would be sixty minutes away from having a legitimate shot at an ECAC championship, I would have called you crazy.
Yet on Saturday night, that’s exactly where the Bears found themselves. The hockey gods turned their back on the Bears, who fell victim to an unlucky bounce or two, about ten minutes of game time they want back, a team that had returned 16 of 19 skaters from a team that won the tournament a year ago,[1] and the inevitable end to the magic that had enveloped the Bears since the dawn of the new year.
I, for one, was initially crestfallen after the loss, not so much because of the defeat, but because it meant the end of an amazing ride. Like a great film, symphony, song, or novel, the storybook left us wanting more – another page, another chapter, another story.
The Respect Card
Every team at some point in its history plays with a chip on its shoulder. The chip dictates playing a little bit harder and giving it a little bit more simply because there’s a point to prove. Some of the best stories in sports have all been defined under that chip, which always states, “Nobody believed in us; they said we couldn’t do it!”
College hockey enters its conference championship weekend with a number of teams playing with rather large boulders on their shoulders. Almost everybody is vying for something that resembles respect, something they haven’t gained or something they don’t have enough of. And they’re all playing that card as they get set to try and perform miracles or confirm beliefs held within and outside their locker rooms.
In ECAC, the semifinal matchup between Quinnipiac and Brown resembles something of a major fight for respect. Brown was the preseason 12th place team in the league, a near-unanimous selection to finish dead last. Despite losing nearly 100 games to injury combined among its players, the Bears are 4-1 in the postseason, having defeated second-seeded RPI in Troy in three games in convincing fashion. After barreling through the Engineers in Game 1 and losing Game 2, Brown stormed out to a 3-0 lead before controlling game play and holding on to advance to the semifinals for the second time in four years despite never finishing higher than seventh in the standings (this year).
Meanwhile, Quinnipiac is battling with the outside view that they aren’t a worthy #1 team in the nation. The top-ranked Bobcats backdoored into the top slot when UNH, Boston College, and Minnesota all stumbled. In a down year for college hockey, Quinnipiac ascended to the top by a series of losses instead of outright winning. Despite 25-plus wins and a winning streak that stretched from November to February, they’re still not quite respected as being a national contender. They don’t have the pedigree, and they definitely don’t have the reputation. The ECAC hasn’t won a national championship since Harvard in 1989, despite being the overall #1 seed in the Pairwise Rankings, the Bobcats aren’t looked upon as the team that can do it.
The two teams will battle at 4 PM at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, the ECAC’s final jaunt to New Jersey before returning to Lake Placid, New York next season. Nestled in along the casinos and boardwalk along the Jersey shore, the two teams are gambling for a shot at respect by having to go through one another.
ECAC Playoffs: Clarkson at Brown
#10 Clarkson Golden Knights at #7 Brown Bears
Team Records:
Brown: 11-12-6 (7-9-6 ECAC, 20 points)
Clarkson: 9-18-7 (8-11-3 ECAC, 19 points)
Head-to-Head:
Brown took three points from the Knights this year. They tied at Meehan Auditorium in Providence in November, 3-3, before Brown won in Potsdam, 3-2, in January.
ECAC Playoffs: Colgate at St. Lawrence
#11 Colgate Raiders at #6 St. Lawrence Saints
Records:
Colgate: 14-16-14 (6-13-3 ECAC, 15 points)
SLU: 16-14-4 (9-9-4 ECAC, 22 points)
Head-to-Head:
St. Lawrence won the season series by taking three points in two hotly contested games. The Saints won at Colgate, 4-2, back in November, before the Raiders tied the Saints at Appleton in February, 2-2, on the heels of a 35-shot performance by their offense.
ECAC Playoffs: Harvard at Dartmouth
#12 Harvard Crimson at #15 Dartmouth Big Green
Records:
Harvard: 9-17-3 (6-14-2 ECAC, 14 points)
Dartmouth: 13-11-5 (9-9-4 ECAC, 22 points)
Head-to-Head
Dartmouth won the season series by winning three points. They beat Harvard at home on January 12th, 3-2, then tied the Crimson in Cambridge on February 10th in a game that took place between Beanpot Mondays, 1-1.
College Hockey Weekend Schedule Update
With the postponements and cancellations taking place this weekend, here’s a list of when games were supposed to be scheduled and what the new schedule looks like:
Hockey East:
Friday, February 8th:
UMass-Lowell at Boston College, postponed until February 26th, 7 PM
UNH at Providence, postponed until February 13th, 7 PM
Northeastern at UMass, postponed until February 19th, 7 PM
Merrimack at Boston University, postponed until February 26th, 7 PM
Saturday, February 9th:
Maine at Vermont, confirmed as scheduled at 7:05 PM
UMass at Merrimack, postponed until Sunday at 4 PM
ECAC Hockey:
Friday, February 8th:
Yale at Brown, postponed until Sunday at 5 PM
Saturday, February 9th:
Dartmouth at Harvard, time changed from 7 PM to 5 PM
Atlantic Hockey Association:
Friday, February 8th:
UConn at Bentley, postponed until Sunday at 7 PM
American International at Army, postponed until Sunday at 3 PM
Sacred Heart at Holy Cross, postponed until Sunday at 3 PM
Saturday, February 9th:
Bentley at UConn, postponed indefinitely, makeup date to be determined
Army at American International, postponed indefinitely, makeup date to be determined
Holy Cross at Sacred Heart, confirmed as scheduled at 7 PM
Weather Forces Postponements
In anticipation of near-blizzard forecast conditions for this weekend, Hockey East announced the postponement of all of its upcoming conference hockey games.
The University of Massachusetts, Providence College, Boston University, and Boston College all announced postponements to their Friday contests. UMass was set to host Northeastern, while PC was to host New Hampshire. BU was scheduled to take on Merrimack in a key conference game between bubble teams in the Pairwise Rankings, while BC was set to take on UMass-Lowell at home.
UMass announced the move of the game mid-afternoon, moving their game to February 19. PC will move their game to the week prior on February 13th, while BU’s game is moved all the way to the end of the month on February 26th.
BC and UMass-Lowell were set to play on New England Sports Network, but that game has now been moved to February 26th opposite BU-Merrimack.
Excalibur Sports: The Podcast
Louis Gattozzi sat down with our Dan Rubin to discuss the NCAA college hockey postseason picture, in particular how it relates to the hometown Bentley Falcons. They also discussed the Pairwise Rankings and who could be contenders versus pretenders, before diving into the first quarter of the shortened NHL season. After the jump, a link to the podcast!
Amounting To A Hill Of Beanpots
–Dan Rubin–
The first and second Mondays in February are a time-honored tradition in New England, a time when four revered institutions get together to play hockey games at the fabled old barn on Causeway Street. Over 60 years of tradition carries with it the pressure to perform, to honor the history of the uniform and the logo on the front of the jersey, in the last non-conference competitions of the season.
The Beanpot tournament is as much a part of college hockey and New England folklore as a frozen pond and a game of shinny. It comes at a time when college hockey season is entering its stretch run, a time for a final boost of hockey for nothing other than pride and a trophy before the last sprint to the finish. As opposed to the weekend grind of Friday and Saturday slates of games, it’s played at the beginning of a week, a break from the norm. Almost every kid in Massachusetts, especially the Greater Boston area, has a memory of the Beanpot growing up, of someone from their neighborhood going on and becoming a hero or villain for some team’s followers.
The Beanpot elevates the teams that play in it to fabled status for those growing up. UMass, UMass-Lowell, Merrimack, Holy Cross, Bentley, and AIC are Massachusetts teams failing to capture the glory of being a Beanpot school. It’s like a fraternity, an exclusive lodge that only the best of the best are able to play in. Harvard, Northeastern, Boston College, and Boston University sit on four thrones ensconsed in local lexicon, untouchable by any of the teams that play in the Bay State but not in the tournament.
But if there’s one thing affecting the Beanpot these days, it’s a battle against irrelevance. Despite upset victories in preliminary games, and despite a lore dating back over six decades, the tournament is in danger of losing its relevance. With an added emphasis on the national tournament, the Beanpot has turned itself into the antithesis of what it used to stand for. It’s now games played between the same teams year in and year out, teams on completely opposite ends of the national spectrum. A win is a win, and a loss is a loss. And as the years have shown us, it’s a battle against the truth, living with ghosts of the past and echoes of what it should be as opposed to the harsh reality of what it might be becoming.
In Whittet We Trust
Brendan Whittet is the type of hockey coach designed to coach college hockey. He’s a no-nonsense guy who commands attention. At times, when officials or game decisions can become murky and muddled in areas of gray, his decisions break down to a simple case of right or wrong. There’s no time for second guessing, no time for excuses, no time for wondering what might of been.
If there’s one coach in college hockey these days who can wonder about what might’ve been, it’s probably Whittet. As the head coach of the Brown University Bears in the ECAC, he’s got one of the least enviable jobs in the game. He’s at the helm of a team that hasn’t been to the national tournament since a one-game stint in 1993, a team that hasn’t had a winning season 2005, hasn’t had a home playoff series in seven years. He’s leading a program that, since the turn of the century, lost 20 games five times. And he’s at the helm of a team that was a unanimous decision to finish dead last in the league at the start of this season.
Unfortunately for prognosticators, a team can’t be measured by talent alone. As of press time, Brown enters its weekend series against #2-ranked Quinnipiac and Princeton at home gearing up for a run at a potential home series in nearly a decade. They’ve been beaten, battered, and broken, but they’re still standing with a resilience defined by a fiery head coach who’s done the job of a lifetime.
Semester Break Blues: ECAC Edition
So semester break is upon college hockey season. It’s a lonely and depressing time, a time when the season, which has been going full bore since the middle of October, just comes to an abrupt and shocking halt. Conference seasons are just getting into their midseason lather, and teams are starting to separate themselves from the pack. Momentum is becoming clear, either for or against a team. Hot starts are tempered by slow weekends, and slow starts are giving way to a team’s true nature, for better or for worse. Then….nothing.
Hockey season takes a three-week siesta as students work themselves to the bone in the classroom. For hockey, a sport segmented by the winter intercession, student-athletes will have more time to study than they’ve had all year, and they’ll regroup in a couple of weeks to start practicing for holiday tournaments. After the holidays, and after the first of the year, the season will pick back up right where it left off, with teams scrambling to rediscover the term “Midseason Form.” We’re in the eye of the hurricane, just inside the wild and whacky wall we left behind, and we’re heading towards the back end of the eye, the most dangerous and wild part of the season.
For the ECAC, the season started with Dartmouth blowing full steam ahead. A young team out to a fast start, one of the preseason “middle of the pack” squads all of a sudden became big players in the conference standings. Then they leveled off, still well exceeding expectations of prognosticators, and they’ll enter the winter exam break (even if they run on quarters instead of semesters) as one of the surprise teams in the nation.
But for the ECAC, the semester break will focus on one program that was supposed to be good but is actually better. Quinnipiac established a clean break from the pack early when they swept Colgate and Cornell at home. It effectively shook off the rink rust they’d been playing with when they split with Robert Morris and earned a 1-0-1 weekend against Ohio State, and it brought the Bobcats back to the forefront of the conference. We expected them to be there, but they never really slowed down, and they haven’t lost since American International shocked them at home back on November 6th. They’re 8-0-0 in conference play, a full seven points up on Dartmouth for first. They’ve done it while navigating their toughest stretch of the year, a brutal stretch of seven of eight games on the road (and six consecutive) that included a trip to St. Lawrence and Clarkson, Union and RPI, and a home-and-home with travel partner Princeton. Their remaining schedule includes two apiece with Harvard, Yale, and Brown, plus SLU and RPI at home. Even with slip ups at Cornell, Harvard, or Dartmouth, the Cleary Cup is theirs to lose. So maybe Rand Pecknold knew what he was doing when he decided to go back to Hamden instead of traveling up and taking the UMass job.
Game Prep #13: Dartmouth College
Bentley Falcons at #11 Dartmouth Big Green
Team Records:
Bentley: 6-6-0 (5-4-0 Atlantic Hockey, 3rd place)
Dartmouth: 5-2-2 (4-1-1, 2nd place
*********************************************
When: Saturday, December 1, 2012
Where: Thompson Arena, 4 Summer Street, Hanover, NH, 03755
Time: Saturday – 7:00 PM
Capacity: 3,500 seating (4,500 with standing room seats)
Tickets: Available by clicking here; Available at Thompson Arena box office
Video: Available through Dartmouth website (click here)
Audio: n/a
Twitter: Bentley – @BentleyFalcons; Dartmouth – @Dartmouthsports
Silly Season Getting Sillier
The ECAC makes anything but sense.
When the latest coaches poll from US College Hockey Online was released on Monday, there was plenty of head-scratching going on among the college hockey community. Most of it centered along the lines of the ECAC, which is something of an out of control train these days. After all, the highest ranked team sits in fourth place in the conference, and the 15th-ranked team in the nation is actually ninth in the standings. A 2-5-5 overall record nets a team in a three-way tie for fifth with two teams also under .500, while the 8th place team is one of the league’s strongest teams, ranked 12th, just one spot in the national poll behind the conference leader.
That conference leader, by the way, is the second-ranked team out of ECAC in the national polls, a full three slots behind that team which is really in fourth in the standings.
Everybody got that?
Yes, these days are silly for the ECAC, something that’s not uncommon given the recent history. After all, Harvard managed to pilfer a top four slot last year despite not winning 10 games in conference play last year. And this year, the Crimson are ranked 19th, though that’s something of a surprise given their 3-3-0 conference record and only one out-of-conference game, a 5-0 shellacking of an Atlantic Hockey team (Bentley) that brought more fans to Bright Hockey Center than the host school.
Somehow, this will all measure out and make sense by the end of the year. But at the current moment, everything gets thrown out the window and any predictions from before the season are bound to come crashing down.
ECAC Weekend Roundup: It’s Good To Be Green
When we looked at the preseason prognostications for the ECAC, there were a couple of things we wanted to take into effect. We wanted to make sure that we heavily weighted offensive performances since college hockey tends to be more likely to be a shootout more than anything. We wanted to make sure that in the face of that offensive weight, we didn’t discount the goalies that were bigger, badder, and better than we thought. And we wanted to make sure that we followed an adage that defense can win championships, even if offenses can win regular season games.
For the Dartmouth Big Green, their first four games proved our offensive prediction about them to be true. They’ve scored 15 goals in four games, including a whopping seven in a win against Yale. They’ve proven that teams that can simply outscore opponents can be successful, and they’ve done it with a core that’s relatively young. So far, Eric Robinson is tied for the national lead with five goals in four games, good enough for a 1.25 goals per game average. Tyler Sikura has seven points, good for fifth nationally per game. And Matt Lindblad has five points, including two goals this past weekend to kick off the official conference schedule.
Dartmouth’s success needs to be tempered against the fact that they’ve only played the same two teams. Last weekend, they opened the Ivy Shootout with an official tie against the Yale Bulldogs before beating the Brown Bears in the tournament’s final game. This weekend, they opened up at Yale before playing at Brown. So they’ll need to do more against something other than those school schools. They’ll get their chance next week when they host RPI and Union at Thompson Arena in Hanover.
Game Prep #4: Harvard
Bentley Falcons at #17 Harvard Crimson
Team Records:
Bentley: 2-1-0 (0-0-0 in Atlantic Hockey)
Harvard: 0-0-0 (0-0-0 in ECAC, 0-0-0 in Ivy)
When: Saturday, October 27, 2012
Where: Bright Hockey Center, 65 North Harvard St., Boston, MA
Time: 7:00 PM
Tickets: Sold Out; individual tickets at Bright Hockey Center Ticket window
Video: Harvard Stretch Internet (click here)
Audio: Excalibur Sports (click here)
Last Meeting: None
Last Bentley Win: None
All-Time Series Record: First Meeting
Bentley Players to Watch:
Brett Gensler: 3-5-8
Andrew Gladiuk: 3-2-5
Derek Bacon: 1-4-5
Brett Hartung: 1-4-5
Justin Breton: 2-2-4
Harvard Players to Watch:
Danny Biega
Marshall Everson
Patrick McNally
Alex Fallstrom
Expected Goalie Matchup:
Bentley: Branden Komm (3 games, 3 starts, 2-1-0, 91 saves, .919 save%, 2.67 goals against average)
Harvard: Steve Michalek (First Start)
Trends:
- Bentley’s last meeting with an Ivy League school was November, 2009 against Brown
- Bentley scored nine goals against UAH last night to match its all-time highest goal output at the Division I level, last attained in 1999-2000
- Harvard enters today after setting an all-time record for ties in a single-season last year with 11
- The Ivy League starts the last week in October due to academic reasons.
Harvard Matters
–Dan Rubin–
Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez used to talk about it all the time when they pitched at Yankee Stadium. They used to talk about how great it felt when they’d take the mound to pitch, and everyone in the stadium would have a reaction. The boos would cascade down from the third tier like rain falling during an intense game. It meant you were somebody, it meant the fans knew who you were, and it meant that they knew that they didn’t like you.
By the same token, they used to talk about how the ballpark felt when they pitched at home, how electric it felt. The crowd had a new dimension when they’d pitch at home, and it would elevate their game. In both occasions, they said, everyone brought their best to the table for something special because they knew that just putting their name on the billboard elicited some time of response.
To have that type of recognition is something special. There’s no in-between, no feeling of apathy. With people like Schilling and Martinez, they’re either purely loved or purely hated. It’s the same feeling when the New York Yankees are in town, just as the Boston Red Sox, the same whenever the Dallas Cowboys or Pittsburgh Steelers appear on a schedule, the same whenever the Montreal Canadiens or Notre Dame Fighting Irish appear for a game.
In Boston, it’s hard to imagine that type of response falling on any college team. The four professional teams have been so successful that they’re the ambassadors at the forefront of the Boston sports scene. But behind the scenes, both socioeconomically and athletically, few places or teams carry the type of response that the Harvard Crimson garner. They’re one of the most beloved symbols of Massachusetts, but at the same time, they’re one of the most reviled symbols of everything Bostonians don’t represent.
Replacement Hockey
With the NHL gone, it’s time for college hockey to become primetime material.
On Saturday, the Niagara Purple Eagles tied the Bowling Green Falcons, 2-2, in the first official game of the 2012-2013 college hockey season.
You probably didn’t know that.
Three official games were played on Saturday, including one major upset as the #5 Union Dutchmen lost to the unranked Merrimack Warriors, 4-1, at home. 20 other exhibition games took place, including one between Denver and the University of British Columbia that may one day be an actual Division I NCAA hockey game if UBC comes to the NCAA’s Division II tier like Simon Fraser University did. And while that was going on, the University of Alabama got destroyed by its Division II little brother in Huntsville, 12-1.
You probably didn’t know that, either.
You probably didn’t know any of that because hockey is on hiatus, and around the nation, some of the best kept secrets of the game are going unnoticed. Different schools, ones that nobody’s really heard of, and different futures converge. It’s the only place where a Division I school from the University of Michigan can compete against schools like UMass-Lowell, a Division II school, and lose respectably.
But then again, you probably didn’t know that.
ECAC Capsules: #1 Union
2011-2012 Record: 26-8-7 (14-4-4 conference, 1st place)
Playoffs: ECAC First Round – bye
ECAC Quarterfinals – Defeated RPI, 2 games to 0
ECAC Semifinals - Defeated Colgate
ECAC Championship – Defeated Harvard
NCAA East Regional Semifinal - Defeated Michigan St, 3-1
NCAA East Regional Final – Defeated UMass-Lowell, 4-2
Frozen Four Semifinal – Lost to Ferris State, 4-2
Key Losses:
Jeremy Welsh (Sr.), F: 27-17-44, 9 power play goals, 2 game winning goals; 100 points in 119 career games; signed with Carolina following season, first Union alum in NHL in D1 era
Kelly Zajac, F: 8-34-42, 2 power play goals, 1 game winning goal; 128 points in 159 career games
Nolan Julseth-White, D: 0-4-4 in 41 games; 100 career games played
Key Returnees:
Daniel Carr (Jr.), F: 20-20-40, 9 power play goals, 3 short handed goals, 5 game winning goals; 75 points in 81 career games
Wayne Simpson (Sr.), F: 18-13-31, 9 power play goals, 4 game winning goals; 79 points in 120 career games
Kyle Bodie (Sr.), F: 6-24-30, 4 power play goals, 1 game winning goal; 52 points in 82 career games
Josh Jooris (Jr.), F: 8-20-28, 3 power play goals, 2 game winning goals; 60 points in 78 career games
Matt Novak (Soph.), F: 9-5-14 in 34 games as a freshman
Mat Bodie (Jr.), D: 8-21-29, 2 power play goals, 2 game winning goals; 61 points in 79 career games
Shayne Gostisbehere (Soph.), D: 5-17-22 in 41 games as a freshman
Greg Coburn (Sr.), D: 5-10-15 in 40 games last year, 4 power play goals; 45 points in 113 career games
Troy Grosenick (Jr.), G: 34 games/33 starts, 22-6-3 record, .936 save%, 1.65 GAA, 5 shutouts; 37 career appearances, 22-6-4 caree record, 1.67 career GAA
Why They’re 1st:
AHA Capsules: #3 Niagara
2011-2012 Record: 17-11-9 (14-6-7 conference, 2nd place)
Playoffs: AHA First Round – bye
AHA Quarterfinals – Defeated Robert Morris, 2 games to 0
AHA Semifinals – Lost to RIT
Key Losses:
Chris Noonan, G: 26 appearances/23 starts, 14-6-5, .944 save%, 1.61 GAA; 61 career games/53 career starts, 29-18-8, .922 save%, 2.43 career GAA
Dan Baco, F: 2-6-8; 106 career games
Robert Martini, D: 2-4-6, 1 power play goal; 14 points in 97 career games
Key Returnees:
Giancarlo Iuorio (Sr.), F: 10-14-24, 2 power play goals, 2 game winning goals; 68 points in 88 career games
Marc Zanette (Sr.), F: 11-11-22, 3 power play goals, 3 short handed goals, 4 game winning goals; 49 points in 104 career games
Patrick Divjak (Jr.), F: 6-18-24, 4 power play goals; 41 points in 70 career games
Isaac Kohls (Soph.), F: 8-14-22 in 35 games as a freshman
Ryan Rashid (Jr.), F: 5-16-21, 1 power play goal, 2 game-tying goals; 47 points in 70 career games
Scott Arnold (Jr.), F: 10-8-18, 42 PIM, 3 power play goals, 1 game winning goal, 40 points in 67 career games
Chris Lochner (Soph.), F: 13-3-16, 8 power play goals, 4 game winning goals in 32 games as a freshman
CJ Chartrain (Sr.), D: 6-8-14, 3 power play goals, 2 game winning goals; 38 points in 102 career games
Kevin Ryan (Jr.), D: 1-12-13, goal was a PP goal; 21 points in 70 career games
Dan Weiss (Sr.), D: 34 games played last year; 20 points in 89 games played
Cody Campbell (Jr.), G: 9 starts, 2-2-3 record, .913 save%, 2.82 GAA; 21 career appearances/19 starts, 6-8-4, .903 save%, 3.13 GAA
Why They’re 3rd:
ECAC Capsules: #3 Quinnipiac
2011-2012 Record: 20-14-6 (9-8-5 conference, 5th place)
Playoffs: ECAC First Round – defeated Brown, 2 games to 1
ECAC Quarterfinals – Lost to Colgate, 2 games to 1
Key Losses:
Yuri Bouharevich, F: 6-11-17, 1 penalty; 54 points in 127 career games
Scott Zurevinski, F: 5-14-19, 3 power play goals; 92 points in 155 career games (split evenly – 46 goals, 46 assists)
Mike Glaicar, D: 58 PIM; 139 career games played
Key Returnees:
Connor Jones (Jr.), F: 13-28-41, 5 power play goals, 2 game winning goals; 65 points in 76 career games
Matthew Peca (Soph.), F: 8-31-39, 3 power play goals, 2 game winning goals as a freshman; draft rights – Tampa Bay
Kellen Jones (Jr.), F: 14-22-36, 4 power play goals, 3 game winning goals; 58 points in 74 career games; draft rights – Edmonton
Jeremy Langlois (Sr.), F: 17-9-26, 7 power play goals, 3 game winning goals; 69 points in 114 career games
Loren Barron (Sr.), D: 9-15-24, 6 power play goals, 3 game winning goals; 50 points in 115 career games
Zack Currie (Sr.), D: 9-9-18, 7 power play goals; 3 game winning goals; 34 points in 102 career games
Zach Tolkinen (Jr.), D: 4-11-15, 48 PIM, 3 power play goals; 61 career games played
Eric Hartzell (Sr.), G: 29 starts, 12-11-6 record, .913 save%, 1 shutout; 61 career starts, 28-20-12 record, .918 save%
Rand Pecknold, Head Coach: We’ll get to this later.
Why They’re 3rd:
ECAC Capsules: #4 Colgate
2011-2012 Record: 19-17-3 (11-10-1 conference, 4th place)
Playoffs: ECAC First Round – bye
ECAC Quarterfinals - defeated Quinnipiac, 2 games to 1
ECAC Semifinals – lost to Union
ECAC Third Place Game – Lost to Cornell
Key Losses:
Austin Smith, F: 36-21-57, 7 power play goals, 6 short handed goals, 5 game winning goals, 2 game tying goals, Hobey Baker Finalist; 160 career points in 153 career games; signed two-year entry level deal with Dallas Stars
Chris Wagner (Jr.), F: 17-34-51, 4 power play goals, 2 short handed goals, 3 game winning goals; 70 points in 79 career games; signed three-year entry level deal with Anaheim Ducks
Austin Mayer, F: 8-15-23, 5 power play goals; 46 points in 121 career games
Matt Firman, F: 7-8-15, 39 PIM; 32 points in 149 career games
Nick Prockow, F: 4-7-11, 33 PIM; 46 points in 152 career games
Corbin McPherson, D: 4-6-10, 3 power play goals, 2 game winning goals; 33 points in 152 career games; signed amateur tryout deal with New Jersey Devils
Kevin McNamara, D: 1-9-10; 48 points in 140 career games
Key Returnees:
Joe Wilson (Soph.), F: 10-13-23, 3 game winning goals as a freshman
Robbie Bourdon (Sr.), F: 12-9-21, 6 power play goals; 72 points in 115 career games
John Lidgett (Soph.), F: 5-10-15, 2 power play goals, 1 game winning goal, 21 PIM as a freshman
Jeremy Price (Sr.), D: 2-21-23, 2 power play goals; 56 points in 113 career games; draft rights – Vancouver
Spiro Goulakos (Soph.), D: 3-16-19, 38 PIM as a freshman
Eric Mihalik (Jr.), G: 27 starts, 14-12-2 record, 2.88 GAA, .898 save%; 22-27-4 career record with a .900 save%
Why They’re 4th:
ECAC Capsules: #5 Yale
2011-2012 Record: 16-16-3 (10-10-2 conference, 6th place)
Playoffs: ECAC First Round – Defeated Princeton, 2 games to 1
ECAC Quarterfinals – Lost to Harvard, 2 games to 1
Key Losses:
Brian O’Neill, F: 21-25-46, 10 power play goals, 4 game winning goals; 163 points in 138 career games; signed with Los Angeles to entry-level contract following senior year
Chad Ziegler, F: 9-4-13, 3 power play goals, 2 game winning goals; played in 114 career games
Kevin Limbert, F: 5-5-10, 5-3-8 in conference play; 137 career games played
Charles Brockett, F: 72 PIM; 126 career games played
Kevin Peel, D: 5-10-15, 4 power play goals; 52 points in 126 career games
Nick Jaskowiak, D: 3-10-13, 1 game winning goal; 31 points in 119 career games
Key Returnees:
Andrew Miller (Sr.), F: 7-29-36, 2 power play goals, 2 game winning goals; 115 points in 104 career games
Kenny Agostino (Jr.), F: 14-20-34, 3 game winning goals; 59 points in 64 career games; draft rights – Pittsburgh
Antoine Laganiere (Sr.), F: 19-14-33, 9 power play goals, 2 game winning goals; 56 points in 85 career games
Tommy Fallen (Soph), D: 4-16-20, 8 PIM, 4 power play goals as a freshman
Colin Dueck (Sr.), D: 3-11-14, 32 PIM; 10 points as a freshman and sophomore combined; doubled point total as a junior; now with 86 career games played
Brad Peltz (Jr.), F: 9 games played last year
Jeff Malcolm (Sr.), G: 10-11-2 record with 2.77 GAA and a .905 save%; career 16-15-2 record with 2.92 GAA and .897 save%
Nick Maricic (Sr.), G: 6-5-1 with a 2.99 GAA and .907 save%; career 13-9-3 record with .899 save% and 2.91 GAA
Why They’re 5th:
ECAC Capsules: #6 Harvard
2011-2012 Record: 13-10-11 (8-5-9 conference, 3rd place)
Playoffs: ECAC First Round – Bye
ECAC Quarterfinals – Defeated Yale, 2 games to 1
ECAC Semifinals – Defeated Cornell
ECAC Championship – Lost to Union
Key Losses:
Alex Killorn, F: 23-23-46, 9 power play goals, 4 game winning goals; 109 points in 130 career games; drafted by Tampa Bay, signed two-year, two-way contract
Eric Kroshus, F: 8-11-19, 3 power play goals; 36 points in 88 games
Colin Moore, F: 112 career games
Key Returnees:
Danny Biega (Sr.), D: 10-25-35, 41 PIM, 4 power play goals, 2 game winning goals; 74 points in 100 career games; draft rights – Carolina
Marshall Everson (Sr.), F: 13-20-33, 8 power play goals; 48 points in 87 career games
Patrick McNally (Soph.), D: 6-22-28, 4 power play goals as a freshman
Alex Fallstrom (Sr.), F: 13-12-25, 5 power play goals; 49 points in 82 career games; draft rights – Boston
Colin Blackwell (Soph.), F: 5-14-19, 2 game-tying goals as a freshman; draft rights – San Jose
Steve Michalek (Soph), G: 7-7-8 record, 3.19 GAA, 89.4 save percentage; draft rights – Minnesota
Raphael Girard (Jr.), G: 6-3-3 record, 2.14 GAA, 93.3 save percentage
Why They’re 6th:
