Jan 29, 2012, results

Jan 29 (Sunday):

Amherst 3 Trinity 0 (Amherst goes to 11-1 and puts some distance (4 points) between itself and 2nd place Bowdoin (8-2-2); they face off on Friday in Amherst, with both teams coming off consecutive shut-outs and both on a roll; Amherst has only one loss on the season but that was to Bowdoin on Jan 6 by a score of 7-4; Bowdoin has not lost in the NESCAC since Dec 3, going 8-0-1 since that date; Trinity is now in 7th place at 4-6-2, just 1 point behind Wesleyan and 2 points ahead of Conn College; Brian Safstrom gets the game winner for Amherst very early in the game (3:31 of the 1st period); Erik Hansen has a 2-point afternoon for the Jeffs (1-1-2); Amherst out shoots Trinity by 37-28; Jonathan La Rose in net for the Jeffs and gets  back-to-back shut-outs; he has lofty stats and is the no. 1 goalie in the NESCAC in both GAA (1.84) and SAV% (.931); Ben Coulthard takes the loss for Trinity in net)

Wesleyan 5 Hamilton 3 (Wesleyan is in 6th place in the NESCAC at 5-6-1 while Hamilton is stuck in 9th place at 3-8-1, just 1 point behind Conn College; good, fast-paced game with goals in every period and territorially even (34-34 in SOGs); Anthony Scarpino and Mike DiMore both have 1-1-2 games for Hamilton, with a short-handed break-away goal for DiMare in the 1st period; 2-point games for five Cardinals: Tom Salah at 0-2-2 and a goal and an assist each for James Albrecht, John Guay, Keith Buehler, and Nik Tasiopoulous; Glenn Stowell in net for Wesleyan and the win; Joe Quattrocchi in net for Hamilton and the loss; the quality of Wesleyan’s webcast and announcing are excellent — the picture is unusually clear and the action easy to see for a NESCAC game)

Jan 28, 2012, results

Six of eight of this weekend’s game in the can and all but one (Amherst v Wesleyan) are either ties (3) or 1-goal (2) games . .

Jan 28 (Saturday):

Conn. College 3 Williams 3 (OT) (Conn College has some great opportunities in OT but can’t get the game winner; still, a good 3-point weekend for the Camels on the road and a not-so-impressive 1-point weekend for Williams; Williams stays in the 3rd place in the NESCAC at 7-3-2 but makes up only 1 of the 3 points it needed to catch idle Bowdoin; Conn College moves ahead of Hamilton and into 8th place at 3-7-2; a blast by frosh Dave Jarrett from the point for Williams ties the game at 3-3 on the PP early in the 3rd; Alex DeBaere ties the game for Williams at 2-2 late in the 2nd period, picking this game to score his first goal of the season; but JC Cangelosi scores a beauty for  Conn College with 17 seconds to go in the 2nd period to restore the Camels 1-goal lead (3-2), albeit temporaily; Williams once again plays with only 16 skaters — they show surprising amounts of energy very late in the OT (after coming close to giving up the game winner to Conn College on a barrage of shots) but are out shot by the Camels for the game (43-34) and especially the 3rd period; Marcus Calvanico gets the start in net for the Camels and is, once again, very solid; Ryan Purdy in net as usual for Williams; based on this weekend’s results, it seems that the perennial also-rans like Conn College and Tufts are improving a lot as the season wears on and that the re-match opportunities under the new home-and-home schedule is providing an excellent showcase for those improvements)

Tufts 2 Middlebury 2 (OT) (Tufts and Middlebury end the game with identical 6-5-1 NESCAC records and in a tie for 4th place in the NESCAC;  Middlebury has a 2-0 lead after 2 periods based on goals by frosh George Ordway in the 1st and senior Nick Resor in the 2nd; Kyle Gallegos whittles the lead down to 1 with a goal at 2:52 of the 3rd for a 2-1 Middlebury lead; Jared Barker gets the equalizer for Tufts with a mere 32 seconds to go in the 3rd period on an extra attacker PP goal; frosh Dan Fullam is back in action in net for the Panthers, saving 18 of 20 shots; Scott Barchard gets the win for Tufts, turning away 36 of 38 shots; Middlebury dominates the game territorially, out shooting Tufts by almost 2-1 (38-20); announcers do a  lot of whining about the refs, especially after Middlebury is whistled for 6 penalties in the 3rd period (versus 1 for Tufts))

Hamilton 3 Trinity 3 (OT) (Trinity’s record is now 4-5-2, good for 6th place but just 1 point behind 4th place Middlebury and Tufts and with 1 game in hand; Hamilton is in 9th place with a record of 3-7-1; Hamilton jumps out to a 3-1 lead after 2 periods but Trinity comes back strong with 2 goals in the first 2 minutes of the 3rd period; Hamilton gets 2 nice goals in the 2nd period from Mike DiMare (a close-in backhander) and frosh Joe Rausch (a pretty break-away with about 4 and 1/2 minutes to go in the period); all the scoring for Trinity is done by the Menard-So line (1 goal for Jeff Menard, 2 goals for Jordan So, and 3 asissts for Chris Menard); to get the tie, Trinity has to kill off a 5-minute major penalty to Jordan So, with just 71 ticks left in regulation and rolling over into 3:49 of the OT session; Hamilton out shoots Trinity by 41-30; Ben Coulthard in net for the Bantams, turning away 38 of 41 shots; Joe Quattrocchi in net for Hamilton, with 27 saves on 30 shots; the Trinity student announcer does an excellent job of calling the game)

Amherst 6 Wesleyan 0 (Amherst breaks the tie for first place and moves into sole possession of first place in the NESCAC with a stellar record of 10-1-0; it is now 2 points ahead of idle Bowdoin (at 8-2-2); at 4-6-1, Wesleyan is now in 7th place and 1 point behind Trinity; the Jeffs score in every period, with 3 in the 3rd period to put the game close to out of reach; 4 Amherst players have multiple point nights, with stat lines of 1-1-2 for each (Aaron Deutsch, Jamie Hawkrigg, Brian Safstrom, and Mike Moher); Glenn Stowell gets the start for the Cardinals and takes the loss, giving way to Matt Hadge about 6 minutes into the 3rd period after giving up his 5th goal on the night; Jonathan La Rose gets the win and the shut out, making 23 saves along the way; SOGs are 34-23 in favor of Amherst)

Jan 27, 2012, results

Jan 27 (Friday)

Tufts 3 Williams 2 (OT) (Tufts goes to 6-5-0 and moves into a tie with Middlebury for 4th place; Tufts heads to Vermont next for an encounter with the Panthers on Saturday afternoon at Kenyon and the chance to gain sole possession of 4th place; Williams falls to 7-3-1, holding onto 3rd place, but will not be able to catch idle Bowdoin in the standings this weekend; Williams dominates the 3rd period and OT but it is Tufts that comes away with the win on a Kyle Gallegos tip-in of a Tyler Voigt shot from the point with 42 seconds to go in OT; Williams has a PP opportunity with 1:58 to go in the 3rd and then gets another one early in the OT period but cannot capitalize on either PP; Nick Anderson ties the game for Williams with about 7 minutes to go; the only player with multiple points is the Jumbos’ Tyler Voigt (1-1-2), who got the goal that put Tufts in the lead, 2-1, early in the 2nd; Williams once again dresses only 16 skaters and is playing with an even shorter bench by the end on the OT; Scott Barchard bests Ryan Purdy in a battle between 2 of the league’s best netminders; amateur hour at Williams as the boxscore assembled by the school for the game shows SOGs of 60-58 (in favor of Williams), including 27 shots by Tufts in the 3rd period when it was back on its heels and playing the prevent defense; this kind of record keeping inflates the save percentage of both goalies for the game and gives them an unfair advantage in conference statistics for save percentage; very nice to be able to see the Williams webcast; the Williams announcers are complete homers but are also very entertaining)

Conn. College 4 Middlebury 3 (Conn College goes to 3-7-1 and edges ahead of Hamilton into 8th place for the day; Middlebury’s troubles continue as it falls to 6-5-0 in the NESCAC and below .500 on the year (7-8-2); tomorrow it must face Tufts, which is now tied with Middlebury for 4th place as a result of its OT upset of Williams; the Panthers are now down to 2 goalies, with injury or illness rendering frosh Dan Fullam unavailable for this game and leaving Middlebury with just 2 very inexperienced goalies for this game (junior Eric Zagorski and frosh Mike Peters); the untested Zagorski gets the start, saving only 13 of 17 shots; Charlie Nerbak ties the game up at 3-3 on his 2nd goal of the night at about the 5-minute mark of the 3rd period but Keith Veronesi gets the game winner for the Camels about 3 minutes later with his 2nd goal of the night; Conn College jumps out to an early 3-1 lead in the 1st period but Middlebury claws its way back into the game through the 2 Nerbak goals; Middlebury out shoots Conn College but not by much (25-17) so Middlebury’s problems likely run deeper than multiple missing goalies; Marcus Calvanico gets the start and the win for the Camels; both of Conn College’s primary goalies are injured: Mike Petchonka last played on Dec 30 (against Oswego) when he sustained an injury early in the game and  Andrew Margolin has not played for the last 4 due to injury; given Calvanico’s limited history in prep hockey, the Conn College goalie problems seem eerily similar to Middebury’s so kudos to the Camels for grabbing this win from Middlebury on the road while similarly limited in the goaltending department)

Jan 27 – 29, 2012, schedule

A busy schedule of 8 NESCAC games spread out over 3 days. All 8 games are rematches and chances to reverse first-round outcomes.

Bowdoin (and Colby) are taking the weekend off so Amherst has the chance to put some distance between itself and fellow first place holder Bowdoin with a sweep on the road of Trinity and Wesleyan and Williams has the chance to vault over Bowdoin into second place with a sweep of Tufts and Conn College at home. Similarly, Tufts has the chance to catch fourth place Middlebury with wins on the road at Middlebury and Williams. Conversely, Middlebury has the chance to put behind it a disastrous string of 4 games that included 3 shut-out losses by getting back on track at Kenyon with wins over Conn College and Tufts.

Some interesting comments by Middlebury Coach Bill Beaney following the Panthers’ 5-0 loss to Norwich this past Tuesday on what ails the Panthers. Here’s one of Beaney’s key observations: “We’ve just been playing very undisciplined hockey and it shows. We’re not good enough not to play within our framework and until they understand that, we’ll struggle with it.”

Decent Internet-based coverage of all but 1 of the 8 games.

Jan 27 (Friday)

Tufts at Williams: 7PM (Williams’ video and audio webcast (now free))

Conn. College at Middlebury: 7PM (Middlebury’s pay-per-view video webcast; Middlebury-oriented audio webcast)

Jan 28 (Saturday):

Conn. College at Williams: 3PM (Williams’ video and audio webcast (now free))

Tufts at Middlebury: 4PM (Middlebury’s pay-per-view video webcast; Middlebury-oriented audio webcast)

Hamilton at Trinity: 7PM (Trinity’s livestats and video webcast)

Amherst at Wesleyan 7PM

Jan 29 (Sunday):

Amherst at Trinity: 3PM (Trinity’s livestats)

Hamilton at Wesleyan: 3PM (Wesleyan’s video webcast)

Jan 22, 2012, results

Amazingly, two games are scheduled for today, in direct conflict with the AFC championship game between the Pats and Ravens. Those responsible for scheduling hockey games at the 4 institutions listed below are in need of  rehabbing or maybe alternative employment!!!

Jan 22 (Sunday)

Trinity 3 Conn College 2 (Trinity goes to 4-5-1 and a tie with Wesleyan for 6th place; Conn College falls to 2-7-1 and remains in the 9th spot; Zach Lombardi gets the game winner at 17:13 of the 3rd; Trinity scores 2 in the 1st and Conn College makes it symmetrical by scoring 2 in the 2nd; Ben Coulthard gets his 5th consecutive start in net and grabs the win for the Bantams, saving 29 of 31 shots; Marcus Calvanico gets another start in net for Conn College)

Tufts 5 Wesleyan 4 (OT) (big win for Tufts as it is now in 5th place with a record of 5-5-0 and just 2 points behind Middlebury for the 4th spot in the league; Wesleyan and Trinity are tied for 6th place with identical 4-5-1 records; frosh Tyler Voigt gets the hat trick for the Jumbos with 18 seconds to go in OT on a PP for too many men on the ice; 3rd period is a seesaw affair as Wesleyan gets the tying goal at 8:22 on a John Guay goal to be followed 13 seconds later by a go-ahead goal by Geoff Mucha; Wesleyan’s 1-goal lead is not safe, however, as Dylan Plimmer gets the tying goal at the 16:39 mark of the 3rd period; Wesleyan PK collapses as Tufts hits on 4 of 7 opportunities; 4 point games for Tyler Voigt (3-1-4) and Dylan Plimmer (1-3-4); Kyle Gallegos has 2 assists for Tufts while the only Card with multiple points is Nik Tasiopoulos at 1-1-2; SOGs are close at 44-42 in favor of Wesleyan; Matt Hadge in net for the Cardinals and takes the loss; Scott Barchard mans the nets as usual for Tufts and gets the win – he is in 9th place in the league for GAA but does much better in save percentage where he is tied for third with Amherst’s Jonathan La Rose and Trinity’s Ben Coulthard at .915)

Jan 21, 2012, results

Williams 5 Colby 4 (Williams salvages 2 points on its Maine trip as it fends off Colby and holds onto 3rd place with a 7-2-1 record and 2 games in hand vis-a-vis Bowdoin; Colby falls to a brutal 1-11-0 on the year — a very tough season for the Mules and a rude introduction to the league for first year Coach Stan Moore; Colby has 6 games to get out of the basement and qualify for the play-offs and can, in theory, catch several of the teams ahead of it — hard to imagine the NESCAC play-offs without the Mules; Williams once again plays with a dangerously short roster – 2 players who dressed for the Bowdoin game the previous night (forwards Mark Lyons and Eric Rubino) do not dress for the Colby game, once again leaving Williams with just 16 skaters; the Williams’ roster has only 20 skaters so, with Bryden McGhee missing the entire season so far and Mike Brofft out for the past 4 or so games, the number of available skaters falls to a mere 16; although Colby loses this game, it completely dominates the game territorially, likely a comment on the thin Williams roster, as it out shoots Williams by a 2-1 margin (32-16); Nick Anderson scores the game winner for Williams at 15:08 of the 3rd period; Mike Smigelski makes it interesting with a goal 27 seconds later and a 5-4 score but Colby cannot find the equalizer despite out shooting Williams by 12-2 in the 3rd period; frosh Craig Kitto has a nice 3-point game (1-2-3) for the Eph while 3 other Williams players have multi-point games (Ryan Scott at 0-2-2 and Justin Troiani and Cody Skinner at 1-1-2 apiece); frosh Jordan Nathan once again gets the start and the loss; Ryan Purdy starts the game for Williams and gets the win as he saves 28 of 32 shots)

Bowdoin 5 Middlebury 0 (Bowdoin exacts revenge on Middlebury and administers its own beat down but, more important for the Polar Bears, moves into a 1st place tie with Amherst in the NESCAC with a fine 8-2-2 record; the win is Bowdoin’s first win over the Panthers since 2007 and the first shut out of Middlebury since 1998; here’s a link to a write-up of the game from the Bowdoin website; Middlebury stays in 4th place with a 6-4-0 record and still has 2 games (Feb 9 and 11) with travel partner and no. 3 Williams that will provide an opportunity to catch up; still, Middlebury has been in a somewhat of a funk since a December 9 loss to Hamilton, losing 4 of its last 6 NESCAC games; it has a chance to get back on track this weekend as it hosts Conn College and Tufts although it has a nonconference game with Norwich on the road on Tuesday, which could further expose the Panthers flaws; Bowdoin looks strong in all facets of the game today, scoring in every period and every way and controlling the game territorially (32-21); Steve Messina is superb in net for Bowdoin and makes up for his early season loss to Middlebury with a 21-save shut out; super frosh John McGinnis scores 2 goals for Bowdoin; Polar Bears take the wind out of Middlebury’s sails very early on with an Erik Olsen shortie at 2:08 of the 1st period; frosh Dan Fullam gets the start in net for the Panthers; most of the Bowdoin goals are of the good variety so the loss really shouldn’t be hung on the young goal tender; John Yanchek, Middlebury’s regular goalie, misses the game with a shoulder injury, likely incurred late in the Colby game (he started and finished the Colby game on Friday night); Nick BonDurant, Middlebury’s very fine back-up goalie is no longer with the team, leaving the Panthers with a thin and inexperienced cadre of goalies until such time as Yanchek is able to return to action)

Trinity 3 Tufts 1 (Trinity goes to 3-5-1 in the NESCAC and sits in 7th place while Tufts slides to 4-5-0 and is in 6th place, just a point behind Wesleyan; first-year Bantam Coach Matt Greason appears to settle on soph Ben Coulthard as his go-to netminder; Coulthard gets his fourth start in a row and is close to perfect, besting one of the league’s best in Scott Barchard; SOGs are even at 38-38, which means that Coulthard fought off a lot of rubber all night long; as is often the case, the Menard line does a big chunk of the scoring for Trinity, with Jordan So and Jeff Menard both registering 1-1-2 stat lines while Chris Menard chimes in with a 0-2-2 line; Jeff Menard gets the game winner early in the 2nd period, putting Trinity up 2-0; a couple of minutes later, Tufts gets a shortie to make it interesting at 2-1 but Coulthard is a rock the rest of the way and Trinity adds a third marker early in the 3rd period)

Wesleyan 3 Conn College 3 (OT) (5th place Wesleyan, at 4-4-1, misses a chance to make more of a move on 4th place (and slumping) Middlebury and to put some distance between it and 6th place Tufts; Conn College, at 2-6-1, sits in 9th place and outside of post-season play-off contention for the moment; Wesleyan dominates the game territorially, out shooting Conn College by a sizable margin (44-29) although the margins shrink in the 2nd and 3rd periods and the game is more closely played in those periods; all but one of the game’s six goals are scored in the 2nd period, with Wesleyan emerging with a 3-2 lead; Mike Martinez gets the tying goal for the Camels midway through the 3rd period, and that is the end of the scoring in the game; Sean Curran has a 2-point night for the Camels (1-1-2) while Nik Tasiopoulos, at 1-1-2, and Tommy Hartnett, at 0-2-2, do the same thing for Wesleyan; Marcus Calvanico is the star of the game for the Camels, saving 41 of 44 shots, including 5 in the OT); Glenn Stowell handles netminding duties for Wesleyan)

nonconference:

Oswego 6 Hamilton 1 (No. 2 Oswego State breaks open a close game in the 3rd period with a 5-goal barrage; the Lakers hold a slim 1-goal lead after 2 periods of a closely played game but the flood gates open in the 3rd as Oswego, with its superior talent and experience,  out shoots Hamilton by 21-4; SOGs for the game are 44-22 in favor of Oswego, with 17 of the 22 margin in shots built up in the 3rd period; Cam Gibbar in net for the Continentals and keeps Hamilton in the game with solid net minding during the game’s first 2 periods)

Utica 3 Amherst 0 (Amherst makes a futile and ineffective foray into the ECAC West, arming the NESCAC critics and the ECAC West boosters; Utica dominates this game, out shooting Amherst by 25 to a paltry 12; Utica’s livestats  are messed up, showing only 15 skaters for Amherst — the boxscore shows the full complement of 18 skaters for Amherst so likely just a bad game for the Jeffs; Utica livestats say that Nathan Corey started in net for the Jeffs but the boxscore says that it was actually untested frosh Danny Vitale; we’re going with the boxscore and guessing it was Vitale; he, along with Middlebury’s Dan Fullam, is one of two frosh netminders who get their first starts today)

Jan 20, 2012, results

Jan 20 (Friday):

Amherst 5 Hamilton 1 (Amherst solidifies its hold on first place with an easy win over Hamilton, going to 9-1-0 on the year; Hamilton falls to 3-7-0; Amherst takes the lead early in this game and is never really challenged, scoring once in the 1st period, 3 times in the 2nd period, and 1 time in the 3rd period; Johnny Van Siclen ring up a hat trick while Andrew Kurlandski also has a 3-point night (2-1-3); frosh Mike Rowbotham has a 2 assist night; Jonathan La Rose is in net for the Jeffs and is close to perfect, saving 26 pf 27 shots; Joe Quattrocchi takes the loss for Hamilton)

Middlebury 3  Colby 1 (Middlebury gets back on the winner’s track after its disastrous 7-0 loss to Plattsburgh last Friday and goes to 6-3-0, but still sits in 4th place, 1 point behind 3rd place Williams and 4 points behind second place Bowdoin, in the standings; next up is a rematch at 4PM on Saturday with high flying Bowdoin, which Middlebury soundly defeated 7-1 2 months ago on the first weekend of the season; Colby’s funk continues as it falls to 1-10-0 on the year; the Panthers welcome Nick Resor back to the line-up, who is the difference maker as he scores 2 goals in his first appearance of the year; the game is essentially settled in the 1st period as Middlebury scores 2 goals following an early strike by Colby’s Mike Doherty at the 2:46 mark; John Yanchek gets the win for Middlebury, turning away 19 of the 20 shots he faces; frosh Jordan Nathan gets another start in net for the Mules and takes the loss, facing 26 shots  in a relatively evenly played game (SOGs are 26-20 in favor of Middlebury))

Bowdoin 4 Williams 2 (big win for the no. 2 Polar Bears (7-2-2) over no. 3 Williams (now 6-2-1 on the year); Williams only other loss this season was a 5-4 loss to Amherst on Dec 9; Bowdoin d-man Tim McGarry gets the game winner at 12:14 of the 3rd period; just 32 seconds later, Williams pulls within 1 goal on a Craig Kitto goal but Harry Matheson restores Bowdoin’s  2-goal margin for Bowdoin with a nice wrap-around empty netter with just 6 seconds to go; Bowdoin controls the game territorially, out shooting Williams by 39-25 and dominating the first 2 periods – Williams has a slight edge in SOGs in the 3rd period but the Polar Bears control the scoreboard by 3-1 for the period; Steve Messina in net for the win as be bests Williams ace, Ryan Purdy; unlike its last few games, Williams has its full complement of skaters (18) for this game as John Wickman and Eric Rubino return to the line-up; Bowdoin’s camera work for this webcast is significantly improved as it provides some close-in shots and better picture clarity)

Jan 20 – 22, 2012, schedule

This weekend’s games are spread over 3 days and include important match-ups in Maine between three of the top four teams (Bowdoin v Williams on Friday and Middlebury v Bowdoin on Saturday). No. 1 Amherst finishes its travel partner series with a trip to Hamilton on Friday night. Saturday night the Jeffs (ranked no. 6 nationally in the latest USCHO poll)  travel to Utica for an interesting inter-conference match-up at the Aud with the no. 12 ranked Utica Pioneers of the ECAC West. Also, Hamilton hosts the no. 2 ranked Oswego Lakers on Saturday afternoon.

Web coverage is, once again, limited this weekend (3 of this weekend’s 5 NESCAC hosts generally do not provide any Internet coverage of men’s hockey).

Jan 20 (Friday):

Amherst at Hamilton: 7PM (Hamilton’s video webcast)

Middlebury at Colby: 7PM (Middlebury-oriented audio webcast)

Williams at Bowdoin: 7PM (Bowdoin’s livestats and video webcast)

Jan 21 (Saturday)

Williams at Colby 3PM

Middlebury at Bowdoin: 4PM (Bowdoin’s livestats and video; Middlebury-oriented audio webcast)

Trinity at Tufts: 6:30PM

Wesleyan at Conn College: 7PM

nonconference:

Oswego at Hamilton: 3PM (Hamilton’s video webcast; Oswego’s audio webcast)

Amherst at Utica: 7PM (Utica’s livestats; fasthockey pay-per-view; Utica-oriented audio webcast)

Jan 22 (Sunday)

Trinity at Conn College: 3PM

Wesleyan at Tufts: 3PM

Jan 16, 2012, USCHO poll

Continued progress up the rankings for a couple of NESCAC teams: Amherst moves from 7th to 6th while Williams moves from 11th to 10th. Former interlock partner, Norwich, continues to hold onto the no. 1 spot although it slipped in terms of first place votes due to its 2-1 loss to UMass-Boston this past weekend. Two other NESCAC teams, Bowdoin and Middlebury, draw some votes but not enough to make it into the top 15:

 

Bill Kangas registers his 300th win at Williams

Williams Coach Bill Kangas coached the Eph to the 300th win on his watch when Williams easily downed Wentworth by a score of 8-2 in an afternoon game on January 16th. However, this makes him only the second winningest coach in Williams history to Bill McCormick, his immediate predecessor whose teams won 336 games in his 35-year career (1955-89). And of course he has a ways to go to catch Middlebury’s Bill Beaney, whose win total at Middlebury has now reached 474.  Still a nice accomplishment in a distinguished career that’s likely to include many more wins since Kangas is only in his early fifties.