Game Gab - Nightly Post-Game Analysis
Come here after the games for analysis and insights from CHN Staff members.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
Union 4, Dartmouth 1 - Friday, March 15, 2013
Forward Daniel Carr scored twice, junior defenseman Mat Bodie had a goal and an assist, and junior goaltender Troy Grosenick made 31 saves, including two breakaway stops, to lead Union. Dartmouth, which was pushed to three games by Harvard in the first round, will have to do it again if it wants to extend its season and give itself a chance at the NCAAs. The win for Union, inched it up to 15 in the Pairwise, which would be good enough for the NCAAs, but the Dutchmen can hardly afford a slip.
Union got off to a quick start, but Dartmouth seemed to weather the storm and tied the game. But Union began taking control at the end of the second and into the third period, to take a 1-0 series lead. "We had a couple of breakaways and guys made good plays, and (Grosenick) made good saves, and it was a good battle," Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet said. "The game is about winning battles. I thought we had a really good second period and they made a good play -- we'd like to have it back, on the second goal. ... It's just a game of bounces."
Said Union coach Rick Bennett, "It's easy to pick out the goals ... but (Matt) Wilkins did a really good job down low, physicality, creating a lot of room. ... You just never know after a bye - those guys came out with a sense of urgency ... that was huge for us tonight."
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Union 4, Clarkson 0 - Saturday, March 2, 2013
Union has had a relatively inconsistent season, with coach Rick Bennett trying to find the right strings and combinations to put the Dutchmen in position to duplicate last year's success. It's rarely come easy. But Union wrapped up the regular season in style, sweeping St. Lawrence and Clarkson and looking good doing it. In the process, it earns a bye for the first round of the ECAC playoffs, and is right on the NCAA Tournament bubble. It should play a solid TUC in the quarterfinals, so if Union wins that series, the NCAAs are looking pretty good now. But it's still dicey. Kevin Sullivan had just one goal all season entering the game, but scored twice on Saturday. "The lines are starting to gel a little bit, and he's a by-product of that," Bennett said. "He's going to the net and he's going to those areas that are tough.
"It was a long year," Bennett added. "The adversity, dealing with expectations. I am really proud of how they fought through all this this year." No. 1 goalie Troy Grosenick was injured in the third period Friday against Dartmouth and was unable to play Saturday. Colin Stevens came in and made 24 saves for the shutout Saturday.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Cornell 4, Union 2 - Saturday, February 23, 2013
Cornell has picked one heckuva time to come to life. This is the third win in a row now, and it swept this weekend against two quality opponents -- particularly RPI on Friday, which came into Lynah Rink having won eight straight ECAC games. The problem is, Cornell dug itself too big of a hole in losing seven in a row, so unless this hot streak runs right through Atlantic City, it isn't going to the NCAAs, which will be an enormous disappointment for this team. Cornell dominated early, and rode a three-goal first period, holding off a late Union rally. Cornell is tied for ninth, one point behind Brown for the final home-ice spot for the ECAC playoffs. But the Big Red control their own destiny, since they play Brown next weekend.
Union, meanwhile, keeps meandering its way through this season, losing both games this weekend, falling to sixth in the league and 22nd in the Pairwise. I hate to give another "I told you so," but I called this one in the preseason -- have seen these kinds of pitfall seasons before with second-year coaches coming off big first seasons that followed up a popular coach who left. And lately Bennett seems to be pulling out all the stops, frustrated with his team -- Saturday, he benched Wayne Simpson. There have been other moves too. You wonder sometimes if it's an over-reaction and it winds up hurting the team more than helping.
An interesting thing about Cornell vis-a-vis the Pairwise, is that the Big Red are teetering on the "TUC Cliff." As a brief explanation, the Pairwise is calculated by comparing all Teams Under Consideration (TUC) against each other. A TUC is a team with an RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) of .500 or better. At various points in the night, Cornell was over a .500 RPI. But it ended the night at .4997. Because "Record vs. TUC" is a key factor in the Pairwise, any team that Cornell has played will be affected if it becomes a TUC. So, any team that has done well against Cornell, wants Cornell to be a TUC. And any team that hasn't done well against Cornell, doesn't want them. Denver and Yale in particular right now are rooting for Cornell to be a TUC. Though Yale has the irony next week of wanting to beat Cornell, which would prevent Cornell from being a TUC, and thus hurt Yale. This is the main flaw of the Pairwise, though no one has been able to solve it without scrapping the whole system.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Union 2, Brown 0 - Saturday, February 16, 2013
Troy Grosenick had a 24-save shutout, as Union finally put together a strong weekend, start to finish. The sweep has pulled the Dutchmen back up to No. 15 in the Pairwise, and gives them a chance to control their own destiny for a return trip to the NCAAs.
Anthony Borelli stopped a career high 46 shots in the loss. “Borelli has been fabulous,” said Brown coach Brendan Whittet. “If it wasn’t for him, that would not have been a good result. Obviously it’s a loss, but … it was only 1-0 going into the third. That was the message to the guys. Win a period, you can win a game and that is what Anthony provides for us.”
Saturday, February 9, 2013
St. Lawrence 4, Union 2 - Saturday, February 9, 2013
Any time I've ever seen a coach pull goaltenders in and out multiple times in games, and/or in frequent numbers of games, it's a bad sign. This hasn't been a frequent occurrence for Union yet, but it's something to keep an eye on. Troy Grosenick was pulled from Friday's loss to Clarkson. And in this game, Grosenick, who was one of the many great success stories in Union's Frozen Four run last year, was pulled for just over three and a half minutes, and then re-inserted. Union tried to rally after that, but it fell short. “(We) thought we’d change it back up," Union coach Rick Bennett said to the Schenectady Gazette. "(Grosenick's) proven he deserves a fair shake. But now it’s back to an open ballgame at practice."
Union was victimized by St. Lawrence's strong power play. “We were all over them on the first shift,” Bennett said. “Then we decide that we had it in their zone too long, so we wanted to turn it over. And we spent two more minutes in our zone, and just created a big scene. That led to an avalanche.”
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Union 3, Rensselaer 2 - Saturday, January 26, 2013
Union has managed to stem the tide now, following an ugly 2-6-3 stretch with three straight wins, including this one in the inaugural Mayor's Cup against rival RPI at the Times Union Center in Albany. It was the eighth straight win for Union over the Engineers. Read more about it in our blog.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Quinnipiac 3, Union 2 - Saturday, January 12, 2013
These are heady times for Quinnipiac. Prone to second half slumps in seasons past, the Bobcats show no signs of slowing down this year. Friday's tie agains RPI is the lone blemish in its ECAC season so far, they are In a three-way for first place in the Pairwise, and Saturday's win really stuck a dagger into Union. Quinnipiac was down 2-0 entering the third period, and had just gotten two of its players -- Travis St. Denis and Connor Jones -- tossed in the final minute of the second, which meant Union had a lengthy 5-on-3 to open the final 20 minutes. QU managed to kill if off, and then mounted a comeback, that was capped by Kellen Jones late in the period.
Meanwhile, it's a devastating loss for Union, which has been trying desperately to regain its touch. It had a good win Friday in Princeton, but the whole weekend melted down in a seven minute span in Hamden.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Lake Superior 3, Union 1 - Saturday, January 5, 2013
I am loathe to say that I called it, but, alas, it's true. Union is struggling this year to maintain what it had last year. There is no shame in that really -- it happens a lot. But most people figured Union, with most key players back from a Frozen Four team, would be back near the top. That just hasn't materialized. The Dutchmen were inconsistent in the first half, and it's gotten worse recently. Sure, the team has been without star defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, who just won a gold medal with Team USA at the World Juniors, but that doesn't really explain it. Coach Rick Bennett tried to shake things up in this game, the back end of a weekend pair, but it didn't work. Most particularly, Colin Stevens started in goal over Troy Grosenick.
Meanwhile, credit here to the Lakers, who have now won five in a row to move to 12-10. They got a third-period, power-play goal from Domenic Monardo, and then a shorthanded goal from Buddy Robinson to pull out the win. It was the second goal on the weekend for each. Coach Jim Roque stuck with his goalie rotation this weekend of Kevin Kapalka and Kevin Murdock, and each allowed just one goal. The Lakers are being fueled by an outstanding penalty kill, that had killed off 31 straight chances until Union's power-play goal in this game.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Union 4, Merrimack 1 - Sunday, December 30, 2012
Daniel Carr ignited a four-goal third period, as Union salvaged a split of the Catamount Cup games, after losing to the hosts Saturday. Union has been up and down so far -- at least compared to expectations -- so they are hard to read right now. Certainly, the Dutchmen missed Shayne Gostisbehere, who is playing at the World Juniors, so there's still a lot of open questions. But they needed this one in order to keep some steam going.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Union 2, Yale 2 - Saturday, December 8, 2012
Union picks up its third straight tie, which is certainly better than the game before that, when it was humbled by Quinnipiac last Friday. But it's not where Union expects to be, especially since it had a 2-0 third-period lead in this game. Union played poorly for a lot of last Saturday's game against Princeton, but managed a 4-4 tie. Then this Friday, tied Brown. ... Yale, meanwhile, was coming off a brutal 6-1 loss to RPI, so both teams were in need of a 'W,' so perhaps it was only appropriate there was another deadlock. Both teams are still in good shape if they build from here.
Yale was down 2-0 in the third, when it got a pair of goals from players who hadn't scored previously this season -- Charles Orzetti and Gus Young. Orzetti is a big freshman playing just his fourth game. Young is a defenseman who had three last season.
“I don’t usually get too excited about a tie, but I was really proud of the way our guys battled,” said Yale coach Keith Allain. “A tie was probably the right score at the end of the day.” Yale was 0-for-8 on the power play, but had 10 shots. “They have a great kill. There were some times we had some looks, but we bobbled the puck,” said Allain. The Bulldogs were playing without two of their top six forwards after injuries to Jesse Root and Trent Ruffolo last night against RPI. “I have a lot of faith in the character in our locker room. When they get punched in the nose, they come back a little stronger. My biggest fear is that we wouldn’t have enough stamina because we had a short bench.”
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Dartmouth 3, Union 2 - Saturday, November 10, 2012
These teams could be the class of the league this season -- with others, of course, vying for that honor as well in what is shaping up to be a highly-competitive ECAC season. For Union, this was expected. For Dartmouth, it was not. But no matter how far down Dartmouth was picked in preseason rankings, there was always that potential, to keen observers, for the Big Green to put things together. They have a lot of talent up front, talent that kinda went under the radar in recent years, due in part to injuries. But after both teams put up easy wins Friday, it was Dartmouth that got the upper hand and remained the nation's only unbeaten team. Dartmouth hasn't played a team from outside the conference yet, but nevertheless, it has looked good.
Eric Robinson has had a breakout season so far, and put Dartmouth up 2-0 in the second. Then Matt Linblad scored in the closing second of the period. Union scored two early third-period goals, but Dartmouth held on behind 28 saves from Cab Morris. ... Union suffered a setback last night when All-American goalie Troy Grosenick was injured, apparently hurting his ankle and he's expected out 3-4 weeks. So Colin Stevens stepped in, and played fine -- not necessarily the reason for the loss.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Union 7, Rensselaer 3 - Saturday, November 3, 2012
Sophomore defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere has been banged around quite a bit so far this season, but it hasn't stopped him from being a force. He returned this weekend, missing no time after suffering a knee injury last weekend, and then had three assists Saturday after taking a cut to the nose on a hit from RPI's Luke Curadi. (Curadi received a game DQ for a hit to the head, and will miss next Friday's game against Dartmouth, though no one thought it was a dirty play.) In the process, Union steamrolled over its cross-town rival, getting wins in its first two ECAC games of the season.
There was a time when Union was the mildly-annoying baby brother to RPI, but the tides have turned over the last few years, and RPI showed it has quite a ways to go right now to get back among the ECAC elite. This may be taking a toll on RPI coach Seth Appert, who got into a shouting match with Union coach Rick Bennett after the first period. But he wasn't alone -- things got worse in the third period when a hit from behind by RPI's C.J. Lee caused him to get ejected, and set off a melee.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Union 2, Connecticut 2 - Saturday, October 27, 2012
Union had a 41-23 shot edge, but couldn't finish off UConn. The only major story on this game was a potential injury to star defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, who took a knee on knee hit trying to make an end-to-end rush. But after the game, coach Rick Bennett said he was OK. "He’s fine. That’s what happens when you don’t want to keep it simple,” he said.
Union 5, Dartmouth 2 - Saturday, March 16, 2013
Kevin Sullivan had two goals and an assist and junior goaltender Troy Grosenick made 28 saves, as Union swept the series with Dartmouth. The Dutchmen advance to the ECAC semis, and sit squarely on the NCAA bubble. One win at least in the two games in Atlantic City should be enough, barring an array of upsets elsewhere. Senior forward Kyle Bodie, sophomore defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and junior forward Josh Jooris added goals for Union, which jumped out to a 3-0 lead early in the second period and never let Dartmouth get closer than two goals the rest of the way.
For Dartmouth, it's yet another post-mortem. This is a young team which should be good next year, but this season it was right on the cusp again, and couldn't get over the hump. That has been the theme way more often than not in Bob Gaudet's 15-year tenure with his alma mater, and the program still hasn't made the NCAAs since Gaudet was a player in the early '80s. "The third one hurt us tonight," Gaudet said. "But after that, I told the boys we need to just go out and win each faceoff and each shift and get back in this one. I really thought we battled hard in the face of being down to a very talented Union team and I'm extremely proud of their effort tonight and all season."
Said Union coach Rick Bennett: "People say we've had an up-and-down season. Well, we still have 19 wins, that's pretty good. ... The guys were paying attention to the system, and guys made some big-time plays. It was fun to watch."
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