Sounds like this game was an absolute classic! I wish I could have seen it. Even though Union blew a 3-0 lead and then a two goal lead with 3 minutes to go you have to give them credit for overcoming adversity and pulling it out in overtime. The play of senior captain and tournament MVP Jason Walters was also a great sign considering he was suspended for last nights game. With two goals (including the game-winner) and two assists tonight he basically put the shorthanded Dutchmen on his back and led them to victory. This could be a big stepping stone for the Dutchmen as they proved that they could win without their top 4 scorers and overcome a game-tying goal with no time remaining. Coach Leaman can't be happy with the penalties and the late RPI comeback, but he must be happy with the effort of his depleted team.
For those who do not know, after Leaman benched Walters and Buote last night for violating team rules he benched four of his top scorers tonight for the same infraction. Each Mario Valery-Trabucco (5-9-14), Adam Presizniuk (4-7-11), John Simpson (2-7-9), and Brian Yanovitch (4-4-8) watched tonight's game from the stands. So, the Dutch played with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen. You would figure that without over 33% of their team scoring out of the lineup tonight that the Dutchmen would have some trouble scoring, especially since they couldn't score a goal last night, but thanks to likes of Walters, Zajac, and Boileau they were able to score 5 goals.
I give Leaman a lot of credit for having the gall to do this for a tournament championship (especially against RPI), and for being able to pull his team together to win. I still haven't had any word on what the team violation was, but if I had to guess based on the guys suspended and the time of year I'd say that it might have to do with some type of "freshman initiation," which is common in Division I sports. The reason I predict this is because 3 seniors, 2 juniors, and 1 sophomore were suspended for violations that occurred last week where the Dutchmen had no games, and minimal practices due to finals. This formula creates a lot of free time for the players. I doubt these are academic infractions considering it's usually freshman who have trouble handling their academics since they're new to the scene. I could be totally wrong on this, it's just speculation.
All in all this was one memorable night with a lot of story lines. The most important being that the Dutchmen won their second tournament championship in as many years, both in which they had to beat RPI in the tournament. Should be one heck of a game when the Dutchmen and Engineers faceoff when it counts on December 9th.
After a unbeaten month of November (3-0-3) the Dutchmen will start the final month of the calender year with two HUGE league games at home against Colgate and Cornell, who tied Boston University last night at a sold out Madison Square Garden. Then just four days (Wednesday, December 9) after the meeting with Cornell the Dutch will take on RPI at Houston Field House for the third time this season.
Here's the game recap from UnionAthletics.com: http://www.unionathletics.com/news/2009/11/28/MICE_1128092118.aspx
Here's Ken Schott's thoughts on the game: http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/schott/2009/nov/29/union-rpi-postgame-report/
Post-game reactions courtesy of Ken Schott:
http://www.dailygazette.com/videos/2009/nov/29/322/
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