Union squeaks out overtime win over Army

It wasn't pretty but in the end the Dutchmen were able to pull out a 2-1 overtime victory over the Black Knights thanks to two goals by Jason Walters. Wally scored with 11 seconds left in the first period and with about three minutes left in overtime. Army was completely outmatched by Union as the Dutchmen were bigger, faster, and stronger than the Black Knights who were getting tossed across the ice like rag dolls.

But, the Black Knights weren't intimidated as they fought hard throughout the entire game and even got the better of the Dutchmen in the second period. In the 15 years that I have watched Army Hockey I have noticed that they are one of the hardest working teams in all of college hockey and they proved that once again tonight as they skated hard to the puck, finished their checks, and blocked shots at all costs. Another thing that has been consistent over the years for Army is great goaltending, and they got that tonight from Jay Clark (39 saves) who halted the furious Union attack in the third period with some difficult saves.

To be honest no one on the ice for the Dutchmen looked great as they were unable to hold on to the puck, had poor shot selection, didn't make crisp passes, and even Corey Milan (18 saves) didn't look to sharp in the net. Even though he only allowed one goal (power-play) he had trouble controlling his rebounds in the few shots that came at him. But as a Dutchmen fan you can't be disappointed in the result.

You can read game summaries on UnionAthletics.com and GoArmySports.com. Also read an article about the game from the Times Union.

Things to note:

• Junior Brock Matheson was wearing the captain's "C" tonight. I don't know if this is a new thing, but it's the first time I saw/heard about it. I remember two seasons ago when Coach Leaman gave Lane Caffaro, who was a junior at the time, the captain's "C" in the middle of the season so maybe he's doing something like this again.


• Kyle Bodie, Luke Cain, and Justin Pallos all played tonight while Brian Yanovitch, Jon Lareau, and Jason Shaffer sat tonight. I guess the sitting of Yanovitch is a surprise since he has played in almost every game. But, looking at his stats it does make some sense. In his first four games of the year Yanovitch was on a tear as he netted three goals and two assists, but he's only registered one goal and two assists since. His last goal and point were in mid-November when the Dutchmen traveled to St. Lawrence and Clarkson.


• The same is also to be said about Yanovitch's linemates John and Wayne Simpson, who both have three goals and eight assists on the season. It looked early on that John was going to have a breakout season after making the scoresheet in seven of his first eight games this season (2g, 7a). But, in his past 11 games he has only tallied one goal and one assist. There was a long gap between his second and third goals as his second goal of the season came on October 10th against Maine and his third one came in the UConn Toyota Classic against UConn on December 30th. After tallying three goals and five assists in his first eight games, Wayne has only put three assists on the scoresheet in his past 11 games. The Simpson brothers along with Yanovitch need to get things together because the Dutchmen will need another line to produce offensively besides the Mario-Wally-Prez line. Luckily, the Welsh-Boileau-Zajac line has stepped up a bit.
• I was also very impressed with Army's Owen Meyer. He was Army's top scorer last season, but has fallen off a bit this year. With his good size and good skating ability it was obvious that he could be a dominant player in the Atlantic Hockey conference. Army defenseman Marcel Alvarez is also a pretty good player.

The Dutchmen now head back to Schenectady to begin the Winter Term on Monday, but will not stay there long as they restart league play at Princeton (10th in ECAC) and Quinnipiac (1st in ECAC) next weekend. Hopefully they can continue their unbeaten streak in the ECAC and reach the top of the standings soon.