This Past Weekend (11/4-5)

Over the weekend the Dutchmen faced St. Lawrence and Clarkson for their first two ECAC matches of the season. For the first weekend this season, Union won both its games and collected 4 points in ECAC play. The only other team in the ECAC to win both its matches was Dartmouth.

On the first night, Union faced off against St. Lawrence and beat them 2-0. Troy Grosenick had a great game for the Dutchmen posting a shutout, his second of the season. Perhaps what is most impressive about the shutout is the fact that St. Lawrence had 8 power play opportunities.

The two goals were scored by Wayne Simpson and Jeremy Welsh. The two of them lead the team with 6 goals each for the season. Also, both were on power plays, with Welsh's coming on a 5-on-3. Overall the Dutchmen were 2-7 on the power play.

The next night the Dutchmen played Clarkson. Union absolutely dominated this game. They tallied three goals before Clarkson could get on the board, and held them to 9 shots in the first two periods.

Kyle Bodie, Brian Yanovitch, and Greg Coburn scored for the Dutchmen. Yanovitch also assisted on Bodie's goal to get his first two points of the season.

Clarkson was able to score a goal with less than 10 minutes remaining in the game to end Grosenick's bid for a second straight shutout. Grosenick won the ECAC goaltender of the week for his efforts.

For full recaps check these out:
Union Athletics - Union at St. Lawrence
Union Athletics - Union at Clarkson

That was a great way to start league play. St. Lawrence and Clarkson are probably two of the weaker teams in the ECAC, but 4 points is 4 points. It's not like either team is a complete pushover either. Just ask RPI, they lost to both of them this weekend. In fact, they were the only team that didn't pick up a league win the ECAC.

Grosenick looked great this weekend. It took over five periods for him to give up a single goal. He really has been great for the Dutchmen so far. Fair or not, most of the offseason attention was on Union's goaltending. So far that hasn't been an issue.

Perhaps a big part of that has been the stellar play of the defense. Over the weekend the Dutchmen killed all ten penalties they had, and limited both teams to single digit shots in each of the first two periods. The only troubling note was that they were outshot in both third periods.

Offensively the Dutchmen could've done more, but that is just being picky. Wayne and Welsh picked up a goal each and Zajac added three points to reach the 100 point mark, but the games were closer than they needed to be, especially with 13 power play opportunities over the weekend.

Overall, though, it was a very good weekend for the Dutchmen, who are now ranked # 9 in the nation in both the USCHO and USA Today polls. Next weekend they return home to play Brown and #13 Yale. We will have a preview for those games later in the week.