John Simpson Named ECAC Player of the Week

Congrats to John "Delta's Most Wanted" Simpson for earning this week's MLX Skates ECAC Player of the Week! The conference made the announcement earlier today, and marks the first time this sandbaggin' son of a gun has received ECAC weekly honors in his four years as a Dutchmen.

In my opinion, it couldn't go to a more deserving player. Kid works his butt off day in day out, skating hard down ice to the puck, and dipsy do'in defensemen with his partner in crime and brother Wayne 'Serious Flow' Simpson.

During Friday night's whiteout win over Cornell, J. Simpson recorded two assists on the night, both in the third period. Simpson set up freshman forward Kevin Sullivan’s goal at 1:36 of the third period, and added an assist on freshman forward Matt Hatch’s empty net goal at 14:11.

On Saturday night against Colgate, Simpson tied the game in the second period with an impressive individual display, jamming his own rebound across the goal line for his sixth goal of the season. Simpson would add an assist late in the third period on his younger brother Wayne's empty net goal at 18:48, helping the Dutchmen seal a 6-3 win.

John Simpson has six goals and 14 assists on the season, matching his best scoring season at Union (four goals, 16 assists in 2009-10) with four games remaining in the regular season.

Can he make his senior season his career best? I think so, you better too. The team heads up to the North Country this weekend to take on Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

Make the drive this weekend. Do it, you wont.

Signing off,
-JZolot.

Good Luck On Your Finals!

Classes for the Fall term ended yesterday afternoon, so all the Union students are now diligently studying for the finals which begin on Wednesday.

A special good luck goes out to our Dutchmen who just came off an exhausting weekend. But, I doubt they need the extra good luck as 12 current Union players made the ECAC All-Academic team last season:

Jean-Sebastian Bergeron, Stephane Boileau, Andrew Buote, Luke Cain, Nolan Julseth-White, Brock Matheson, Justin Pallos, Taylor Reid, John Simpson, Wayne Simpson, Shawn Stuart and Jeremy Welsh.

I'm pretty confident that "The Professor" will have no problems with his finals considering he was a finalist forthe ECAC Hockey Student-Athlete of the Year award, was given the Thomas Vanarden Dukehard award for the highest GPA on the men's ice hockey team, and was named Union College's junior student-athlete of the year last season.

The Dutchmen will return to the ice in two weekends to play at Brown and Yale

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope everyone has a happy and safe Fourth of July... even my boys in Canada! While the ponds might be melted there are still plenty of roller rinks to play some puck.

Fun fact about Americans and Union hockey: all three of Union's goalies last season were from the United States (Keith Kinkaid - New York, Corey Milan - Massachusetts, Rich Sillery-Maryland). The leading American scorer on the team last season was John Simpson with 20 points (4g, 16a). Big Simpson was seventh on the team in scoring

16 Dutchmen named to ECAC All-Academic Team

The ECAC announced today that 181 student-athletes have been named to the ECAC All-Academic team. 16 of the 181 players are from Union. These Dutchmen are: freshman Jean Sebastian Bergeron, junior Stephane Boileau, junior Andrew Buote, sophomore (technically a junior since he red-shirted) Luke Cain, senior Jeff Christiansen, sophomore Nolan Julseth-White, senior Jon Lareau, junior captain Brock Matheson, junior Justin Pallos, sophomore Taylor Reid, senior Jason Shaffer, junior John Simpson, freshman Wayne Simpson, freshman Shawn Stuart, senior captain Mike Wakita, and freshman Jeremy Welsh.

Over half of these guys are Economics majors, which is pretty impressive to me. I took Economics 101 freshman year... and let's just say it wasn't my best class.

To be eligible for the All-Academic team one must obtain a 3.0 GPA.

Congratulations to the 16 Dutchmen and the other 165 ECAC players. The ECAC is by far the most challenging league academically in college hockey. Each team in the ECAC had at least 13 All-Academic selections, except for Clarkson who only had four (weird?).

For more check out ECAC Hockey.com and Union Athletics.com.

Union lives to see tomorrow

Thanks to two goals by Adam Presizniuk and 27 saves by Corey Milan, the Dutchmen topped Quinnipiac 3-1. Luke Cain scored Union's second goal which was the eventual game-winner.

It was a very solid game all across the board. Union was able to get some good offensive pressure and played good team defense. Also, Milan made the stops he needed to make while the Union defense didn't allow many great scoring opportunities.

Due to last night's epic affair John Simpson, Kyle Bodie, and Stephane Boileau were not dressed in favor of Justin Pallos (who assisted on the game-winning goal), Brian Yanovitch, and Jason Shaffer. Yanovitch looked especially good tonight. I wonder if Leaman will stick with this winning formula tomorrow.

I got to watch the game from Section Q for the first time in a long, long time. It was a lot of fun and the students were very loud and in to it.

Tomorrow night is win or go home, so it should be a very emotional and exciting game. This is the last game at Messa Rink for the seniors so expect them to step up in a big way. Also, if the Dutchmen win they will head to the ECAC Final Four for the first time in program history. This year is the last time the final four will be held in Albany.

For more on the game check out Union Athletics.com, USCHO.com, Times Union.com (Mark McGuire), Ken Schott's Blog, and Troy Record.com.

Also, Cornell topped Harvard and St. Lawrence beat Colgate to clinch a berth to the ECAC Final Four, while Yale bounced back and scored six goals against Brown to force Game 3 tomorrow.

Simpson Brothers featured in New England Hockey Journal

Once again, John and Wayne have been featured in an article. This time it is the New England Hockey Journal. The two have played on the same line for most of the season, but have been separated a few times. Heading into this weekend John has accumulated four goals and 14 assists in 29 games, while Wayne has tallied five goals and 12 assists in 30 games.

Union falls from top of ECAC standings

It sounds like the Dutchmen didn't really show up to play and that the score is not a reflection of the game. But, it's great to see Luke Cain playing well and giving his team a boost. Also, congratulations to senior forward Jon Lareau on his first collegiate goal. From the box score it looks like Coach Leaman has separated the Simpson twins. Both of these guys need to get going so I'm all for the separation. These guys really need to step their game up if they want to maintain in the top four spots of the league. The top of the standings is bunched up with many teams who can take a top four position. If Leaman and the Dutchmen can't figure out something soon they might be on the outside looking in. Also note, that Jason Walters' 15 game point streak was snapped.

You can read game recaps from USCHO.com, Union Athletics.com, Daily Gazette.com, Ken Schott's blog, and Times Union.com. Also, check out video of Ken Schott's post-game interviews.

The Dutchmen take on the Brown Bears tonight at 7pm. Check out game notes on the Extra Frame Blog.

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.

No games this weekend, Finals Week

For those of you who don't know today (Thursday) is the beginning of Finals Week at Union, which is the reason (I assume) that the Dutch will not have any games this weekend. The Fall 09 finals last from Thursday to next Tuesday.

Last season 11 current Dutchmen (14 if you include Potts, Caffaro, and Cook) made the ECAC All- Academic Team: Stephane Boileau, Andrew Buote, Luke Cain, Jeff Christansen, Nolan Julseth-White, Jon Lareau, Brock Matheson, Justin Pallos, Taylor Reid, Jason Shaffer, and John Simpson.

Good Luck to all the players and the rest of the student body!

Union 5, Clarkson 1

Wow a sweep in the North Country! The Dutch just proved many people, including myself, very wrong.

The fourth line were the stars as each Buote, Shaffer, and Lareau all picked up points in the victory. Nice to see Kinkaid play another solid game in between the pipes and Zajac and Mario extending the scoring streaks.

There are two questions that come out of this weekend: 1) Should Kinkaid should become the starting goaltender? and 2) Was moving Prez onto the Simpson line a really good idea?

When it comes to the goaltending question I'd first say that it's great that Kinkaid is able to play solid in ECAC games, especially on the road. I would definitely give him at least one start in the RPI Thanksgiving Tournament, but you cannot just forget about Milan. It's only one weekend and Corey should still get more chances to prove himself. I have a feeling that this could turn into a platoon like the Mrazek-Milan tandem from two years ago. But, either way this is a huge step for Kinkaid and he will definitely get more opportunities to prove himself because of this weekend.

With the Prez-Simpsons situation I feel that something has to be changed. I have questioned this move since it happened, and as of this moment I seem to be right. In the four games since the change neither Prez, John, or Wayne have scored a goal. During the two weekend span Prez has 4 assists (3 of which were on the PP), and each Wayne and John have just one assist. When your best player and your two hottest scorers from the beginning of the season have a combined no goals and 3 non-PP assists there is a problem. All 3 of these guys were lighting up the score sheet early, but now they seem pretty invisible. I hope this changes because it would give the Dutch 3 high-flying offensive lines. But on the contrary, ever since Yanovitch switched to Zajac's line, Kelly has been a goal scoring machine. Maybe it's Yanovitch who is lighting the spark and the other guys are reaping the benefits. We will all see what happens soon enough.

Note: St. Lawrence beat RPI tonight 2-1... Union is tied for 3rd place in the ECAC with Cornell and RPI... Quinnipiac is in first after starting the ECAC season 4-0-0 and Colgate is in second having gone 3-0-1

Here's Ken Schott's thoughts on the game:
http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/schott/2009/nov/14/union-clarkson-postgame-report/
Here's the recap from UnionAthletics.com:
http://www.unionathletics.com/news/2009/11/14/MICE_1114094319.aspx

Here's freelance writer Cap Carey's recap of the game courtesy of the Times Union:
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=865975&category=SPORTS

The Times Union's Tim Wilkin talks about the Simpson brothers

John, a junior, and Wayne, a freshman, will both see ice time together this season. Both are considered to have very hard shots and incredible speed.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=849811&category=SPORTS&TextPage=1