Seniors Dominate Awards At End of Season Banquet

On Sunday at the Mohawk Golf Club, Union held their end of the year banquet and handed out post-season awards. The awards were pretty much swept by the senior class.

Here are the results:

Most Valuable Player: Adam Presizniuk (third time)
Coaches' Award: Brock Matheson
Charles N. Morrison Award: Luke Cain
Thomas VanArden Dukehart Award: Stephane Boileau (third time)
Rookie of the Year: Mat Bodie
Scott Richardson Unsung Hero Award: Andrew Buote (fourth time)
Most Improved Player: Justin Pallos

I can't disagree with any of these selections. But, I also think that Daniel Carr could have been selected for ROY, John Simpson for Unsung Hero, and Wayne Simpson for MIP. You could also make an argument for Keith Kinkaid and Kelly Zajac for MVP. Either way, I bet it was a very tough decision to make for each award.

For more check out Union Athletics.com.

Congrats to the seven players who received an award!

ECAC Quarterfinals vs. Colgate Preview

Finally, the playoffs have arrived in Schenectady! This weekend the Dutchmen host the Colgate Raiders for a best-of-three series after the Raiders upset fifth-seed RPI in Troy last weekend. Union had a bye last week and used the time to recover from injuries and get ahead (or maybe catch up) on their schoolwork.

While the Raiders have been hot of late (6-3-1 in last 10 games) and are probably the best last-place team in the country, the Dutchmen are absolutely on fire. They haven't lost in 11 games (10-0-1), which is tied for the nation's longest unbeaten streak with Holy Cross, and are 14-1-1 in the winter term. Union has also been almost unbeatable at home this season going 15-1-2.

I think the Dutchmen saw what Colgate is made of this past weekend at RPI and won't let them succeed in the Capital Region for the second weekend in a row. It will definitely be a tough series, but Union is great at home so I have confidence that they won't lose twice in one weekend at Messa Rink.

So Union students, put down your study guides, leave the lab, and take a break from your thesis and come see the best team in Union Hockey history in their final weekend at Messa Rink this season. YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS!!! Remember, the first 300 students get in free.

Here are some players to watch:

Colgate
Eric Mihalik: the freshman goaltender was outstanding in net last weekend at RPI where he made a combined 92 saves, including 40 saves in Game 3. He was named INCH's Player of the Week for his efforts. After going winless in his first 10 career starts, he's gone 6-3-1 in his last 10 starts. He was in goal for both losses to Union this year.

Francois Brisebois: the senior forward leads the team in scoring with 15 goals and 31 points, as well as power-play goals (6). He scored twice in Game 2 last weekend in Troy.
Austin Smith: led the Raiders with four points (1 goal, 3 assists) last weekend and has 10 career points in post-season play (6 goals, 4 assists). Smith it tied for the team lead with 20 assists and is second with 29 points. He currently has a four game point streak.
Robbie Bourdon: the sophomore is the only forward on the team besides Brisebois with double-digit goals (10). He scored the game-winning goal in double overtime in Game 3 last weekend, and has tallied a point in five of his past six games.

Union
Adam Presizniuk: in the playoffs your best player needs to play his best. Prezie is Union's best player and will be a major reason why Union advances or falls.
Keith Kinkaid: the same can be said about goaltending, which is arguably the most important thing in the playoffs. A hot goaltender can bring a team to a championship. Kinkaid is one of the best netminders in the country and if he catches fire who knows how far Union will go.
Daniel Carr: special teams is also extremely important in the playoffs. Carr is tied for the nation's lead in power-play goals, so he will be the go-to guy on Union's PP.

Andrew Buote & Justin Pallos: on the same note, penalty killing will be very important throughout the playoffs. Personally, Buote and Pallos are the two best penalty killers on the team and their leadership will be very important during the playoff run.
Mat Bodie: the younger Bodie is just one point away from breaking Mike Schreiber's '10 record for most points in a season by a defenseman (29).
Kelly Zajac: Zaj leads Union in scoring with 38 points, and has picked up 12 points (4 goals, 8 assists) in his past eight games. He will be featured in the game program this weekend (I wrote the feature story).

For more check out:
Union Athletics
Go Colgate Raiders.com
Daily Gazette - Ken Schott
Times Union - Sean Martin
Inside College Hockey

Sam Coatta Commits To Union

The United States Hockey League (USHL) has announced that Sioux Falls Stampede forward Sam Coatta has committed to play for Union College next season. Go to USHL.com for the press release.

Current Union players to come from the USHL include Keith Kinkaid, Troy Grosenick, and Ryan Forgaard. Tyson Fulton, another Union recruit expected to come next fall, is also plays in the USHL.

Coatta is listed as 5' 9" and 170 pounds. His birthday is April 9, 1990, meaning he'll be 21 when he comes to Schenectady in September. In 31 games as the Stampede's captain this season Coatta has accumulated seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points. Last season he tallied nine goals and 12 assists in 57 games. You can see his stats on Pointstreak.

He is from Minnetonka, Minnesota and played for Minnetonka High School where he also served as the Skippers' captain his senior year. Check out an article about him when he captained Minnetonka here.

Just by looking at his size and point production, Coatta looks like a Justin Pallos-type player. He's small, but is a smart hockey player that will put up a decent amount of points.

Here's an interview with Coatta from earlier this season:

Presizniuk Breaks Record in 3-1 Win Over SLU

Adam Presizniuk

Last night the Dutchmen opened up the Winter term with a 3-1 win over the Saint Lawrence Saints. The game was very reminiscent of last year's ECAC semifinal game where Union beat SLU 3-1. It was a very good hockey game with a lot of hard-hitting action and solid goaltending play. Keith Kinkaid has one of his better performances of the year as he stopped 26 shots.

The most important play of the night came when Union took a 2-1 lead early in the third period for a number of reasons:

1. Union just allowed SLU to tie the game very late in the second period, so the Saints had a lot of momentum going into the period. The goal halted any momentum the Saints had.
2. The goal was scored by Kelly Zajac, who has been on a bit of a cold streak. Also, the upperclassmen haven't been scoring too much, so it was nice to see Zajac and Justin Pallos score Union's first two goals.
3. Adam Presizniuk assisted on the goal; giving him 116 points on his career. This is the record for most points by a Dutchman in the D-1 era. Jason Walters '10 set the record last season. Congrats Prezie! Keep it up!
4. Matt Hatch made a great pass to Zajac in the slot to set up the goal. Coach Leaman has been looking for the missing link on that line, and Hatch is off to a good start to filling that hole.

The Dutchmen were also excellent on the penalty kill as they stymied all six of SLU's power-play opportunities. They blocked tons of shots and were great positionally. I was especially impressed with Andrew Buote, Kyle Bodie, and Pallos on the kill.

Justin Pallos (#11)

Speaking of Pallos, I just want to say that he has done an excellent job this season and has been a very valuable member of this team. Even though he is undersized, he works his butt off every night and is always in the right place at the right time. In the beginning of the season when I did my "projected lineup" I didn't even give Pallos a shot to crack the lineup. Obviously, I was wrong. Keep it up Justin! Also, he is the featured player in this week's Dutchmen Game Day, so make sure you pick up your copy at the rink and read a very interesting article about Pallos.

Tonight, the Dutchmen look to make it a weekend sweep of the North Country teams when they welcome in Clarkson. Last night, the Golden Knights upset RPI 3-2 in overtime.

For more on last night's game check out:
Union Athletics.com
USCHO
Ken Schott's Blog


Here's video from last night's post-game press conference with Coach Leaman (and his 13-month old son), Kelly Zajac, Justin Pallos, and Adam Presizniuk:


Also, here's a video from the Hot Harry's burrito eating contest featuring my friend John Russell (he lost):

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

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.

Local goaltender signs with Union

Colin Stevens, a goaltender from Niskayuna, New York (the town right next to Schenectady, as agreed to play for the Dutchmen staring in the 2012-13 season according to Chris Heisenberg. Statistically, Stevens sounds like an awesome goalie, and one that could compete for playing time as an underclassman. With the Boston Jr. Bruins this year (the program where junior Justin Pallos came from), Stevens led the Empire league in wins (16), shutouts (6), goals-against average (1.38), and save percentage (.948). He was also invited to play for the US U-18 team in the middle of the season. He is listed as 6' 2" and 170lbs, and was born in 1993. Just from these numbers he reminds me of Keith Kinkaid: a tall goalie with tremendous numbers in juniors.

Stevens has other ties to Union besides living down the street. He has worked with former Union goaltender and coach Dan Tatar. Besides playing with the Jr. Bruins, Stevens has played for local private school Albany Academy.

For more on Stevens check out The World of Junior Hockey.com and Daily Gazette.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.

Union takes on U.S. Under-18 team on Friday in charity exhibition game

This game is an exhibition game meaning it will not count towards the standings and will have no effect on the team's unbeaten streak or on Coach Leaman's 100th win. It should be a friendly match for a good cause (Toys for Tots). For more information on the even click here.

According to the team roster there is only one player committed to a ECAC school. This is Andy Iles a goaltender from Ithaca, New York who is committed to his home town team, Cornell. He is listed as 5' 8" so I'm guessing he relies on his quickness. All of the other players on the roster are committed to nine different schools: Cornell, Michigan, Boston University, Minnesota-Duluth, North Dakota, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Boston College, and Denver. This should be a great showcase for future NCAA stars. For more info on the US U-18 Team check out their website here.

Hopefully Coach Leaman will play some guys who haven't played much or at all this season, and I expect that he will. We have still yet to see freshmen defenseman Jean-Sebastian Bergeron and redshirt freshman defenseman Carl Ekstrom in Dutchmen uniforms. I have still heard no word if Ekstrom has overcome his hip injury. It should be interesting to see what this Swede is made of. We also haven't seen sophomore defenseman Taylor Reid this season after he played four games last season.

I assume Keith Kinkaid will sit while junior Corey Milan and senior Rich Sillery will get some time in net. Sillery hasn't seen any playing time this season and only played twice (one start) last season. This should also give Leaman a chance to rest his stars before the UConn Tournament and feature players that haven't seen much ice this year like forwards Justin Pallos, Luke Cain, Jason Shaffer, and defenseman Nolan Julseth-White. These are all very effective players and I expect them to be impressive against the U-18 team. Personally, I am a huge fan of Jason Shaffer as he is one of the fastest guys on the team and flies all over the ice when he plays. All in all, this should be a fun game for a good cause.

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!