Dutchmen Details: 8-1 to 1-0 or 1.000%; Simpson 'Trickery

Coach Bennett's Favorite

• Not to be confused with Chicago's 25 to 6 or 4, the men's hockey team put up some crooked numbers of their own, handily beating Army 8-1 on Saturday for their first win of the year. Ken Schott has video over at the Gazette.
• For the traditional box score, click here. ECAC.com's column is here. Ken's recap is here.
• Union notched an impressive 44 shots evenly spaced over three periods. Army only managed 18. Matt Hatch scored the first goal of the 2011-2012 campaign. Fellow sophomore Kevin Sullivan also found the scoresheet, along with freshman Max Novak (twice), and junior Greg Coburn. Kelly Zajac had three points (all assists in classic Zajac style), while Cole Ikkala also contributed a "2" under the "A" column.
  
• And, oh yeah, Wayne Simpson added an assist to his first career hat trick for an impressive four point game. Wayne earns "1989 and Still Waiting's" ECAC first star of the week with his performance. Dan has an interesting tidbit:

"This was the second season in a row that a Union p

layer scored a hat trick in the home opener (Josh Jooris did it last year in his first collegiate game)."

• The Dutchwomen, meanwhile, had a decisive 9-2 win against Sacred Heart, firing an astounding 75 shots on goal. 75. The Dutchwomen improve to 1-2 on the season with the win. UnionAthletics has a recap 0f the destruction dominance here.
• INCH (Inside College Hockey) posted its preseason predictions/ruminations on Saturday. Union receives the onus of having the most "Pressure To Perform." INCH's reasoning is one that we've heard repeated ad nauseum this preseason: that Union's goaltending will miss Keith Kinkaid.
• An editorial aside here: any media outlet (us included) has concluded that a key to Union's success will be the goaltending in place of the very capable Kinkaid and Milan. What seems to be missing in the onslaught of preseason predictions is the fact that Grosenick, Stevens, and Pieri are very good. By all indications, the goaltending will be a non-issue this year. But as players related to us on Media Day, the pollsters' opinions are relatively meaningless to them. The squad understands the volatility of the ECAC in recent years and is committed--just like the 11 other teams--to winning the Cleary Cup. But we digress...
• On Saturday, the Times Union ran an interview with Coach Bennett. Now you know: he's a Dallas Cowboys fan, while his favorite Clint Eastwood movie is "Hang 'Em High."
• The fantastic RPI blog "Without A Peer" has an interesting piece on potential divisional realignment and its impact on college hockey.
• And finally, so we have content for you tomorrow's Dutchmen Details we'll break down Keith Kinkaid's first game in net with the Albany Devils, a 4-2 loss to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, tomorrow. We'll also talk about Corey Milan, now of the ECHL's Elmira Jackals (affiliate of the Ottawa Senators).
• Our Tweet of the Day goes to Brian Yanovitch. Any Anchorman reference is almost a guaranteed win for our TotD honor:

--ZP

Sacred Heart players visit NYC

Things have been pretty slow around here, so I thought I'd post this video.

I was just searching "college hockey" on YouTube and came across this video. It had no views so I clicked on it. The players in the video said they were college hockey players, so I thought it would be a good idea to investigate. I went on Why Are You On My Train.com, which is where the video was from. Under the comments of the video, there was a comment from Bryan Felice, who turns out to be a freshman on the Sacred Heart hockey team. Other players from the Pioneers' roster I recognized on the video were Tye Lewis, Torin Snydeman, and David Berube. I really couldn't figure out the two other guys. Here's a link to the SHU roster.

It's a semi-funny video with hockey players just being hockey players. But once again, D-1 hockey players should know better than to let people film them while they say/do stupid things! I assume the Quinnipiac team got in trouble a few weeks ago for their video, since it was immediately taken down. I guess I was the only person to see that video. Hopefully, this video stays up... even though it's not bad.

All Smiles In Schenectady

Sorry for the delay, it's been a hectic 24 hours especially after working the Albany Devils home opener. If you're interested in what happened in the Devils' inaugural game you can check out the game recap (which I wrote by the way).

Saturday night's game against Sacred Heart saw more Union Division I records broken as junior Kelly Zajac scored four goals in the game, while senior Adam Presizniuk had five helpers. These records followed freshman Josh Jooris' performance the night before.

Coach Leaman was right in saying that Saturday's game would be tougher than Friday's, but luckily Zajac was there to make the difference. Union is going to look to Zaj to score all season.

As I said after Friday night's game, this is a really great start to the season but it's only one weekend and they played Sacred Heart. The Pioneers definitely have some work to do. The Carr-Welsh-Jooris line and the Prez-Zaj connection looks great off the bat, but let's see how they do against better opponents.

All in all, it was a great weekend for the Dutchmen and hopefully they can carry this momentum all the way to Alaska next weekend.

For more on Saturday's game check out Ken Schott's Blog and Union Athletics.com.

Videos from Opening Night 2010

What a way to start the 2010-11 campaign! It was a blowout from the beginning, but it was still fun especially since Sacred Heart beat Union last season. It just seemed that every scoring chance Union had they put in, and every chance Sacred Heart had Keith Kinkaid stepped up.

Oh, and who is Mario Valery-Trabucco and Jason Walters again? I only know of Josh Jooris and Daniel Carr... haha I'm just kidding. But seriously, way to make your mark in your first collegiate game! At first I doubted the Jooris-Welsh-Carr line since I felt Welsh would be better suited to play with Zajac and/or Presizniuk, but right now I'm definitely wrong. Let's all hope that these guys can keep it up. We all have to remember how John Simpson and Brian Yanovitch got off to very hot starts last season, but after that they both produced very little.

And on a personal funny side note, let's hope Jooris doesn't suffer from "Dan Greene Syndrome." What is DGS you ask? Well, in my first travel hockey game as a Mite I scored a hat trick in a 9-2 romp over the Montclair Blues... and after that game I never scored hat trick ever again. EVER AGAIN! After Mites I moved to defense and the rest is history (plus I never was and aren't much of a scorer haha).

Now, back to real hockey. Everybody from top to bottom looked good last night and all the lines looked like they had good chemistry. I know it's only the first game, but hey it's better than not playing well.

On another note, the student section looked to be pretty packed! Even Will Friedman (aka UnionHockeyManiac) made the trek from NYC to watch the game. But, the local fans did not show as their side of the rink was pretty empty. Maybe it was because of high school football? Whatever the case though they missed out on a fun game.

For more on last night's game check out my article on USCHO, Ken Schott's Blog, Union Athletics.com, and Times Union.com.

By the way, I will not be attending tonight's game because I'll be working the Albany Devils home opener with our old friend Kevin Zalaznik. So make sure you follow Ken Schott's blog or the Extra Frame Blog for twitter updates.

Here are some videos from Opening Night 2010:

Tonight's Lineups vs. Sacred Heart (10/8/10)

Union

Pallos - Buote - Boileau

Presizniuk - Zajac - Cain

Sullivan - J. Simpson - W. Simpson

Carr - Welsh - Jooris

Matheson - M. Bodie
Forgaard - Ingoldsby
Coburn - Stuart

Kinkaid
Milan
Grosenick

Observations: I'm a little surprised to see Pallos in the lineup. He started off well last season, but didn't see much ice after that. There are five freshman in the lineup, including two defenseman.

Sacred Heart

Berube - Yelovich - Mladenoff
Gingera - Delong - Knowlton

Lewis - Filteau - Ketuchum

Snydeman - Jancaterino - Verbeek

Brown - Stuart

Miniaci - Fachini

Stretch - Boyd

Legatto

St. Onge

Paliafito

Observations: Look for the Gingera-Delong-Knowlton line to score the goals. Last season they had 39 between the three of them. There are six freshman in the lineup including two on the third and fourth lines, respectively. Between the third and fourth lines there is only one player with any collegiate experience (Verbeek played 14 games as a Freshman).

Union vs. Sacred Heart Preview

Finally, the countdown clock on my blog is about to reach all zeros! I've been waiting for this weekend for so long! I'm so amped and ready to go, and all the Union faithful should be too.

Let's take a look at Sacred Heart (you would already know what I'm about to say if you listened to my radio show yesterday!):

Last season, the Pioneers came in to Schenectady early in the season and won one of the most exciting games of the year. Union got extremely outplayed in the first period, which led to Keith Kinkaid getting lit up for four goals and getting pulled after the first frame. Corey Milan held the fort down for the second period, but the Dutchmen were down 5-1 going into the final frame. Union fought back with four goals in the later half of the period to tie the game, but lost the game in overtime when the Pioneers scored on the power-play. You can read the recap of the game on USCHO.

The Pioneers had a good 2009-10 campaign (21-13-4 overall) as the finished second in Atlantic Hockey in the regular season, and lost to RIT in the conference tournament championship. But let's be real here... Atlantic Hockey is BY FAR the weakest league in college hockey, meaning just because you have a good season in Atlantic Hockey doesn't necessarily mean you are good team. I know it's hard to see that after Union lost to Sacred Heart last season, and seeing RIT make the Frozen Four. Union should be able to easily handle every team in Atlantic Hockey besides RIT. USCHO predicted them to finish 7th in Atlantic Hockey this season, while INCH placed them 47th out of 58 college hockey teams in their "Great 58."

Last year the Pioneers relied on their offense. They had five players with at least 32 points, but only two of those players are returning. Their top to scorers, Nick Johnson (27g-25a-52pts, 8gwg, 9ppg) and Dave Jarman (13g-36a-49pts), have graduated. They've also lost their top offensive defenseman, Paul Ferraro (8g-14a-22pts), to graduation. So, Sacred Heart's offense will be a lot weaker this season even though they bring back four players that scored at least 10 goals last season (Berube, Gingera, Delong, Knowlton).

Players to watch:

Patrick Knowlton: is the returning leading scorer with 13 goals, 26 assists, and 39 points. He will be looked to to pick up the slack for the graduated Johnson and Jarman
Steven Legatto: should be the starting goalie. He put up some nice numbers last season: 19-10-3, 3.09 GAA, and .907 save percentage.
Eric Delong: had a great freshman campaign putting up 15 goals, 20 assists, and 35 points. He is the second leading returning scorer.
Alex Stuart: he will be the offensive catalyst on the defensive side of the puck. He picked up 10 assists in his first collegiate season.

If you read my article in the Concordiensis this week, you would know how important depth is going to be for the Dutchmen this season. They should be able to wear out, out work, and out score the Pioneers this weekend. This should be the beginning to a magical season for the Dutchmen.

Players to watch:

Adam Presizniuk: he is the returning leading scorer (13g-22a-35pts). Will he be able to produce without Walters and Mario on his line? Will he be able to handle the pressure of being the go to guy? We will find out.

Keith Kinkaid: I assume he will start at least one game this weekend. How does he respond to a team that lit him up for four goals in one period last season? How does he react to all of the hype directed to him? Will there be a sophomore slump? I think he'll react well.

John Simpson: he had a great opening weekend last season against Maine last season, but his production fell off a ton for the rest of the season. It's his final season in Schenectady and he needs to step up and score some goals.

Kelly Zajac: how will he react coming off of surgery in the off-season? He will definitely center one of the top two lines and will be looked upon to be a Top 3 scorer on the team.

Greg Coburn: he was arguably Union's best two-way defenseman last season. Can he keep it up in his sophomore year?

My predictions: Union wins Friday 5-1, Union wins Saturday 4-2.

Dutchmen officially release 2010-2011 schedule

Toady Coach Leaman and the Union College Dutchmen officially announced thier schedule for this upcoming season. If you have been following the blog lately there should be no surprises. As I reported earlier, Union will be playing in the Brice Alaska Goal Rush, the Dodge Holiday Classic hosted by Minnesota, and at Lake Placid to take on RPI. Also, they will be playing out of conference games against Niagara, RIT, and Western Michigan.

What I did miss were other OOC games. Union will open the season at home with a weekend series against Sacred Heart, who came into Schenectady last season and shocked the Dutchmen with a 6-5 win in overtime in one of the most exciting games of the season. They will also welcome in Atlantic Hockey foes UConn, AIC, and Army.

I have mixed feelings on the schedule. When it comes to the tournaments, Leaman and the Dutchmen did a great job scheduling competitive tournaments. Last season Union played in the RPI tournament and UConn tournament where they played Lake Superior State, RPI, UMass, and UConn, which makes up a pretty weak group of opponents. This year things are different. In the BAGR and DHC the Dutchmen are scheduled to play Alaska-Fairbanks, Alaska-Anchorage, Minnesota, and Bemidji. Alaska-Fairbanks finished in the Top 20 last season, Minnesota is consistently a national contender, and Bemidji made the Frozen Four two years ago and are on the rise. These tournaments will be great tests for the Dutchmen.

But, when it comes to the non-tournament out of conference schedule Union's schedule looks weak. These opponents are SHU, RIT, UConn, AIC, and Army of Atlantic Hockey, and Niagara of College Hockey America. Besides RIT, who made the Frozen Four this past season, these are all pretty weak opponents. Atlantic Hockey and College Hockey America are consistently the worst conferences in college hockey, and AIC and UConn are usually two of the worst teams in all of college hockey. Where are the Hockey East opponents? I guess they spent all the travel money on the tournaments to Alaska and Minnesota. RPI has games against Northeastern and Boston University. While the Terriers are playing RPI in Troy, the Dutchmen will be playing Army just down the road. Even though this part of the schedule is weak, it's always good to have some "easy" games on the schedule so some of the players that don't play much can play.

For more on the schedule check out Union Athletics.com.

Union 5, Sacred Heart 6 (ot)

Well, that was a HUGE disappointment. After being outplayed and outworked for basically 45 minutes the Dutchmen come back down 5-1 to tie the game but eventually lose in overtime. This loss, even if they didn't come back, is a major buzz kill on the season. Sacred Heart is traditionally one of the weaker teams in NCAA Division I Ice Hockey, but things might be changing under a new head coach. Keith Kinkaid played pretty poorly in his one period of work where he let up 4 goals. What a disappointment for him in his home opener.

To be honest I think this weekend was horrendous. AIC and Sacred Heart should not be able to walk into Messa Rink against this Dutchmen team and put up a good fight. I do give the Yellow Jackets and the Pioneers a ton of credit though for coming out hard in their first weekend. Each team also played one goal games with RPI during the weekend. Even though Coach Leaman said in his post-game press conference that he was not disappointed with a close win, I'm sure he's not thrilled with the result from last night even after the comeback. A loss is a loss no matter how you put it.

Read Evan Slavit's game summary on USCHO.com: http://www.uscho.com/recaps/20092010/m/10/24/shu-uc.php

Union goes up against Atlantic Hockey foes AIC and Sacred Heart

This weekend the Dutchmen will go up against AIC and Sacred Heart, two of the weaker teams in NCAA Division I College Hockey. AIC finished last in the traditionally weak Atlantic Hockey conference while Sacred Heart came in third to last.

Look for Coach Leaman to play a variety of players at all positions. Union fans should look to see freshman Keith Kinkaid in between the pipes sometime this weekend. There could also be a Rich Sillery sighting in one of these games, which I am rooting for. Pudge has gone along with the the flow these past years and he deserves a chance to make his mark in his senior year.

In my opinion this should be an easy weekend for the Dutchmen and anything less than 2 wins will be a disappointment.

Here's my prediction for the scores this weekend: Union wins 6-1 vs. AIC, Union wins 4-1 vs. Sacred Heart

Here's the weekend preview from UnionAthletics.com: http://www.unionathletics.com/news/2009/10/21/MICE_1021090900.aspx