NCAA Hockey Weekend Review

Let’s dive right into it, shall we?

-Oh dear, BU.  Oh dear.  BU had one game this week after an emotional 1-0-1 weekend against UMass when they went up to Lowell and took on the UML River Hawks up at Tsongas Arena.  We have no idea what happened to the Terriers, who scored 16 seconds with Corey Trivino putting one past Doug Carr before most fans found their seats.  UML dropped a 7-spot on them, including four second period goals, chasing Kieran Millan from the game in the process.  Before the two-minute mark of the second period, it was a 4-1 game (after 2-1 following the first), and the Terriers dropped to 3-3-1 and #16 in the overall national polls.  They’re lucky they only dropped that far, and the pressure is on heading into this weekend’s slate against Merrimack and Boston College.

-Speaking of Merrimack, last year’s run to the national tournament was impressive, but this year’s opening slate is just absurd.  The Warriors have essentially their best opening run to a season ever, becoming the last remaining undefeated team in the nation with a tie and win in a home-and-home with Northeastern.  MC hasn’t really played a top-tier opponent unless you count Maine, but still, the fact that they’re undefeated is a huge credit to the team and coach Mark Dennehy.  They should be higher than #6, especially with an overrated Michigan team ahead of them.  At 7-0-1, Merrimack gets their first “real test” when they travel to Agganis.  After that, though, it’s back to some patsy games with home contests against Alabama-Huntsville and a home-and-home with Providence.

-Out in ECAC, the impressive games of the week hit us hard, with a few one-goal games and a few more than went down to the wire.  The shock of the week came with how much 18th-ranked Colgate struggled against Brown and Yale.  On Friday, the Raiders couldn’t put the Bears away at all, struggling with a strong Bruno forecheck the whole night.  Brown stayed physical and really outplayed the ‘Gate, but two defensive meltdowns on the power play resulted in Colgate getting two shorthanded goals.  Take away those two shorties, and Colgate doesn’t have a need for an empty-netter.  Take away those three, and they actually lose at Meehan Auditorium.

-Colgate followed that up with a goose egg at Ingalls Rink.  Yale’s struggled out of the gate and they got crushed by Cornell on Friday.  But the much-maligned Bulldog defense, which has been a true Achilles’ heel for the better part of two seasons, blanked the Raiders to the tune of a 2-0 win.  Colgate doesn’t move in the rankings, but the weekend exposed a couple of holes they’ll need to work on.

What's wrong with RIT?

-Speaking of Brown, many of us prognosticators predicted a sweep at the hands of Colgate and Cornell because, well, that’s what Brown usually does against the two schools.  Instead, Bruno went out and went toe-to-toe with Colgate before beating Cornell, 5-4, on Saturday night.  It’s a glimmer of hope for a team that was thought to have one decent scorer in Jack Maclellan.  Instead, Maclellan only has one goal, compared to three for Massimo Lamacchia.  The diminutive Ontario native has stepped in and really shown Brown fans something to smile about.  The Bears are heading into a brutal road trip next weekend at Union and RPI at .500, and a split in the Capital District is something that they could really smile about.

-We segue right into the story of the Dutchmen; Union is on fire to open up their 2011-2012 season at 5-1-3.  Their only loss, in overtime at UNH, was the only game in which they didn’t score multiple goals.  Last weekend, they went to western New York and hung five on St. Lawrence and Clarkson, and their two ties with Western Michigan to open up the season have springboarded them to the top echelon of the national rankings.  Union, hosting Brown and Yale this year before going all of ten miles to play at RPI, are looking to improve over their downturn at the end of last year.  A 4-point weekend would go a long way to solidifying that.

-Atlantic Hockey is not looking the way anyone expected it in the early goings.  Something is fundamentally wrong with the RIT Tigers.  The Tigers are 2-3-2 and 1-2-2 in conference play, with their first win coming this weekend over Army.  They’ve lost to both Cansius and Mercyhurst in pod play, and their upcoming game at home against Air Force is going to be a tough draw.  After Air Force, it’s a weekend set at home against Holy Cross before playing RPI; it’s conceivable RIT could enter their two game series at UConn on a four game losing streak.  But it’s just as conceivable to be undefeated over that same stretch.  Still, early season losses have a way of derailing things before they begin; RIT needs to avoid that in a bad way this weekend.

-Meanwhile, Air Force is back in a big way, going 4-0-1 in the early stages of the conference slate.  The Falcons are 5-2-2 overall and primed to really get their legs under them with the RIT game this week.  They’ll draw Mercyhurst on Saturday before returning home to play UConn, and if they beat RIT on Friday, it’s perfectly possible that this team could have ten wins before anyone knows what’s going on.  They end the fall/winter slate of conference games against AIC, a team that’s been struggling in the early parts of the season.

-AIC’s struggles stem from a 2-7 overall record, but they’re 2-2 in conference play, splitting this past weekend with Robert Morris.  They remain tied with the Bentley Falcons, who are 2-1 in conference play after a split with Canisius.  Bentley, who we’ll cover at length in our week report card, is a huge game for AIC when they come to the JAR in Watertown; the winner essentially gets the inside track to 4th place in the early stages.  With the way both teams have been playing, this one might actually pile up goals in a hurry.

-We feel really bad for Sacred Heart.  0-4 in league play and 0-8 overall.  Before getting swept at Air Force, they had given up seven goals to both Bentley and AIC.  The road ahead features Army, whose been equally as disappointing, and a game with Yale at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport.  The road for the Pioneers really doesn’t ease up until the tail end of the season, and you have to hope for their sake the season hasn’t tail-spun out of control by then.  This is a tough, physical team who comes ready to play on any given night, and Lady Luck has just really been hating them so far.