UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

[VermontfaninNY]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

Who else is ready to bow to our future Pac-12 overlords?

[vtcats]

Looks to me that both UVM and Maine both have 11 home and 11 away HE games.

I'm talking all games. Maine has 21, UVM has 16 for example.

[jcarter7669]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

I'm talking all games. Maine has 21, UVM has 16 for example.

I think mostly this comes down to schedules still being messed up from conference realignments. I suspect things will even out in the next year or two but a lot of the OOC games are scheduled pretty far in advance.


On to the weekend... at UConn and then a home and home with UMA. On paper this should be a nice 6 league points to solidify the early top spot in the league. Out of the three however I think UConn is the game that makes me the most nervous. UConn is now 2-5-4 overall, which doesn't look that great until you realize that of the 5 losses 4 have been by 2 goals or less and 3 by a single marker. On top of that they have wins against QU and BC with a tie against BU, and obviously played a very close game with the Cats early on. Nichols is 2nd in the league in Sv% and 4th in GAA and appears to be able to steal a game.

Hopefully the Cats come out with some intensity and get things going early on. UMA on Tuesday is going to be a rough game with 3 games in 4 days, thankfully its UMA though and not UML...

[jcarter7669]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

Update on Recruits in case anyone is interested...


O'NEIL, Conor (LW) 11g - 25a = 36p in 22g New Jersey Hitman
COLTON, Ross (LW) 5g - 7a = 12p in 15g Cedar Rapids Roughriders
BOWEN, Brian (RW) 3g - 5a = 8p in 13g Green Bay Gamblers
PUFFER, Craig (LW) 19g - 7a = 26p in 21g Chiliwack Cheifs
BEST, Drew (RW) 1g - 7a = 8p in 11g Green Bay Gamblers / Omaha Lancers
EGLE, Haralds (RW) 3g - 6a = 9p in 14g Madison Capitals
PLITT, Dylan (C) 7g - 17a = 24p in 20g Jr Flyers
GERNHOFER T (RW) 4g - 2a = 6p in 15g Bloomington Thunder / Cedar Rapids
LEE, Mike (LD) 0g - 10a = 10p in 24g Penicton Vees
O'DONNELL M (RD) 0g - 3a = 3p in 13g Cedar Rapids Rough Riders
LEKKAS, S (G) 4-3-1 in 8 game 0.908 sv% 2.64 GAA Souix Falls Stampede

As a comparison, here were their previous stats for comparison

O'NEIL, Conor (LW) 7g - 18a = 25p in 15g New Jersey Hitman
COLTON, Ross (LW) 3g - 3a = 6p in 8g Cedar Rapids Roughriders
BOWEN, Brian (RW) 0g - 1a = 1p in 7g Green Bay Gamblers
PUFFER, Craig (LW) 15g - 4a = 19p in 13g Chiliwack Cheifs
BEST, Drew (RW) 1g - 3a = 4p in 7g Green Bay Gamblers
EGLE, Haralds (RW) 1g - 2a = 3p in 8g Madison Capitals
PLITT, Dylan (C) 3g - 11a = 14p in 13g Jr Flyers
GERNHOFER T (RW) 2g - 1a = 3p in 3g Bloomington Thunder
LEE, Mike (LD) 0g - 4a = 4p in 14g Penicton Vees
O'DONNELL M (RD) 0g - 1a = 1p in 6g Cedar Rapids Rough Riders
LEKKAS, S (G) 1-3-0 in 4 game 0.902 sv% 3.04 GAA Souix Falls Stampede

[UVM Cat in Texas]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

On to the weekend... at UConn and then a home and home with UMA. On paper this should be a nice 6 league points to solidify the early top spot in the league. Out of the three however I think UConn is the game that makes me the most nervous. UConn is now 2-5-4 overall, which doesn't look that great until you realize that of the 5 losses 4 have been by 2 goals or less and 3 by a single marker. On top of that they have wins against QU and BC with a tie against BU, and obviously played a very close game with the Cats early on. Nichols is 2nd in the league in Sv% and 4th in GAA and appears to be able to steal a game.

Hopefully the Cats come out with some intensity and get things going early on. UMA on Tuesday is going to be a rough game with 3 games in 4 days, thankfully its UMA though and not UML...

The 6 points would put the Cats in the driver's seat early in league play, and go a long way toward solidifying a spot in the top 4 come the end of the season. These are games they "should" win but, frankly, they all make me a bit nervous. As we all know, UConn's been a big surprise, and even UMass has looked fairly decent at times this year. If the Cats can finally start putting some pucks in the net, they should be fine. However, continuing to win low-scoring games is probably not a sustainable formula. Will be interesting to see who gets the start in goal tonight. Go Cats Go.

[snwbrdr]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

The 6 points would put the Cats in the driver's seat early in league play, and go a long way toward solidifying a spot in the top 4 come the end of the season. These are games they "should" win but, frankly, they all make me a bit nervous. As we all know, UConn's been a big surprise, and even UMass has looked fairly decent at times this year. If the Cats can finally start putting some pucks in the net, they should be fine. However, continuing to win low-scoring games is probably not a sustainable formula. Will be interesting to see who gets the start in goal tonight. Go Cats Go.

These are the must win games - over teams that are not as good. They have to win them and rack up the points because the last three weekends are going to be rough..... The difference between a good team and a mad or mediocre team is winning the winnable games. They did not get that done at Notre Dame but otherwise have done well in that category.....

Go Cats

[snwbrdr]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

Well that was ugly. Got out skated. Did not execute. Friday night blah. More Games like that will cost them tourney bid if they repeat.

[Cat lover]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

Looks like I picked the wrong game to watch this weekend. Yikes!!!

So far VT is 3-3-1 on the road in league and with 8 of the last 12 league games at home gotta like what they have done so far.
A .500 record on the road in this league isnt something to sneeze at.

[Patman]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

that score... its so beautiful

[CTcatamount]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

Uconn Game:

The team was so flat Friday, it was painful to watch. We were slow out there on the ice and they took the physical battle as well.

The positives were the cycle game in the offensive zone and Santa was solid in goal. I'm not sure why we didn't keep trying to play on the boards in the offensive zone as Uconn was packing the center of the D zone but would often lose their man/ the puck along the wall.

Uconn was disciplined defensively and moved the puck out of their zone very well. We struggled on the forecheck and the defense continually failed to keep the puck in while pinching... which led to some good scoring chances on the break. Also Nichols (I think) their keeper was really solid.

Random Uconn bashing:
The 530 start was a complete nightmare (as I'm sure most people thought it would be). Traffic in Hartford is usually pretty terrible around rush hour, and nobody I know was able to make the start of the game. The crowd was large and silent until the last minute when they really got into it. Pep band was played through the speakers... bush league!

[CTcatamount]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

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Umass Game:

The picture says it all. Total domination. Hopefully we come out strong on Tuesday and don't look past these guys... clearly they are going to play better than they did last night.

Random Umass bashing:

First time I've ever seen ushers/ rink management tell a fan to stop ringing a cowbell at a college hockey game... said fan was me. I took it well and stopped ringing, but for the rest of the first period I was pretty annoyed and did a fair amount of yelling/ and razzing (though kept it clean). Usually I sit relatively quiet at games and ring the bell instead of clapping, but decided to show them that being "loud, proud, and clean" is way more annoying than my bell.

Random Umass positives:

Sometimes these out of hand games get ugly, and this one didn't...

After the first I moved to an empty part of the student section and enjoyed the Cats performance quietly, the students that attended the game stayed in good spirits until it was 6-1 which impressed me. Also no Umass fans got in my face about the 1st period yelling, and a few stopped me between periods/ after the game to say they thought it was pretty lame to stop me.

Great food and beer at the Amherst Brewing Co. before the game.

[jcarter7669]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

I was nervous about UConn... that's unfortunately an opportunity lost.

The win against UMass... well what is there to say when you blow out an opponent that badly. I hope the UConn lesson is still fresh in their minds and they don't let up in this second game against UMA. Hopefully some of the Frosh that got their first points will have gotten the monkey off their back and start contributing more offensively. The team needs to be able to score on a more consistent and regular basis. I expected Petruzzelli to me more of a threat, and after 10 games with a single assist he finally got his first goal, and then a second. Hopefully breaking the ice will get him going as well as others. Mckinney too...

The Cats definitely need to pick up points when they are available, being in 1st place is nice but we have played a lot more games then most other teams. Definitely need these last two points heading into the upcoming stretch of OOC games. But, I do like where this team is... they can sustain this momentum and keep on rolling through that OOC schedule and they will be in good shape.

[BTV802]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

Almost spit out my beer when I saw that UMass score...Anybody have a link to video of highlights? UMass athletic dept does not seem to have it together posting that kind of thing on the web.

[snwbrdr]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

yeah, I think it is appropriate to be worried about tomorrow night, Umass is going to be working their tails off for retribution and pride and the Cats will probably think its going to be easy. Never much energy in the building with the kids gone. Hopefully the cats move their feet and secure two more points in this first half, which concludes tomorrow..... They really have played the easiest teams in the league except PC, it only gets harder in 2015.... Go Cats.

[Jayden_Stoff]

Re: UVM 2014-2015: Let's Play 10 Games in Massachusetts this Season

yeah, I think it is appropriate to be worried about tomorrow night, Umass is going to be working their tails off for retribution and pride and the Cats will probably think its going to be easy. Never much energy in the building with the kids gone. Hopefully the cats move their feet and secure two more points in this first half, which concludes tomorrow..... They really have played the easiest teams in the league except PC, it only gets harder in 2015.... Go Cats.

I wouldn't consider ND one of the easy teams. I think it's plenty realistic for UVM to finish in the top half. Wondering if NE and BC will get their game together by the time we play them. I like a good test but would also like the league points and don't want the negative impacts to the Pairwise of losing to BC or NE at this point. There are a lot of games left to enjoy but I expect this is a tournament team.