Nescac '12-'13

[NESCAC Fan]

Defense and goaltending will take you a long way in this game.......Amherst a winner at Bowdoin and Trinity handles Williams; both being road wins. Right now Trinity is playing as well as any team in the NESCAC with some serious quality wins and a solid formula for success. How does Hamilton get beat by 4 goals at Colby after Wesleyan piles on 11 last week? Middlebury has picked up the pace and will be a threat down the stretch as usual. Cardinals are pretenders. Tufts has thrown in the towel. It's going to be a wild final weekend of play come the middle of the month.

Greason has Trinity playing structured disciplined hockey NTDP style. He learned well from a perenial winner. How does Hamilton lose? Easy. Players not required to put in any effort or even put hockey above social activities. Maybe coach learned wrong lessons at a perenial loser.

[EastCoastBias]

Re: Nescac '12-'13

Greason has Trinity playing structured disciplined hockey NTDP style. He learned well from a perenial winner. How does Hamilton lose? Easy. Players not required to put in any effort or even put hockey above social activities. Maybe coach learned wrong lessons at a perenial loser.

And the Continentals remain very much in the hunt for a playoff spot! Their schedule isn't favored going forward and I think ConColl will pass them for 7th or 8th. Hamilton should sneak into 8th because of Colby's inability to pick up a minimum of 4pts between now and Feb 16. Last year was excusable given the off-season changes, but it seems the team is regressing....badly. Camels to play hard but just don't have the talent depth to stay with the top 5 teams.

[canadianhockeyguy]

Re: Nescac '12-'13

Greason has Trinity playing structured disciplined hockey NTDP style. He learned well from a perenial winner. How does Hamilton lose? Easy. Players not required to put in any effort or even put hockey above social activities. Maybe coach learned wrong lessons at a perenial loser.

Come on, West Point lost a lot of games because they didn't have much talent. I'd bet a lot of money that they didn't lose because they put more emphasis on social activities than hockey. I bet Hamilton would be doing at little bit better with Houk, Anderson, and Williams (who all took off when Bazin left) - and Dimare and Matheson not out with injuries.

[NESCAC Fan]

Re: Nescac '12-'13

Sorry, did not mean to imply That the cadets in anyway allow social activities to interfere with their obligations.

[EastCoastBias]

Re: Nescac '12-'13

Observations on the smartest conference in D3..........

Wesleyan finds defensive religion and grinds out a 0-0 score vs Williams = blown chance for the Ephs to stay with 2pts of first place Bowdoin;
Amherst cruising at 3-0 vs Colby heading into the 3rd period coming off a huge road win at Bowdoin only to give up 2 goals in 5 seconds (what, shot in off the center ice face-off??) and 3 goals in under 4-mins = blown chance to move up to 4th place;
Trinity's Ben Coulthard turns away 35 shots while your teamates get 2 goals on only 14 total shots = a blown chance to take advantage of splendid goal play and take over 2nd place outright;

Going to be a fun couple of weeks down the strecth.........

[NESCAC Fan]

Re: Nescac '12-'13

Will be a very interesting 2 weeks. At the top of the bracket, Bowdoin seems to have the easiest road playing one top 4 team, 2 bottom 4 teams and a 5-6 team. Trinity may have the second best sched playing 1 bottom 4, 1 top 4 and a 5-6 twice. Middlebury and Williams play each other twice and Amherst both once.

The bottom 4 teams all have a shot and it all depends on momentum. Tufts, CC and Colby have a fairly equal path each playing two bottom 4 teams twice, a 5-6 team once and a top 4 once. Hamilton has 2 vs top 4 and 2 vs bottom 4.

[petrietodonovan]

Re: Nescac '12-'13

Observations on the smartest conference in D3..........

Wesleyan finds defensive religion and grinds out a 0-0 score vs Williams = blown chance for the Ephs to stay with 2pts of first place Bowdoin;
Amherst cruising at 3-0 vs Colby heading into the 3rd period coming off a huge road win at Bowdoin only to give up 2 goals in 5 seconds (what, shot in off the center ice face-off??) and 3 goals in under 4-mins = blown chance to move up to 4th place;
Trinity's Ben Coulthard turns away 35 shots while your teamates get 2 goals on only 14 total shots = a blown chance to take advantage of splendid goal play and take over 2nd place outright;

Going to be a fun couple of weeks down the strecth.........

Amen to that. Circular firing squad at the top of the conference keeps the Polar Bears in the lead. With Middlebury v. Williams home and home next weekend while Bowdoin travels to Trinity and Wesleyan it'll be interesting to see of Amherst can regain some traction. They've got Tufts and Conn Coll so they'd be in a good position to pick up points while the others split the weekend.

[EastCoastBias]

Re: Nescac '12-'13

Things are tightening up!!!

Midd splits home and home with Williams (1-2-1 last 4.....). Amherst gets critical 2pts at ConnColl with Tufts on tap (2 more pts?). Bowdoin ties Wesleyan (what is the Cardinals secret vs Polar Bears?). Trinity rolls at Colby (will the Bantams finish 2nd in the standings?) Snow caused weekday games coming up before showdown weekend.

[EastCoastBias]

Re: Nescac '12-'13

Middlebury and Williams have played 16 games and are tied in the standings at 22pts behind the Polar Bears. Both teams play Amherst and Hamilton next weekend to finish up. All other teams have played 15 games. Can't see Bowdoin losing to Tufts and ConnColl, but Trinity could be a problem, especially in CT whenever they get together. I'll give Amherst a win at Tufts tomorrow since they have been merciless in their last 3 games vs the Jumbos. After 16 games the Jeffs should have 22pts tied with Midd and Williams for 2nd spot going into top 4 or out situation next weekend. Trinity has the Bears and a home and home vs Wesleyan. The Cardinals are stuck in 6th place win, lose or draw their next 3. That could be good news for the Bantams if the Cards interest level requires them to play injury free in anticipation of the quarterfinal round. If so, Trinity will has good chance to finish 2nd in the conference. Hamilton dropped one to Tufts today letting the Jumbos and Mules in with a chance to grab 8th spot. Continentals have Midd and Williams up next, so forget it, they are done with 8pts on the year. Who knows Colby at Tufts Feb 16 could be for 8th place and the reward to be canon fodder at Bowdoin in round 1. The Camels, I think, can do what is needed to finish 7th as they hold the advantage record-wise against Tufts are simply better than the Mules.

So where we? Williams gets a great win at home vs the Panthers only to give it back today at Kenyon and appear to have cooled off at the wrong time of the year. They will face a determined Lord Jeff squad bent on revenge from an earlier loss in their ancient rivalry. Middlebury will be seeking to avenge an earlier loss to Amherst, but the Jeffs seem to have them figured out winning the last 4 contests, so 1pt at Orr would be a good result. Trinity has too much defense for Wesleyan and I'm not sure the Cards will be 100% committed anyway. Bowdoin should do enough stay on top even if their focus wanes. In the end I'm speculating the standings will be as follows at 7pm on Feb 16:

Bowdoin
Trinity
Amherst
Middlebury
Williams
Wesleyan
Conn Coll
Colby

Speculatory comments are welcome and feel free to disagree.

[d3follower]

Re: Nescac '12-'13

Hamilton plays Conn College on Monday so could pick up 2 more points to get to 10 before it closes out with Middlebury and Williams. If it beats Conn College (not a given at all), I think that Hamilton staggers into the eighth spot.

[EastCoastBias]

Re: Nescac '12-'13

Hamilton plays Conn College on Monday so could pick up 2 more points to get to 10 before it closes out with Middlebury and Williams. If it beats Conn College (not a given at all), I think that Hamilton staggers into the eighth spot.

Thanks, missed that. Hamilton has life after all. Still think the Mules sneak into 8th.

[EastCoastBias]

Re: Nescac '12-'13

And right on que, the Continentals find form and take out the Camels 7-3 in New London. Who knew??

Amherst 3 Tufts 1 after 2. Watching the Jumbo webcast. No audio and camera is not focusing on the scoreboard......kinda painful compared to some other NESCAC webcasts. It was 1-0 Tufts after 1 and the Jeffs opened up for 3 in the 2nd.

[EastCoastBias]

Re: Nescac '12-'13

4-1 Amherst half way through the 3rd. Jumbos are cooked.

[neumyer]

Does anyone know if the Bowdoin-Trinity game that was postponed on 2/9 will be made up? It seems crucial to the final standings.

[polarbear2]

Nescac '12-'13

Does anyone know if the Bowdoin-Trinity game that was postponed on 2/9 will be made up? It seems crucial to the final standings.

the question of the week...been waiting on the answer myself