"Look Who Gettin' Hungry..."
Midd defeated Conn 5-3 in New London on Tuesday in a spirited and competitive game especially for two teams tipping the scales under .500. I thought it was an entertaining up and down game for 1.5 Periods. However, Midd's 2nd Goal of the game in the 2nd Period to even things up 2-2 seemed to sort of sap the mentality of Conn. This can happen when you are on losing streaks and they looked frustrated and not willing to deal with the adversity that they knew was coming. Losing can wear you down mentally but you gotta try to be as resilient as you can. Midd's 2nd Goal to even things up was frustrating for Conn because it came off a rebound as Midd's #12 Cole Joslin got on the inside of Conn defenseman #17 Eric Fournier and beat him into position right on the post and Fournier could not move him. The rebound was easily buried by Joslin. Nice play by Midd #2 Jack Clarner to drive the net and shoot to get things started for Joslin's Goal and frankly the best effort on the Goal did not even show up on the stat sheet. #29 Matt Myers started the whole play in the neutral zone when he played #2 on the weak side to catch Conn on its heels and late.
As we entered the 3rd Period the score was 2-2. Anyone's game. Until the actual game started. I have no idea what was said in between periods to either team but Midd flat out came to play and Conn did not. Midd had all the energy and positive vibes after scoring 17 seconds into the Period off of another rebound Goal that came from a 2v1 as Junior Captain D #18 Bret Pastor got his 1st Goal of the year. Midd started the Period with Junior Captain and their scoring leader #23 Emack Bentley 4-7-11 at LW, C #22 Capello and Frosh #77 Wyatt Pastor 1-2-3 at RW. Conn gave the Puck over in the Neutral Zone as Capello got a hold of the puck and played the Frosh Pastor on the strong side boards. Pastor somehow squeezed the puck down the Ice past Conn's #5 Radochia who was on Pastor like glue to Emack who was moving off puck to the opposite wing. So you now have the LW Emack with the puck on the RW Half Boards, Capello charging towards Goal from the Neutral Zone to create the 2v1 as he noticed Radochia was 2 skates behind the play and now uh oh big bro Brett Pastor is trailing right behind Capello on Goal. Emack had his eyes up with the Puck on his stick the entire time and flicked it right to Capello charging in on Goal but Conn's G #30 Cam Fernandez made the Save. The veteran Pastor who was trailing right behind Capello buried the wide open rebound. Very smart to trail your teammate to goal on any odd man rushes. I mean it was like Capello was making a trail with Pastor coming in right behind. A Rebound bonanza.
Midd's 4th Goal was all Frosh. #29 Matt Myers athletically keeping the Puck alive right near the Blue Line after a blocked shot and then unselfishly played #3 Andrew Malatesta for the easy finish and then Malatesta ignored him in "the celey". As if Malatesta did all the work and Myers is just joining "the celey" as the last guy in. Ridiculous. That's a favor owed. Seeyou need to keep track of these things.
Midd's 5th Goal was all #98 Antoine Belisle 2-4-6 who works hard and does everything right and with speed plus can change the direction of a game with one hit. He does not let opponents off easy when he is a Puck hunting but will accumulate Pens with his aggressiveness . Belisle scored his 1st and 2nd Goal's of the season against Conn and needs one more to match his Frosh year. This Goal was a fantastic off Puck read that got him free in the slot with space to shoot and he scored. Completly lost his defender.
Conn's Goalie #31 Cam Fernandez got chased for the 2nd straight Game as #1 Sean Dynan replaced him after the 5th Goal. Personally I do not know what happened to the Senior #35 Mike McHale as I thought he played well v Colby and was surprised when he was not starting at Tufts the next game because he looked the most confident in that Goal to my eyes. Of course my eyes mean nothing but anyway maybe he got injured / Covid. Either way Conn needs to pick one Goalie now and stick with him the rest of the way and the Senior would be where I am going.
Midd PK:
Against Conn Midd was using a Passive 1-3 Neutral Zone ForeCheck on the kill. #23 Emack Bentley the "1" and then three good puck retrievers and stick handlers as your "3" in order. #22 Capello, #3 Malatesta and #18 Pastor. 2nd Line was #98 Belisle for Emack Bentley with #12 Joslin, #6 Dubinsky and #33 Mangan. This is like a Prevent Defense so no stretch passes but the Top guy is the most important as he needs to create as much pressure as he can or the opponent will have the Neutral Zone to work and build up their attack and speed.
"Tough Start"
Middlebury got off to a tough start this season by having all their games cancelled except two in the 1st Half of the year because of Covid. My guess is their practices during this time, if they were even having practice to begin with, was a hodgepodge of players coming and going with the Covid. So with no games and sporadic practices for two months this team of whippersnappers really began their season on Jan 1st. That means they have now played 17 Games in 45 Days which is a Game every 2.7 Days on avg which means even now they really have not had a chance to get 3 Days straight of Full Practice time because of Games, Walk Thru's and Days off. That is a challenging environment to procure real player development and fix bad habits. It would also be hard to implement team tactics and set plays with a different set of players at each practice. Midd is one of the more inexperienced teams in the league(only 3 listed Seniors on the roster) however they do have a core of veterans and reclassified JR's. Midd has a lot of guys that have reclassified and that is a good sign of commitment to the program and hunger that the players have to want to keep playing and improving. All of a sudden though these veterans are starting to gel nicely with the hungry ankle biters. This has given Midd the wherewithal to play their most consistent Hockey of the season at just the right time. They sit in 10th Place at 4-12-3(3-11-2) but have Won 2 straight Road Games to improve to 2-5-1 on the Road with 2 more games at Amherst and at Hamilton to finish out the regular season. This is perfect preparation for a Conference Tournament as Midd will be plenty comfortable to play its game on the Road by the time the Puck drops for the two Friday Night Play-In Games.
They have had some growing pains Defensively, in Goal and especially moving the puck out of their D-Zone with all the giveaway's. Every opponent that I have seen play Midd is on an aggressive forecheck to put early pressure on their D-Men and force turnovers. From what I have seen and I saw them Live at Williams on Saturday they have improved in all three of these areas. Defensively they look much more organized and focused with not nearly the amount of mistakes that were happening early on in the year. In Goal Midd had been using both 6'3 210lb Reclassified Soph #31 Jake Horoho and the 6'1 190lb reclassified JR #1 Adam Wisco and each play a different type of Game and that is good to have, however Horoho looks like for now he has won the job to finish the year starting in 5 straight Games after relieving Wisco 25 seconds into the 2nd Period at Home v Conn at the end of January. I was literally standing 20 feet from Horoho for 2 Periods against Williams and was impressed with not only his game but his athleticism and focus. The kid is an athlete and was controlling rebounds and pouncing on them faster than I expected. I mean he saved everything that Williams threw at him. His issue from the games I have seen on the stream had been on shots from the Point with heavy screens to take him out of the play. When a Goalie is screened its a 60/40 chance the Puck will hit him for a Save or miss him for a Goal(good odds in this sport). Most Shots are coming in as hard as the shooters can rip them but the one that comes in at just one-tenth the speed is harder for him to stop. Also Love the American and Italian flags on the back of his Goalie Mask which is his way of honoring his roots. A Bowl of piping hot Pasta Pomodoro after the game would be a nice way to get into touch with your roots too but the East Greenwich, RI native is not greedy as he understands its box lunches and dining hall substance or starve.
What does Middlebury do best statistically? They Win F/O's. Winning or Losing Faceoffs can mean Winning or Losing Games in College Hockey. If Williams understood how to keep F/O statistics we would have seen a huge Middlebury Win margin as they seemingly were winning everything all game. Senior Captain #22 Tyler Capello 2-4-6, 214/377 56% Wins and Frosh sensation #78 Jin Lee 5-5-10, 164/270 for a 61% Win ratio are their "Puck-Off" warriors. Capello has taken the most F/O's on average in the league. #98 Antoine Belisle and #29 Matt Myers also are very adept at the Faceoff. The 6'1 195lb Frosh #78 Jin Lee had some game against Williams with the second "hatty" by a Nescac Player over the weekend. Lee missed out on Nescac POW because his 3rd was an EN'er. He is 2nd on the team with 50 Shots and he is a strong kid on the boards and quick on the forecheck. He has plenty of courage to get in front of the net and battle for positioning. Good young player.
Top Player Stat Line for a 4-12-3 team.
Soph #5 D Nolan Moore 16GP 1-6-7 +4.
Midd defeated Conn 5-3 in New London on Tuesday in a spirited and competitive game especially for two teams tipping the scales under .500. I thought it was an entertaining up and down game for 1.5 Periods. However, Midd's 2nd Goal of the game in the 2nd Period to even things up 2-2 seemed to sort of sap the mentality of Conn. This can happen when you are on losing streaks and they looked frustrated and not willing to deal with the adversity that they knew was coming. Losing can wear you down mentally but you gotta try to be as resilient as you can. Midd's 2nd Goal to even things up was frustrating for Conn because it came off a rebound as Midd's #12 Cole Joslin got on the inside of Conn defenseman #17 Eric Fournier and beat him into position right on the post and Fournier could not move him. The rebound was easily buried by Joslin. Nice play by Midd #2 Jack Clarner to drive the net and shoot to get things started for Joslin's Goal and frankly the best effort on the Goal did not even show up on the stat sheet. #29 Matt Myers started the whole play in the neutral zone when he played #2 on the weak side to catch Conn on its heels and late.
As we entered the 3rd Period the score was 2-2. Anyone's game. Until the actual game started. I have no idea what was said in between periods to either team but Midd flat out came to play and Conn did not. Midd had all the energy and positive vibes after scoring 17 seconds into the Period off of another rebound Goal that came from a 2v1 as Junior Captain D #18 Bret Pastor got his 1st Goal of the year. Midd started the Period with Junior Captain and their scoring leader #23 Emack Bentley 4-7-11 at LW, C #22 Capello and Frosh #77 Wyatt Pastor 1-2-3 at RW. Conn gave the Puck over in the Neutral Zone as Capello got a hold of the puck and played the Frosh Pastor on the strong side boards. Pastor somehow squeezed the puck down the Ice past Conn's #5 Radochia who was on Pastor like glue to Emack who was moving off puck to the opposite wing. So you now have the LW Emack with the puck on the RW Half Boards, Capello charging towards Goal from the Neutral Zone to create the 2v1 as he noticed Radochia was 2 skates behind the play and now uh oh big bro Brett Pastor is trailing right behind Capello on Goal. Emack had his eyes up with the Puck on his stick the entire time and flicked it right to Capello charging in on Goal but Conn's G #30 Cam Fernandez made the Save. The veteran Pastor who was trailing right behind Capello buried the wide open rebound. Very smart to trail your teammate to goal on any odd man rushes. I mean it was like Capello was making a trail with Pastor coming in right behind. A Rebound bonanza.
Midd's 4th Goal was all Frosh. #29 Matt Myers athletically keeping the Puck alive right near the Blue Line after a blocked shot and then unselfishly played #3 Andrew Malatesta for the easy finish and then Malatesta ignored him in "the celey". As if Malatesta did all the work and Myers is just joining "the celey" as the last guy in. Ridiculous. That's a favor owed. Seeyou need to keep track of these things.
Midd's 5th Goal was all #98 Antoine Belisle 2-4-6 who works hard and does everything right and with speed plus can change the direction of a game with one hit. He does not let opponents off easy when he is a Puck hunting but will accumulate Pens with his aggressiveness . Belisle scored his 1st and 2nd Goal's of the season against Conn and needs one more to match his Frosh year. This Goal was a fantastic off Puck read that got him free in the slot with space to shoot and he scored. Completly lost his defender.
Conn's Goalie #31 Cam Fernandez got chased for the 2nd straight Game as #1 Sean Dynan replaced him after the 5th Goal. Personally I do not know what happened to the Senior #35 Mike McHale as I thought he played well v Colby and was surprised when he was not starting at Tufts the next game because he looked the most confident in that Goal to my eyes. Of course my eyes mean nothing but anyway maybe he got injured / Covid. Either way Conn needs to pick one Goalie now and stick with him the rest of the way and the Senior would be where I am going.
Midd PK:
Against Conn Midd was using a Passive 1-3 Neutral Zone ForeCheck on the kill. #23 Emack Bentley the "1" and then three good puck retrievers and stick handlers as your "3" in order. #22 Capello, #3 Malatesta and #18 Pastor. 2nd Line was #98 Belisle for Emack Bentley with #12 Joslin, #6 Dubinsky and #33 Mangan. This is like a Prevent Defense so no stretch passes but the Top guy is the most important as he needs to create as much pressure as he can or the opponent will have the Neutral Zone to work and build up their attack and speed.
"Tough Start"
Middlebury got off to a tough start this season by having all their games cancelled except two in the 1st Half of the year because of Covid. My guess is their practices during this time, if they were even having practice to begin with, was a hodgepodge of players coming and going with the Covid. So with no games and sporadic practices for two months this team of whippersnappers really began their season on Jan 1st. That means they have now played 17 Games in 45 Days which is a Game every 2.7 Days on avg which means even now they really have not had a chance to get 3 Days straight of Full Practice time because of Games, Walk Thru's and Days off. That is a challenging environment to procure real player development and fix bad habits. It would also be hard to implement team tactics and set plays with a different set of players at each practice. Midd is one of the more inexperienced teams in the league(only 3 listed Seniors on the roster) however they do have a core of veterans and reclassified JR's. Midd has a lot of guys that have reclassified and that is a good sign of commitment to the program and hunger that the players have to want to keep playing and improving. All of a sudden though these veterans are starting to gel nicely with the hungry ankle biters. This has given Midd the wherewithal to play their most consistent Hockey of the season at just the right time. They sit in 10th Place at 4-12-3(3-11-2) but have Won 2 straight Road Games to improve to 2-5-1 on the Road with 2 more games at Amherst and at Hamilton to finish out the regular season. This is perfect preparation for a Conference Tournament as Midd will be plenty comfortable to play its game on the Road by the time the Puck drops for the two Friday Night Play-In Games.
They have had some growing pains Defensively, in Goal and especially moving the puck out of their D-Zone with all the giveaway's. Every opponent that I have seen play Midd is on an aggressive forecheck to put early pressure on their D-Men and force turnovers. From what I have seen and I saw them Live at Williams on Saturday they have improved in all three of these areas. Defensively they look much more organized and focused with not nearly the amount of mistakes that were happening early on in the year. In Goal Midd had been using both 6'3 210lb Reclassified Soph #31 Jake Horoho and the 6'1 190lb reclassified JR #1 Adam Wisco and each play a different type of Game and that is good to have, however Horoho looks like for now he has won the job to finish the year starting in 5 straight Games after relieving Wisco 25 seconds into the 2nd Period at Home v Conn at the end of January. I was literally standing 20 feet from Horoho for 2 Periods against Williams and was impressed with not only his game but his athleticism and focus. The kid is an athlete and was controlling rebounds and pouncing on them faster than I expected. I mean he saved everything that Williams threw at him. His issue from the games I have seen on the stream had been on shots from the Point with heavy screens to take him out of the play. When a Goalie is screened its a 60/40 chance the Puck will hit him for a Save or miss him for a Goal(good odds in this sport). Most Shots are coming in as hard as the shooters can rip them but the one that comes in at just one-tenth the speed is harder for him to stop. Also Love the American and Italian flags on the back of his Goalie Mask which is his way of honoring his roots. A Bowl of piping hot Pasta Pomodoro after the game would be a nice way to get into touch with your roots too but the East Greenwich, RI native is not greedy as he understands its box lunches and dining hall substance or starve.
What does Middlebury do best statistically? They Win F/O's. Winning or Losing Faceoffs can mean Winning or Losing Games in College Hockey. If Williams understood how to keep F/O statistics we would have seen a huge Middlebury Win margin as they seemingly were winning everything all game. Senior Captain #22 Tyler Capello 2-4-6, 214/377 56% Wins and Frosh sensation #78 Jin Lee 5-5-10, 164/270 for a 61% Win ratio are their "Puck-Off" warriors. Capello has taken the most F/O's on average in the league. #98 Antoine Belisle and #29 Matt Myers also are very adept at the Faceoff. The 6'1 195lb Frosh #78 Jin Lee had some game against Williams with the second "hatty" by a Nescac Player over the weekend. Lee missed out on Nescac POW because his 3rd was an EN'er. He is 2nd on the team with 50 Shots and he is a strong kid on the boards and quick on the forecheck. He has plenty of courage to get in front of the net and battle for positioning. Good young player.
Top Player Stat Line for a 4-12-3 team.
Soph #5 D Nolan Moore 16GP 1-6-7 +4.
Comment