Re: 10/23 UVM at Merrimack : Game 1
Having attended 3 of the UVM/MC games in the past 2 years, the physicological advantage of this facility is really there. Only now, MC has the talent in players to use it to their advantage where in the past, maybe not so much.
UVM players talk about how shallow the corners are. Well if this is your home rink, you are used to it. The coaches probably send their forwards to forecheck the opposing team's defensemen harder. Sure looked like they did...
There were years when I wished to God that we'd had any forecheck whatsoever. I think this is the sort of thing that matters when the difference between two teams is small.
Then again, once visiting players and coaches have noticed it, they could switch to a more aggressive forecheck and the shallow corners would be the same for both teams. Incidentally, there were always problems in the corners with rough ice, especially near the Zamboni doors on the NE side. By all reports from MC's players, this has been addressed. The ice bed and compressors were both replaced this past offseason, and in MikeM's podcast, the team captain Bowen noted that this isn't a problem anymore in the corners.
Of course, some NCAA teams have Olympic size rinks which no doubt they adapt their style (and perhaps even their recruiting) to fit, which benefits them in their home games and I think has a much bigger effect on how the game is played. No one seems to be going on a campaign to standarize rink sizes due to unfair advantage, though.
Did not notice it until last night but the MC bench stretches from blue line to blue line. Could not help but to think that when they have a forward going to the bench, the next one jumps on the ice and presto...a breakaway if the puck is in the right place.
Last night, they had 3-4 breakaways, getting behind the UVM D.
It's been awhile since I saw a game at BC, so I don't know if this has been changed, but that rink had a similar issue regarding the placement of benches and penalty boxes, such that visiting coaches were actually entitled to swap ends during the third period in order to equalize things. I tend to think that there are at least some parameters, or at least league approvals, that cover this sort of thing.
As for the breakaways, I heard in the interviews and during the broadcast that MC was trying to stretch out the rink and was keeping a forward hanging around in midice a lot of the time, so I'm not certain bench position is necessarily a factor.
Again, it is an advantage and Dennehy is smart enough to use it.Good for him.
Make no mistake, this MC team is good and getting better. Losing 14 - 1 goal games last year shows that. Talent level up again this year with some of the freshmen. Going to North Dakota, playing in a facility like they have (compared to MC) and only losing the 2nd game by a goal tells me MC is good. The fact they played and competed (in score, not in shots) with that good North Dakota team tells alot. North Dakota has gone on to destroy Minnesota (even though one game was a tie) and beat up on Alaska 5-0 in Alaska last night.
We hope MC is getting better. It's been a long time coming and 20 years fraught with false starts when the only kind of victories to be had were moral ones. I think what's really happened here now is that the culture of losing is starting to fade away. This roster has guys on it that haven't known years and years of nothing but losing. They don't know they're not supposed to win.
