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2013-2014 Union Dutchmen - Can U Three Peat?

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Re: 2013-2014 Union Dutchmen - Can U Three Peat?

OK, that one left my head spinning. Once we showed up, the game was on and then just like that it was over. Colin was obviously ineffective tonight, I hope he's ok because he took a nasty hit last night. Sak pitched the shutout and looked steady though admittedly not greatly tested. PSU is big, actually very big, but not particularly skilled, though I do like their goaltenders. I guess $100,000,000 takes a while to show results, but no doubt they will be a force to be reckoned with, they gave us all we could handle in four games.

Many more pluses than minuses this weekend though questions still persist with holding leads, goal tending and PK. It looked like we didn't have a Ghost ;) of a chance, what can you say about him? And he is likely to get better. Can we ever be really out of a game with him on call? Vecchione had one of his best games I thought and Champ with another of his patented 1 foot goals. This team comes at you in waves...when they come to play, and is deep in character as well.
 
Re: 2013-2014 Union Dutchmen - Can U Three Peat?

If there was a movie made about this weekend, it would be entitled "Escape from Happy Valley".
 
Re: 2013-2014 Union Dutchmen - Can U Three Peat?

That game was unbelievable. What a roller-coaster. Sure didn't look good down 2-0 (or down 4-1) but give them credit for battling back. Three seconds left, hard to get much more dramatic than that.

I don't think the two wins should have been this hard to get, but hopefully they've shaken off any post-finals rust by now.

Despite getting pulled, I would be surprised if Stevens doesn't start on Friday. Do we agree on that?

See Ciampini's goal on YouTube - http://t.co/BOUHdCRkWA

Recap: http://t.co/rE53x3UiY2 (also have Tapp's postgame comments from the radio side as an .mp3)
 
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Re: 2013-2014 Union Dutchmen - Can U Three Peat?

Stevens will start if healthy, but that's just my uninformed opinion. Obviously we need to see improvement from Colin, he has a sub .900 save percentage in conference games. I think he is capable of better and I'm sure he and the staff feel he is as well. Let's also remember that we played this weekend without leading scorer (at the time as Ghost has taken the lead there) Daniel Carr who will hopefully be back in the lineup this weekend.

Union is closing out the calendar year with 3 games in its last 5 against highly ranked opponents. There are 2 on the road against no. 2 St. Cloud and one at home against no. 5 Qpac, not to mention 2 more conference games against Dartmouth and Princeton. Throw in the first game of the New Year against Quinny again and you have 4 games in a six game stretch against two of the nation's top 5 teams. This run could tell us a lot about this team with major post season implications. My feeling is that we need to win at least one or two of those games against those teams to be legitimately in the mix for NCAA consideration. It won't be early in the season any longer when these games roll around, starting with this weekend.
 
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Re: 2013-2014 Union Dutchmen - Can U Three Peat?

Stevens has proven in the past to be better than this, but that .883 save percentage has to improve.

Another area of concern is the penalty kill, which is just 76-77% or so during the five game winning streak. Obviously hasn't cost them recently, but I don't think that's a number the coaching staff is happy with. Overall, they're 44th in D1 at 78.4%.

Early weekend thoughts - shouldn't have much trouble with Princeton (they're decimated with injuries, for one thing) but the real test is going to be Saturday vs QU. That game, and the following weekend's at SCSU, will tell us just how good Union is.
 
Re: 2013-2014 Union Dutchmen - Can U Three Peat?

I'd say it was a good result this weekend, especially considering the injuries and playing on the road in front of a big crowd and a revved up team. By the time the final PWRs are tallied in March, this will count as 2 important wins on the road and doesn't matter what the quality points were. The freshmen really stepped up and filled the voids. Vecchione, Taylor & Eli were very good and Pontarelli, Henry, Gonye & Sakellaropoulos rose to the occasion. And where did Ciampini get that Gretzy move from??? You could literally see the d-man's jock strap fly off when he went around him :p!! Daniel has really upped his play this season and is great to see.

Definitely concerned with the goaltending, as Stevens just has not gotten in any consistent groove yet. Have to say I'm little nervous about the upcoming games with Qpac & St. Cloud, but I think the talent is there to do great things.
 
Re: 2013-2014 Union Dutchmen - Can U Three Peat?

Princeton Scouting Report:

They are very big .... 9 players over 200 lbs .... 13 players over 6'0"
They have beaten Dartmouth twice, both overtime games.
They have beaten Quinnipiac once.
Looks like they play two goalies, both about 3.8 and .88
We are both about .78 on the power kill :(
They are averaging 25 shots/game
They are averaging 13 penalty minutes
Pairwise they are 49th, Penn State is 50th
Their best period is the third period where they have matched opponents in scoring and have outshout them. They don't quit.
They had a terrible outing against a very very weak Michigan State Team that had only won three, two against American International and one against BU early.
Their last 6 games they are giving up 4.5 gpg, lots of PP goals.

In our last 8 match-ups against Princeton, they have not beaten us (6-0-2) and will be hungry to turn that around.
After Michigan State, they are going to put up a hell of a fight because they were really badly embarrassed, 8-2, by a weak team.

Lets not make the same mistake that Boston College made with Holy Cross. We need to take care of business on Friday. We need those two points !!!
 
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Re: 2013-2014 Union Dutchmen - Can U Three Peat?

There is some danger that we could be looking past PU to Qpac and for that reason I would have preferred to see us play them on Friday. Still I have to discount the possibility of a trap game as RB and staff and the team leaders should be able to adjust the team's focus to where it needs to be. Hopefully RPI puts a good game on Bobcats so we can tag team them... Good theory anyway.
 
Re: 2013-2014 Union Dutchmen - Can U Three Peat?

rdf8585 said:
Full highlights (HD available!) of both weekend games on the blog:

http://unionhockeyblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/video-highlights-of-weekend-sweep-at.html
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting these. BTW, notice the hand signal by the guy in the crowd after the second goal in game one (about 1:25 in), cleverly disguised as a pinky nose pick. :p

A word on the broadcasts. I watched on the Big Ten Digital Network and had to put up with the amateurish PSU radio team. They took "homers" to a new level. They even laughed when one of our guys was boarded resulting in a PSU penalty and which could have resulted in a serious injury. I'm happy to leave them in Happy Valley. By Sunday night I realized I could enhance the experience by muting the volume.
 
Re: 2013-2014 Union Dutchmen - Can U Three Peat?

In USCHO poll the ECAC has 5 of 20 teams
5
8
10
11
15
RPI just missed and St. Lawrence also mentioned.
 
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