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CNE

D

dinocoach

Registered User
With all of the maneuverings of the past off-season, the NESCAC and the CNE seemed to have remained relatively intact. CNE has added long-time members Roger Williams Uiversity to the fold this year and will welcome Salve Regina back to conference hockey play next season. The NESCAC remains as it has for years.

The CNE does boast 3 teams in the top 15, although I think that should change dramatically next week after UNE dismantled a good Curry team 5-1 at Curry. Curry is currently #2 and UNE #9. I don’t expect UNE to move up much, but who knows.

For the last few years the CNE (CCC) has been a three team conference, with teams like Suffolk, Wentworth and Nichols trying to crack that top tier. It looks like this year will be no different. I think the question will be, which one of the top three survives.There is always the possibility that Suffolk and Wentworth run off a good streak and enter the conversation.

It should be fun to watch.
 
UNE is already looking dominant. Between them, Curry, and Endicott, all three are going to be in the conversation no matter what, but taking down Curry on the road sets the bar high. Endicott should have a good start with an easy in-conference schedule plus a couple of NESCAC's, but we'll see how they hold up after the new year.
 
Since there doesn’t really seem to be a whole lot of interest in the CNE right now, I thought I’d try and wrestle up some interest. This week could be very interesting in the CNE with some teams facing opponents who would normally be “walk-overs” in years past. So, here goes: Look for Wentworth to push Endicott and, maybe, squeak out a rare win tonight at home. Also, a real question as to how Curry responds to the dismantling by UNE last week. If Suffolk get the rightt bounces and their goalie makes all the saves he should, this could be a good night for Suffolk.
 
I may have been a week off with the Suffolk prediction, but nonetheless, Suffolk is going to be a team that will have a say in the CNE conversation. I had planned to watch the Suffolk/Endicott game last night, but got sidetracked. Four unanswered goals is a pretty good statement however. Some promising games tonight with Suffolk and Endicott getting back at it at Suffolk, Curry traveling to Nichols and UNE heading to Rhode Island to play Johnson and Wales. I expect some more upsets in couple of these games.
 
dinocoach said:
I may have been a week off with the Suffolk prediction, but nonetheless, Suffolk is going to be a team that will have a say in the CNE conversation. I had planned to watch the Suffolk/Endicott game last night, but got sidetracked. Four unanswered goals is a pretty good statement however. Some promising games tonight with Suffolk and Endicott getting back at it at Suffolk, Curry traveling to Nichols and UNE heading to Rhode Island to play Johnson and Wales. I expect some more upsets in couple of these games.
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Agreed. Not a walk over at all this season...
There indeed may be a power shift happening in the CNE with Suffolk on the rise as they outshot Curry on Nov 14 and had 2 would-be goals whistled dead (made it across the goal line but out of referee's sight) in what could have been a 4-4 tie going into the game's final minutes....that and beating Endicott on the road 4-1 and tying them the next night at home (lost in shoot out). Suffolk outshot Curry and Endicott (On the road) by a wide margin and almost went shot for shot with the Gulls in the home and home finale in East Boston. The Ram's next litmus test is in early January when they play a home and home against UNE. The jury is out but the tide may be turning a little in the nationally competitive CNE.
 
For those folks who are the mathematical whizzes, and have great understanding of the NPI. UNE beat Colby 5-1 last night in the first game if the Lobster Pot Tourney. However USCHO shows the score as a tie 5-5. This has quite an impact on the NPI as last night USCHO reported the correct score and UNE was ranked 6th in the NPI. This morning with the tie being reported UNE has dropped to 15 (I think) and Colby sits at 14, one above UNE.

Can one game really have that great an impact on the NPI rankings?
 
I guess there’s not much interest in the CNE, eve though they have 3 teams in the top ten in the polls and three team in the top 15 in the NPI. They also have a conference where each team has the ability to knock off teams in the top of the conference. (Curry getting beat by JW, Suffolk beating both UNE and Endicott).

Anyone who has watched what McEachern has done a Suffolk isn’t surprised by the results, but JW beating Curry was a huge surprise. Just goes to show that the CNE is always full of surprises.

Wait until next year when Salve returns!
 
Someone sent me the link to the NPI calculation methodology and I cannot find it. Does anyone have that to share? From my limited observation of teams I've seen and their CNE results, it doesn't seem to make sense. Suffolk is 2-2-1 against the CNE "Big 3": 1-0-1 against NPI #3 Endicott, 1-1 against #9 NPI UNE (Including shutting them out in Biddeford which apparently hasn't happened in quite a while) and 0-1 against #14 NPI Curry where they outshot the Colonels (and from objective, reliable sources) had 2 legit goals not called when refs lost sight of loose pucks that crossed the line. All other things being the same, that game would have been 4-4 going to the last 2 minutes vs 4-2 where Curry scored an empty netter for the 5-2 final - i.e., winnable and more competitive than the score suggests.

I get it, "shoulda, coulda, woulda" but one thing's for sure, I'm not looking at polls any more (late to the party on that 'discovery', I know). I mean, Suffolk has not even gotten one vote in the Poll when the other CNE top 3 have been routinely ranked top 15 nationally and the Rams lead all of them with the aforementioned head to head record in the Conference with a 1st place 25 pts? Fuhgeddaboudit. Yes, Suffolk dropped four that (on paper) were very winnable that their peers didn't and a few extra-mural big names were knocked off by UNE, Endicott and Curry but still, in the poll at least, the Transitive Property of Inequality argues Suffolk should be getting something.

No problem though. It's fair to say the jury is still out on the apparent new guys knocking on the CNE Friar's Club door and the remaining games will allow them to prove their case. Looking forward to the last month of CNE play and I agree with @dinocoach (whom, based on our posts, I must have seen a few times in the Porrazzo lobby) that lots or interesting dynamics shaping up in the CNE which should be a fun ride (Watchout for JWU it looks like? and Salve is coming back? I thought bridges were damaged there.... if not burned?)
 
Leopard_Balcony_Booster said:
Someone sent me the link to the NPI calculation methodology and I cannot find it. Does anyone have that to share? From my limited observation of teams I've seen and their CNE results, it doesn't seem to make sense. Suffolk is 2-2-1 against the CNE "Big 3": 1-0-1 against NPI #3 Endicott, 1-1 against #9 NPI UNE (Including shutting them out in Biddeford which apparently hasn't happened in quite a while) and 0-1 against #14 NPI Curry where they outshot the Colonels (and from objective, reliable sources) had 2 legit goals not called when refs lost sight of loose pucks that crossed the line. All other things being the same, that game would have been 4-4 going to the last 2 minutes vs 4-2 where Curry scored an empty netter for the 5-2 final - i.e., winnable and more competitive than the score suggests.

I get it, "shoulda, coulda, woulda" but one thing's for sure, I'm not looking at polls any more (late to the party on that 'discovery', I know). I mean, Suffolk has not even gotten one vote in the Poll when the other CNE top 3 have been routinely ranked top 15 nationally and the Rams lead all of them with the aforementioned head to head record in the Conference with a 1st place 25 pts? Fuhgeddaboudit. Yes, Suffolk dropped four that (on paper) were very winnable that their peers didn't and a few extra-mural big names were knocked off by UNE, Endicott and Curry but still, in the poll at least, the Transitive Property of Inequality argues Suffolk should be getting something.

No problem though. It's fair to say the jury is still out on the apparent new guys knocking on the CNE Friar's Club door and the remaining games will allow them to prove their case. Looking forward to the last month of CNE play and I agree with @dinocoach (whom, based on our posts, I must have seen a few times in the Porrazzo lobby) that lots or interesting dynamics shaping up in the CNE which should be a fun ride (Watchout for JWU it looks like? and Salve is coming back? I thought bridges were damaged there.... if not burned?)
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Leopard, I think it has been decades since I was anywhere near the East Boston Rink, but I get your point. I have actually been expecting Suffolk to jump to the top tier of CNE for a couple of years. It always seemed that that “intangible” asset had been missing. I did see the game in Biddeford and Suffolk goalie (McNicholas?) stood on his head. He made some saves that, as Harry Sinden would say, were “Ten Bellers”. I thought they had UNE by the throat and could have dealt a near fatal blow if they could sweep the weekend.

I’m not quite sure what happened at Curry against JW, but that was quite a surprise. But this certainly shows how tough this conference can be. I expect there will be a few more surprises ahead.
 
Leopard, I think it has been decades since I was anywhere near the East Boston Rink, but I get your point. I have actually been expecting Suffolk to jump to the top tier of CNE for a couple of years. It always seemed that that “intangible” asset had been missing. I did see the game in Biddeford and Suffolk goalie (McNicholas?) stood on his head. He made some saves that, as Harry Sinden would say, were “Ten Bellers”. I thought they had UNE by the throat and could have dealt a near fatal blow if they could sweep the weekend.

I’m not quite sure what happened at Curry against JW, but that was quite a surprise. But this certainly shows how tough this conference can be. I expect there will be a few more surprises ahead.
Haha! "10 beller" I love that expression! Sanderson used to use it too. Yes...the Ram have been much more competitive in the last two season but have, in a sense, been "50 cents to a dollar short" against the established Conference iron...until this year. McNicholas (A frosh) has very much filled a huge hole left by CJ Hapward who only played his last 3 semesters of eligibility with the Rams so they effectively lost no ground in net and the first line of Giroux, O'Connell and Nolan (ALL Sophomores) has definitely help them catch up in the CNE arms race this year. These moves - in addition to the large, physical and very mobile defensemen that were brought in over last two seasons - have made Suffolk a very solid, front to back team with a few good years of eligibility to go forward with.

The Wildcats, have seen them in person twice and once on a stream and yep, JWU can definitely spoil anyone's party from here on in.
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