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NESCAC 24-25: This time for sure!

Well, Midd manages to gather 4 points this weekend, keeping up their lose on the road / win at home record intact. This puts them tied for 5th place with Tufts, with Amherst/Williams tied for 7th, and Trinity/Bowdoin tied for 2nd.

Tufts holds the tie-breakers, so technically 5th, and Midd in 6th.

What's going to be more exciting is next weekend:

Trinity is doing the Home/Home vs last place Wesleyan, Bowdoin/Colby is hosting Tufts/Conn College, and Midd/Williams hosting Hamilton/Amherst.

There are some (very unlikely) scenario's where Midd takes 4th place and hosts a Quarterfinal. There more likely scenario's where Midd drops to 7th or 8th place,
 
Midd ended up with 4 points from the home-and-home with Willams. Could have easily been 5 or even 6, but at least they gained a two-point differential against the Ephs. A win against Amherst and they'll be in the middle of the playoff pack, in all likelihood.

I went to the Saturday night game at the Chip. Very moving, as they game was played in memory of the sister of senior Drew Malatesta, who died from brain cancer while a high schooler. The folks who lead the foundation set up in her name, the Catherine Malatesta Foundation at https://cjmfoundation.org/, did a great job introducing their mission last night. And in an awesome moment on the ice, Drew got the assist on the short-hander that put the Panthers up 2-0. He's a great young man; full props to him and his family.
 
Trying to make sense of why the standings currently show Middlebury ahead of Tufts - and if that's just an alphabetical thing or if the NESCAC head-to-head comparison isn't entirely clear.

Conference tiebreaker rules are here: https://nescac.com/tournaments/?id=525&path=micechamp

Middlebury and Tufts are level on points at 22. Middlebury's record is 7W-8L-1T and Tufts' is 7-9-0. Within that, Middlebury has no OT wins or losses and no SO wins, but has one SO loss. Tufts has one OT loss.

By the NESCAC rules, there's nothing to separate them, as Midd's SO loss and Tufts' OT loss are treated the same even though one counts as a tie.

Looking at the tiebreakers for three-way/multiple teams, the next one is record against top four teams, where Midd is currently 3-4 and Tufts is 2-4, with Midd to play Hamilton and Tufts to play Bowdoin and Colby this weekend. So wonder if they've used that.

Weirdly, Midd both needs Colby to beat Tufts to give the Panthers a bit of breathing space and needs Tufts to beat Colby to have the very slightest chance at home ice.
 
The 0-0 tie to Williams by Midd where they failed to get the extra point from the shootout could loom large in the final standings.
 
Anyone at the Midd-Amherst game last night? Did the boys implode, giving up four goals and an empty netter? Haven't seen that bad of a period all year. Bad timing, eh?
 
I was there. Yea, I don't know what happened exactly. Midd was up 3-2 at the start of the period.

Amherst was playing fast all night long and it looked like they just tired Midd out. Two goals on the 4-on-4 play and a really nice blue line snipe were what set Midd on their heels. Despite several sustained efforts they just couldn't break through the Amherst defense and goal tending.

A very different story today when Midd takes down Hamliton 4-2.
 
Well, things happen in strange ways. Middlebury has had difficulty holding leads at "winning time" and the Amherst game was no exception. I have to give credit to the Panthers for their efforts the next day against the better of the two opponents, Hamilton. I really didn't think one goal against the Continentals was going to hold up. When Midd quickly gave up the lead and were then trailing in the 3rd period. it looked like collapsing was happening all over again. But the Panthers dug in their heels and got the equalizer and then two more goals by Morehouse. They gave out what they have frequently fallen victim to. It looks like they will face Trinity in the playoffs and they have played well against the Bantams in both games this year only to implode at the end. Hopefully they will be be able to dish out more of what they gave Hamilton and end that losing streak to Trinity which is over 20 games now. Too bad they could not have prevailed against Amherst in which case the would be playing Colby, a team they have defeated twice this season.
 
As always, the NESCAC tournament has the potential to surprise and delight.

With the championship weekend coming at #1 seed Hamilton, we'll see:

#1 Hamilton v #7 Middlebury
#3 Colby v #5 Tufts

For the second straight year, the seven seed Panthers go on the road to defeat the two seed. After two competitive games against Trinity in the conference season, they put up an excellent defensive performance against one of the top scoring teams in the NESCAC. That includes holding Trinity to 0-3 on the power play. Trinity went through stretches of looking clearly superior and really pushed toward the end - and I think if you play this 10 times, Trinity wins nearly all of them. But credit to Middlebury for smart hockey in the third period to hold the lead. This became a pretty physical game, some big hits, but the Panthers kept their cool and didn't take silly penalties like they have too often this season.

Tough ask to beat Hamilton for the second time in a few weeks, and do it at Sage arena. But that's back-to-back wins against ranked opponents. And with their current record of 13-11-1, the Panthers are guaranteed to have more wins than losses for the first time since 2012-2013. The turnaround continues...

Elsewhere, Hamilton had a straightforward 5-2 win over Conn College and yet again showed they are the class of the NESCAC. #3 Colby needed two overtimes to dispatch #6 Amherst 3-2, a reminder that these Mammoths I think were better than their place in the standings indicated. And #5 Tufts surprised #4 Bowdoin in overtime, a strange Polar Bears season defined by a six-game losing streak mid-season and a four-game losing streak to end it.
 
Congratulations to Middlebury for advancing from the q-finals in similar fashion to last year. I didn’t want to stick my neck out on this one, but I felt good about the Panthers based on their play against Trinity during the regular season. My hope was that they would get a lead and hold onto it, something they had trouble with during the regular season. They got the lead on the Lee goal and made it stand up. The goaltending by Heinz was excellent, they did well in the face off department and kept penalties to a minimum. Middlebury seemed to be doing a good job of disrupting Trinity’s entry into the offensive zone and that sure helped out. It would be great to see them duplicate what they did against the Continentals most recently and with a little help in the bracket face Colby, a team they have beaten twice this year in the final. I am getting well ahead of myself there!
 
neumyer said:
Congratulations to Middlebury for advancing from the q-finals in similar fashion to last year. I didn’t want to stick my neck out on this one, but I felt good about the Panthers based on their play against Trinity during the regular season. My hope was that they would get a lead and hold onto it, something they had trouble with during the regular season. They got the lead on the Lee goal and made it stand up. The goaltending by Heinz was excellent, they did well in the face off department and kept penalties to a minimum. Middlebury seemed to be doing a good job of disrupting Trinity’s entry into the offensive zone and that sure helped out. It would be great to see them duplicate what they did against the Continentals most recently and with a little help in the bracket face Colby, a team they have beaten twice this year in the final. I am getting well ahead of myself there!
Click to expand...
Neumyer saying the quiet part out loud...

I had a degree of optimism about Trinity too. If they can replicate the match a couple weeks ago against Hamilton, it could be a good game - and I'd like to think that maybe the win at Trinity has gotten the monkey of bad away results off their back. And then against Colby if they get through, even though we've just said about Trinity that it's hard to beat a team three times in one season, anything is possible. And then...

First step is a good start against Hamilton, and then keeping it sensible if things get tough. Down 1-0 but then gave up three goals in 2 1/2 minutes last time they played at Sage, can't let yourself implode like that.

Just a few days now...
 
Middlebury falls in the second overtime to the Continentals 3-2, but still end the season with an overall winning record.

The Jumbos manage to disassemble the Colby mules 6-2. So the final tomorrow will be Hamilton vs Tufts. I'm not really sure who will win that one.
 
A tough end to the season for Middlebury - but Hamilton really was in control for much of overtime and it's hard to say they didn't deserve the win. Heinze stood on his head at times, saving 50 shots on the night.

The first winning season and the most wins for Middlebury since 2012-2013, back-to-back trips to the semifinals, and closing the season with two wins and a 2OT loss to three ranked opponents. Plenty of reasons for optimism, particularly if they can clean up fundamentals like too many penalties, a league-worst penalty kill and giving up leads.

Equally, nine seniors on the team means a significant amount of turnover. Will be curious to see how the (small - only five) juniors step up and in particular how some of the sophomores like Mack, Palombo and Morehouse continue to develop. But that's all for six months from now.

Hopefully the school is taking hockey seriously and providing the right resources, too. This should be one of Middlebury's premier sports and it's clear that the transition from Neil Sinclair to Jack Ceglarski has been a good (and overdue) one.

In the meantime, I did like this line at the end of the Middlebury recap of yesterday's game: "The Panthers await their NCAA Tournament fate when the field is announced on Sunday, March 9."
 
MikeMidd said:
A tough end to the season for Middlebury - but Hamilton really was in control for much of overtime and it's hard to say they didn't deserve the win. Heinze stood on his head at times, saving 50 shots on the night.

The first winning season and the most wins for Middlebury since 2012-2013, back-to-back trips to the semifinals, and closing the season with two wins and a 2OT loss to three ranked opponents. Plenty of reasons for optimism, particularly if they can clean up fundamentals like too many penalties, a league-worst penalty kill and giving up leads.

Equally, nine seniors on the team means a significant amount of turnover. Will be curious to see how the (small - only five) juniors step up and in particular how some of the sophomores like Mack, Palombo and Morehouse continue to develop. But that's all for six months from now.

Hopefully the school is taking hockey seriously and providing the right resources, too. This should be one of Middlebury's premier sports and it's clear that the transition from Neil Sinclair to Jack Ceglarski has been a good (and overdue) one.

In the meantime, I did like this line at the end of the Middlebury recap of yesterday's game: "The Panthers await their NCAA Tournament fate when the field is announced on Sunday, March 9."
Click to expand...
Sitting at 33 in the NPI, Panther's season is over.
 
MikeMidd said:
A tough end to the season for Middlebury - but Hamilton really was in control for much of overtime and it's hard to say they didn't deserve the win. Heinze stood on his head at times, saving 50 shots on the night.

The first winning season and the most wins for Middlebury since 2012-2013, back-to-back trips to the semifinals, and closing the season with two wins and a 2OT loss to three ranked opponents. Plenty of reasons for optimism, particularly if they can clean up fundamentals like too many penalties, a league-worst penalty kill and giving up leads.

Equally, nine seniors on the team means a significant amount of turnover. Will be curious to see how the (small - only five) juniors step up and in particular how some of the sophomores like Mack, Palombo and Morehouse continue to develop. But that's all for six months from now.

Hopefully the school is taking hockey seriously and providing the right resources, too. This should be one of Middlebury's premier sports and it's clear that the transition from Neil Sinclair to Jack Ceglarski has been a good (and overdue) one.

In the meantime, I did like this line at the end of the Middlebury recap of yesterday's game: "The Panthers await their NCAA Tournament fate when the field is announced on Sunday, March 9."
Click to expand...
I have to agree with everything MikeMidd said. The growth of the team continues. I just hope they can take it to the next level and move to the upper echelon of the NESCAC. Hockey was the premier sport and it can be that again. I hope they are bringing in enough of the right people. They are losing a lot, but bring back a core of younger players that can continue the return to relevance. I will miss Jin Lee and others like Pastor. Silverman, Wood, Brednich, Morehouse, Mack, Palumbo and others will provide the leadership in front of a proven goalie in Heinze. I am looking forward to next November and to seeing a packed rink again!
 
Congratulations to the Hamilton Continentals on their win of the NESCAC championship, their first ever. And on the upset win over NEC Nor'easters on Saturday. Best of luck against Curry next weekend.
 
Congrats to Hamilton on the win, especially after beating UNE at the Alfond! Not an easy rink to play at for any match… nevermind during the tourney
 
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