St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

[critsports]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

A tough loss tonight. The boys played well for long stretches. Beating Ylae would have done a world of good for a top 4 finish and a jump in the Pairwise...but, it just wasn't to be. Ylae was the better team.
We had a couple of boys that had rough nights tonight.
Ylae really had us out of sync for long periods with their furious forecheck. At times it seemed like they had an extra player on the ice as they were all over us. I thought we carried most of the play in the first and were unfortunate to come out tied 1-1. The second was a sh_t show. Horrible officiating. Over the course of the game the calls favored Ylae and when we got a 5 on 3 the officials seemed hell bent on a quick make up call. Thought the call on Bayreuther at that point was weak as was the call at the end of the game with 14 seconds left. Did not care for Cooper on Ylae at all. Couple of dirty and viscious cross checks from behind!
As coach said.......to get caught with a 2 on 1 with a minute to go in the game was inexcusable.

I think when the story is written at the end of this season........whatever the ending might be.....I think our lack of production on the PP will be a major story. We just are hurting ourselves badly by not scoring. In fact tonight Ylae had better shortie opportunities when we were on the PP. A couple of players really looked out of sync tonight and I think we could have used McGoverns speed. Ylae was relentless in their forecheck.

Having watched both teams several times this season.....I really think Ylae is a better team top to bottom than Q Pac at this point in the season. Maybe not at the start but at this point in the season. We'll see what happens as they play in Hamden next weekend. I think we are going to have to hope we can hang onto that last bye at this point. Our schedule is tougher than RPI's and the odds of us slipping down appear greater than moving up anywhere from 4th. Those Dartmouth/Harvard games loom large and are going to be tough one's. Gotta get by Brown first which is never easy.

 

[SluStatsMan]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

I think when the story is written at the end of this season........whatever the ending might be.....I think our lack of production on the PP will be a major story. We just are hurting ourselves badly by not scoring. In fact tonight Ylae had better shortie opportunities when we were on the PP.

As bad (and sometimes porous, as was the case tonight) as our PP is, our offensive production tonight was actually pretty impressive, scoring three goals on a team that almost never allows three goals. And for the season, our offensive production is second in the ECAC. What concerns me more is the drop in the PK's effectiveness. It's still very good for the season overall, at 84.9%, but it's not nearly as good as it was earlier in the season. Certainly a better PP would help, but I'll take a top-flight PK over a good PP.

Also, yeah, we're missing McGovern's speed and spark. It'd be nice if we could have all of our top forwards healthy at the same time for once.

 

[sshablak]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

Where is everyone? Huge weekend for you guys, control your own destiny for a first round bye. Good luck and I don't want to play you guys in the first round.

 

[critsports]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

What a gutsy win tonight. Down 2-0, Hayton not having his best night and fighting things a bit........and they boy's put up 5 straight goals and clinch a bye in the first round of the playoffs. Very, very nice win. I'll have to throw down a mea culpa. I pretty much wrote off a top 4 finish about a month ago after that ugly start to the second half. So I'm eating crow tonight.
The Harvard game takes on more significance now with tonight's win. Any chance of an at large bid to the NCAA's will likely rest with a win or loss tomorrow night against the Crimson.

 

[LTsatch]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

Congrats on the bye.

 

[sshablak]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

Congrats on the win and bye. You guys have been streaky this year and are on one now, could be very interesting going forward.

 

[SluStatsMan]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

Congrats on the win and bye. You guys have been streaky this year and are on one now, could be very interesting going forward.

Thanks, and huge thanks to the Raiders for sealing the deal for us. I really hope they say goodbye to Starr on a high note with another win tonight.

 

[Harp 34]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

Nice comeback win last night, keep the momentum going....to Tampa : )

 

[SLUdad]

Good job! This was not the team I saw at the Gut in Dec or at Hanover in Jan. Thank you to Colgate, Union and, yes, even Clarkson. Now lets get third

 

[TimU]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

Disappointing to lose, but I felt like the team deserved better than it got tonight. I am very sure Harvard was not 3 goals better, and I think if we had gotten any bounces at all (or if some calls had gone our way) we easily could have won that one. At the end of the day, SLU did very well to get into the top 4 and the bye is the most important thing. Very good second-half run, and I like the way the Saints look going into the playoffs.

 

[critsports]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

Well......we will have to wait for the experts to weigh in on Pairwise implications and such. However my gut tells me that our only path to a postseason bid at this point will be winning out in the ECAC tourney. Have to say........while everything went right for us in all the games Friday night. Saturday night seems to have been the opposite. I kid you not when I say I can't imagine a worse match up for us in the playoffs than drawing Clarkson. It's one thing to have to win a round to get to Lake Placid.......but to have to win against your rival (who always seems to play us well and more often than not outplay us).....well that is the worst possible outcome. Then to boot......we seem to match up better against Q....now we have to get by Harvard a team we have not yet beaten this year. Ylae must be feeling the same way in the same bracket as Q Pac.....however, Ylae can console themselves with already being in the NCAA tournament should they again not get by Q Pac in the ECAC Tourney.
Grrrrrrrr! Not happy with how this played out.

 

[hockeyplayer1015]

Well......we will have to wait for the experts to weigh in on Pairwise implications and such. However my gut tells me that our only path to a postseason bid at this point will be winning out in the ECAC tourney. Have to say........while everything went right for us in all the games Friday night. Saturday night seems to have been the opposite. I kid you not when I say I can't imagine a worse match up for us in the playoffs than drawing Clarkson. It's one thing to have to win a round to get to Lake Placid.......but to have to win against your rival (who always seems to play us well and more often than not outplay us).....well that is the worst possible outcome. Then to boot......we seem to match up better against Q....now we have to get by Harvard a team we have not yet beaten this year. Ylae must be feeling the same way in the same bracket as Q Pac.....however, Ylae can console themselves with already being in the NCAA tournament should they again not get by Q Pac in the ECAC Tourney.
Grrrrrrrr! Not happy with how this played out.

Mike, with the 1/4 and 2/3 match ups for Placid (assuming no upsets), we would be slated against Q for the semis. Well, Q would get the "lowest remaining seed" for the rest of the playoffs. They will not see Yale until possibly Lake Placid Championship.

The only way we would see Harvard in LP semis is if Yale bows out in the QF's in 2 weeks, while the other bye teams win.

 

[critsports]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

Mike, with the 1/4 and 2/3 match ups for Placid (assuming no upsets), we would be slated against Q for the semis. Well, Q would get the "lowest remaining seed" for the rest of the playoffs. They will not see Yale until possibly Lake Placid Championship.

The only way we would see Harvard in LP semis is if Yale bows out in the QF's in 2 weeks, while the other bye teams win.

Well that's at least a little bit encouraging. I always look at those brackets (and seeing as I played competitive tennis for 40 years) assume its a draw like in tennis where re-seeding doesn't occur and the bracket plays out. Still HATE the match up though.

 

[hockeyplayer1015]

Well that's at least a little bit encouraging. I always look at those brackets (and seeing as I played competitive tennis for 40 years) assume its a draw like in tennis where re-seeding doesn't occur and the bracket plays out. Still HATE the match up though.

I don't like the Clarkson match up, but really, none of the others are cakewalks, either. Cornell has been slumping lately, sure. But Gillam can turn a playoff series on his own. Same with RPI and Kasdorf. Dartmouth has been pretty hot since the new year, and Clarkson a bit better.

I'm sure some of the guys are banged up and hopefully the bye week can get everybody healthy and rested. We've made Appleton a tough place to play lately, and hopefully that continues.

 

[TimU]

I don't like the Clarkson match up, but really, none of the others are cakewalks, either. Cornell has been slumping lately, sure. But Gillam can turn a playoff series on his own. Same with RPI and Kasdorf. Dartmouth has been pretty hot since the new year, and Clarkson a bit better.

I'm sure some of the guys are banged up and hopefully the bye week can get everybody healthy and rested. We've made Appleton a tough place to play lately, and hopefully that continues.

Toughest opponent. And losing would be extra painful.

But winning would be extra sweet.

 

[joecct]

Toughest opponent. And losing would be extra painful.

But winning would be extra sweet.

(1) Good luck to the ladies tbis afternoon.
(2) Lord willing, see you in 2 weeks! Please assure us that no McKenzies will be in the building.

 

[Saints#1]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

I don't like the Clarkson match up, but really, none of the others are cakewalks, either. Cornell has been slumping lately, sure. But Gillam can turn a playoff series on his own. Same with RPI and Kasdorf. Dartmouth has been pretty hot since the new year, and Clarkson a bit better.

I'm sure some of the guys are banged up and hopefully the bye week can get everybody healthy and rested. We've made Appleton a tough place to play lately, and hopefully that continues.

I'm not happy at all to be potentially playing Clarkson in the quarterfinals. Win or lose, I will be an absolute basket-case by the end of the weekend! I remember the 2010 playoff series at Appleton and it was a wild and crazy weekend. That was when the students were out and it was a first round playoff series. This time the students (just ours) will be around and I can imagine that will make it an even more intense weekend. Let's just hope the Clarkson/Princeton series is an all out battle. Maybe Princeton can some how take them to three games, maybe even knock them off (highly doubtful). The rest will serve us well and I am holding out hope for the upcoming series as teams with a bye typically do well. I have seen several teams limp into the playoffs, sneak into the final bye slot and just with that week off to rest, recover, regroup and practice they come out on fire ... Hopefully the same happens with us. Let's Go Saints!!!

 

[SluStatsMan]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

I don't like the Clarkson match up, but really, none of the others are cakewalks, either. Cornell has been slumping lately, sure. But Gillam can turn a playoff series on his own. Same with RPI and Kasdorf. Dartmouth has been pretty hot since the new year, and Clarkson a bit better.

I'm sure some of the guys are banged up and hopefully the bye week can get everybody healthy and rested. We've made Appleton a tough place to play lately, and hopefully that continues.

Agreed on Gillam and Kasdorf, but among teams 4-8, Dartmouth would have been the easiest opponent by far. They were hot in January, but they have not been good since then. From the last weekend in January on, they went 4-6, with their wins coming against the teams that finished 6th, 10th, 11th, and 12th. And they barely beat us in Hanover when we were still trying to break out of our slump. If we were playing them, I would be very confident of beating them. RPI and Cornell, I would still be pretty confident, goalies notwithstanding. CCT is far tougher than any of them -- easily the hottest team outside the top 4. They've played one bad game (Brown) since mid-January. (I think Casey Jones is a shoo-in for coach of the year, btw, given that Everybody Hates Rand.) And our home ice advantage is vastly diminished by playing them. At least their students will be on break that weekend. I think that series is a tossup. But if our guys play the way they did this weekend, I think we'll beat them.

As for the Pairwise, my gut feeling is that we might still have a very slim chance of getting the last at-large spot if we sweep the quarters and win the semis, but I think it would require that Michigan Tech gets into the top 14 and wins the WCHA tournament (and there are no low-ranked champions in other leagues aside from the obligatory AHA), so that the #15 team gets the last at-large bid. In other words, yeah, we'd better win out! Ironically, I think winning the championship might be the one thing that would get us into at-large territory, in which case we wouldn't need the at-large bid.

 

[Saints#1]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

Well, looks like Clarkson came back from down 2-0 to Princeton to pickup the 3-2 double overtime victory in game 1 from Potsdam. Was hoping Princeton could have held on and won that game making that series go to a possible 3rd game. Who knows maybe they can surprise Clarkson and force a game 3 tonight, but at least they had to play double overtime and make them work hard for it. At least that is something to be positive about here, as I really don't want to play Clarkson in the next round, AT ALL!!!

 

[Saints#1]

Re: St. Lawrence University Skating Saints - 2015-2016

Clarkson it is. Both games are already sold out too, so it'll be a wild weekend! Let's Go Saints!!