So how different was 23-24 from 24-25? The obvious is 7 wins, 20 wins vs 13 wins. Interestingly all 7 were in conference.
I started down this path wondering if it was just 1 goal games. In some ways those can be a big swing if a team is 10-0 one year and 3-7 the next. In short that isn't it both years right around .500.
| 2024-25 | 2023-24 |
| Record Overall (it isn't L's it is T's - and 2 fewer cupcakes) | 13-15-6 | 20-15-1 |
| Record Conference (3L's & 4T's) | 5-14-5 | 12-11-1 |
| Record Overall Since Jan 1 (Both years 2W vs Princeton) | 5-11-3 | 10-9 |
| Record Conference Since Jan 1 (Similar Conf schedule - 2@ Maine and flip a MC for BU) |
| 3-11-3 | 8-9 |
Part of why this year feels so bad is the wheels fell off in January. Hiding in that 5-11-3 record is 2W to start it and 2W to finish it so 1-11-3 in the middle, demoralizing and just ugly. Yes the 2024-25 schedule was harder swapping 2 Home vs Maine to 2 on the road and swapping in a good BU team vs a bad 23-24 MC team. At the same time you would like to pick up an additional W with both Vermont games in Durham.
| 2024-25 | 2023-24 |
| 1-Goal Games | 3-4 | 5-5 |
| Overtime | 1-2-6 | 3-0-1 |
| Home (the 7 wins) | 7-7-2 | 14-4-1 |
| When Leading After 1 | 7-4 | 12-0-0 |
| When Leading After 2 | 9-2-3 | 12-1-0 |
Another reason this year has felt so bad is they were just .500 at home. We all know unless it is a banner year many fans don't go or watch the road games, they see the ones at home. Both teams only won 6 games on the road, 24-25 did find away to flip some road L's to T's and although minor (so I didn't put it here) 24-25 had a better road record.
2023-2024 was a good front running team, they got a lead and won those games. Both teams played similar games when behind (they lost) and both ended up basically .500 when tied. The 24-25 team did a pretty good job of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, they just weren't good at holding leads in the last 10 minutes of games and then they would lose in overtime. Unfortunately there are no easy stats to pull for leading with 10 minutes or 5 minutes left in the game.
| 2024-25 | 2023-24 |
| 98 | 106 |
| 98 | 90 |
| 20% | 18.9% |
| 85.7% | 80.2% |
| 2.21 | 2.88 |
| 3.04 | 2.33 |
In the end it really comes down to putting the puck in the net and keeping it out. Interesting that the shots for and against were with in 2% year over year, so statistically the change in that category is immaterial. The damage is a 16 goal swing 8 fewer for and 8 more against. The numbers in conference per game are pretty damning. I didn't go game by game and if I had to guess those 16 goals likely disappeared during the 1-11-3 stretch. The top 7 scorers came back and 8 of the top 10 and although Devlin (-4), LeClerc (-3) and Winters (-8) were off others like Cronin (+12), Ring (+7) and Lavins (+3) closed the gap. But it is scorers #8 and #9 last year which created the hole Blaisdell's 11G and Sardarians 7G those 18 goals out of the line up weren't completely made up by guys stepping up, rather the mix changed and the total shrunk, also those 2 played a bigger body game so against closer checking teams did some damage down low.
