College Hockey:

This Week in ECAC Hockey: Nov. 13, 2008

Playing Dumb

“We’re early in the season, and we have to do a better job of being a smarter road team,” began Crimson coach Ted Donato.

Harvard dropped both Capital District games for the first time ever last weekend, falling 3-2 at Rensselaer and 3-1 at Union. Donato isn’t sweating the scoring, the special teams, or the goaltending; he just wants his players to think hockey the way they think quantum mechanics or macroeconomics. Because right now, they’re just not playing smart hockey.

“We can’t take as many penalties as we did and expect the results that we want,” he stated.

“We’ve talked about how to make changes in practice, maybe calling penalties to reinforce how the games are being called. The Crimson average over 20 penalty minutes a game in four contests (all ECAC) so far.

“It’s even amounts of both” ignorance and poor discipline, explained the NHL veteran. “On top of that, we have to do a better job with discipline, understanding how the game is being called,” referencing the oft-cited stick infractions.

Donato noted that his squad has only given up one even-strength goal, “and that was while we were pressing” for the equalizer at Union.

Fortunately, one player has been behaving brilliantly thus far: first-year goaltender Matt Hoyle. Filling in for temporarily departed Dryden-defending Kyle Richter, Hoyle “has played very solidly for us,” praised his coach.

“We don’t feel at this point … that goaltending is not allowing us to win games,” Donato added.

Self-Improvement in Troy

At 2-6-1, Rensselaer Polytechnic’s men’s ice hockey team is off to an undesirable start. It opened the year with four straight losses (five, if you count the exhibition game), but has since begun to grind away at its numerous rough edges.

Since an embarrassing 6-0 loss to UMass on October 21, at the Houston Field House no less, the ‘Tute has steadied itself to an even 2-2-1, allowing a reasonable 12 goals while scoring nine. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.

Last week, the Engineers played a trifecta: a Tuesday-Friday home-and-home with Harvard, and the Saturday nightcap against Dartmouth. The Red dropped the Election Day game in Cambridge 3-1, but bounced back with a big 3-2 Black Friday win (jersey pics here and here). Dartmouth ripped RPI 5-2 on Saturday.

“There were some positives from the week,” began third-year head coach Seth Appert. “We put ourselves in a position to win in the third period … but some decisions … are coming back to bite us. It’s not just the penalties. It’s puck-possession [too].”

Regarding the final frames, Rensselaer trailed 1-0 Tuesday, led 2-1 Friday and was down 3-2 Saturday entering the third period. They were therefore outscored 5-2 in the games’ last 20 minutes. The scoring has been tough to come by this year on the whole, but what has been especially detrimental to RPI’s cause has been its special teams.

“I give credit to Dartmouth, but we didn’t make them earn their goals,” Appert stated, citing “mental breakdowns,” specifically on the penalty kill. The Big Green scored their second, third and fourth goals on the advantage, and the fifth was into an empty net.

As for the eight power plays themselves, Appert has no quarrel with the stripes.

“I have no problem with the officiating. We need to be more disciplined … we’re taking too many ‘stick calls’. It’s one thing to stick a guy to prevent a scoring chance; it’s another thing 150 feet from your net,” he said, echoing similar comments from coaches around the league.

Despite the Saturday setback, there is reason to believe that there is some resilience wearing the red. A lot of it shone bright in the Blackout.

“I really enjoy playing the same team two games in a row,” said the coach vis-a-vis Harvard.

“The fans enjoy it, the animosity between the teams builds up. You have to make adjustments … the players know each other very well … and there’s no place to hide.

“We have one of the better fan bases in the country, and definitely one of the best in our league,” Appert said, praising Puckman’s supporters for their weekend fervor.

On the whole, the Engineers have a lot of work to do … but at least there are stirring signs of life. While RPI’s power play has come through barely 10 percent of the time overall, its success rate is at 21.1 percent in three league game so far. The penalty kill units have successfully held the fort on 52 of 59 penalties, and both goalies, Mathias Lange and Allen York, are over Appert’s .910 save percentage standard.

It’s been a while since RPI was relevant on a national scale (last NCAA appearance: 1994-95). But if AC/DC can make a comeback, why not the (much younger) ‘Tute? Might I recommend a theme song, from one to the other? (What a great freakin’ song.)

Building Blocks

Brown doesn’t get much respect from most of the college hockey world, in large part because they haven’t found a way to take it. That might be changing, thanks to a fortuitously timed surge in special-team skill.

“I was pleased with our efforts from the very start of the game,” said head coach Roger Grillo of last weekend’s North Country performance (3-1 loss to Clarkson, 2-2 draw with SLU).

“We developed enough scoring chances, now we just have to finish them. We’re getting there, creating chances … ['finishing'] is not an exact science; if it were, everyone would be doing it.”

The power play, which I’ll touch on later, has started nearly as hot as the refs’ whistles, and the penalty kill did its part to keep up. The defense tightened up as well, limiting the workload for goaltender Dan Rosen, the true foundation of the Bears.

“That first weekend we allowed way too many scoring chances, way too many shots,” the coach continued.

While Rosen and Brown tattered two weeks ago in front of 38 Princeton salvos and 41 from Yale, this week was more reasonable: Rosen stopped 24 of 26 from the Golden Knights, and denied 35 of 37 in the overtime contest against the Saints.

Cease Fire!

When have you ever heard a coach complaining about too many shots on net? There’s a first time for everything, apparently: just ask Union’s Nate Leaman.

The Dutchmen plowed 49 pucks toward Dartmouth ‘keeper Jody O’Neill on Friday, but finished with only two goals to show for it. Leaman says it was a matter of impatience, and wishes his charges had played with better poise in the offensive zone.

“We had 50 shots on goal. I’m not concerned about our offense … [but] sometimes it gets too impatient; feels it has to score every shift. [We were] over-pressing,” he explained.

As everyone tries to jump up, it creates massive vulnerabilities to counter-attacks. “Those are the situations where you get in trouble,” he said.

Ithaca Calling

Cornell is finally underway, and was the nation’s last D-I program to record a decision.

It appears the offense might still be in summer hibernation.

“We didn’t capitalize around the net,” understated head coach Mike Schafer, whose team engaged in a couple goalie duels over the weekend. “We started playing with more composure and more poise” as Saturday’s game at Quinnipiac progressed, he said.

The power play was 0-13, but given the team’s freshness, Schafer remains unconcerned.

“The power play generated chances but didn’t capitalize,” he assessed.

A big proponent of physical play last year, Schafer made clear that he would always emphasize strength and stamina with his teams.

“It’s always going to be important to play physically. That could mean playing strong on the puck, getting yourself to the net, playing hard alo