College Hockey: This Week in DIII - New England
Jan. 12, 2006 — It’s hard to believe, but there are only about six weeks left in the regular season as the teams start looking to play there best hockey down the stretch. No doubt the holiday hangovers have to be quickly swept aside and the focus needs to be there each game with some pivotal match-ups in league play on the schedule each and every weekend through January and February.
This is a time of the year where polls matter little and league games mean everything. With the level of competition so high in each of the conferences don’t be surprised to see some teams hit a speed bump or two — the quality of opposition is that good and there are no nights off to quote several coaches in New England.
So who needs to rev it up this month and who is looking to have the results match the efforts? Everyone has aspirations of playing important games in march but that groundwork is what every team needs to put in place each time they step ion the ice — it’s going to get real interesting over the next few weeks!
Colonels Marching On
So your team is 7-1 in the league but 0-6 in non-conference games…what’s a coach to do? “We’re really just focusing on each 20 minutes of hockey,” stated Curry head coach Rob Davies. “We came back from the break with 39 periods of hockey left to play and now we have 33 after our win over SNHU this week.”
The Colonels are entering a crucial five game home stand that includes non-conference games this weekend with Plattsburgh, Hobart and New England College before conference games with Wentworth and WNEC. “This is a real important stretch for us,” commented Davies. “We haven’t been able to really put a finger on what is the fix to playing more consistently but we are going to need to find it one period at a time. We really haven’t put together a complete 60-minute performance yet this season…the effort has been there, but the results have really been mixed due to some lapses in one period or another. We’ll be able to go as far as our upperclassmen can carry us down the stretch. If our guys have visions of playing in some of the big games we have played in the last two seasons they are going to have to step up and make a difference over our last half of the schedule.”
Key to the Colonels’ success will be junior captain Bret Adams, who leads the team in goals with eight but has only eleven points in 14 games. He leads the team in game-winning goals with two and will have to lead by example down the stretch. Another key will the play of senior defenseman Lucas Irwin. The transfer from Providence has had a strong year leading Curry in scoring and he will need to bring that D-I presence to the ice every night over the tough stretch ahead.
Finally, no contending team would be complete without strong goaltending and Curry will look to senior Lenny Mosca to regain some of the form that has helped them to play in the NCAA tournament the past two seasons. Like his team, Mosca has curiously different numbers in and out of the conference. His league numbers are a respectable 6-1 record with a goals against average of 2.72 and a save percentage of .879. Outside the conference he is 0-6 with a goals against average of 5.33 and a save percentage of .848. Getting hot at the right time of the year would be a boost for the Colonels and they look to start their march to the playoffs on Friday night against Plattsburgh.
Beacons Still Shining
You inherit a team that hasn’t won a game two days before a major holiday tournament. You only have two practices to look over your new team the Zamboni has a problem that cancels the first session on the ice. For most coaches that kind of start to the second half of the season might have been tough to take but not so for new coach John Giulotti at UMass-Boston.
“This has been a tough situation for the kids all the way around,” commented the new head coach. “They haven’t won a game yet this season playing in one of the most competitive — if not the most competitive conference — in the country and they lose their coach right before the holidays. A lot of kids would have mailed it in right there. These kids have been resilient and they haven’t quit. They are very young and are still learning about each other on and off the ice.”
Last week the team went on the road against NESCAC foes Hamilton and Amherst. Having been handled the first night at Hamilton by a 7-2 score, coach Giulotti wasn’t sure what to expect from his young team after the drive to Amherst. “They went out and played hard from the drop of the puck,” stated Giulotti. “We went up 1-0 and really played hard after a tough one the night before. That told me a lot about these kids.”
Giulotti is a product of the Massachusetts institutions of higher learning. He earned his undergraduate degree at North Adams State College and his master’s degree from UMass-Boston. “This school offers a lot and the commitment is there to have a strong program. It won’t happen overnight but it can happen here.
“When I coached with Billy Bowes at Wentworth I bet we had the second-worst hockey team in the country that first season and I am not sure we weren’t the worst. It only took a few years drawing to a good school but that program has been strong ever since. We would like to build that here at this school and have some good young kids to build around that have already been through some adversity this year.”
With just six weeks left the new coach isn’t changing up much on the systems already in place other than to tinker with some things a bit as needed. “Right now we just need to focus on playing hard and getting some shots…some offense.” Indeed, the Beacons have only 232 shots on goal and sixteen goals in their first 12 games. Junior forward Ron Hernandez leads the team with 5 goals and he will need some help as the Beacons look for their first win this season.
Norwich and St. Michael’s come to town this weekend and UMass-Boston’s new coach guarantees his team will play hard.
Bantams in Search of Offense
Last year’s Frozen Four participants from Trinity College find themselves in a very unique position this season — looking for goals. “Last year we knew we could count on getting four goals every game and with Doug Kiselius in goal we were pretty confident that the opposition wasn’t scoring more than that,” noted associate head coach Dave Cataruzolo. “This year everyone was questioning the goaltending which has been great and we have struggled to score goals.”
The Bantams have scored three goals or less in five of their first eleven games this season including just one in a tough 2-1 loss at Salem State last weekend. “We are working hard and generally playing well,” commented coach Cataruzolo. “We have had lots of shots but can’t get a puck to go in and that is no discredit to the opposing team or goalie like Kevin Adam played last weekend for Salem.”
Cataruzolo feels like things are about to break out offensively. Senior Cameron Finch has started to ramp up his production and three freshman have shown promise in jump-starting the team out of the goal scoring slump. Forwards Chris Powers (1-3-4) Tom Price (3-2-5) and Ryan Masucci (2-3-5) have provided some recent spark that has some other upperclassmen stepping up their games.
“We’ll be fine,” commented Cataruzolo. “We are playing well and we will start to score with the talent on this team. We are going to have to work hard for the goals every night and may have really add up some shots on goal to get the production but we will be right there in every game with a chance to win based on the way this club has played early on.”
If the coach is right, they’ll need the goals entering a six game stretch that includes St. Anselm, New England College, St. Michael’s, Norwich, Williams and Middlebury with the first two and last two at home.
Bowdoin Bouncing Back
If you are looking for a fun weekend of college hockey, Middlebury, Vermont may be the place to be this weekend as Colby and Bowdoin travel from Maine to play what usually turn out to be some of the best games of the season. All three teams are having outstanding seasons and are at the top of the conference standings. For Bowdoin, two losses last weekend against two very good teams in St. Anselm and New England College have the Polar Bears looking to continue playing well and getting positive results.
“You don’t change what you have been doing all season as a team or a coach after you drop a couple of games to good teams,” commented head coach Terry Meagher. “You can’t coach or expect your team to play that way. We have been playing some good hockey and need to step-up on some things and strive to play our best hockey ahead.”
One guy who is playing outstanding hockey is senior Jon Landry. With six goals and 11 assists for 17 points, Landry is second on the team in scoring from a new position in coach Meagher’s system.
“We’ve slotted Jon a little differently this season,” commented Meagher. “It was a tough decision because Jon had playing well and doing the things we asked him to do in our system effectively. We decided to take a chance and move him and it has opened up the ice for him to have a more complete game. He is really enjoying the change.”
Coach Meagher really likes this team of players who are experienced and talented. Look for some great hockey in Vermont this weekend in what could be a preview of some more important games in March.
