NESCAC 2016-2017 season

[obserbear]

Re: NESCAC 2016-2017 season

Back when they had the travel partners going, Amherst drew the short straw and played the double weekend games. While I liked the dynamic of the travel partners more (variety in the play for a weekend), I can see why the odd man out would complain.

The odd women's team out designation rotated every year through the 9 participant schools. My understanding is players and coaches would prefer the return to the travel partner route. NESCAC schools support the so called extra travel expense on the men's side (abet with an even number of teams, but I don't see a cost impact there).

[shelfit]

I haven't seen any of the CHC teams play outside of these two games. Based upon that alone I would say Stevenson is the better of the two teams. Stevenston is a small team, both in number of player and overall size of the players but played well even late into the third period.

I wouldn't read too much into the Morrisville stats. Their four conference wins are against Salem state (3-0, 11-0) and Canton (4-1, 6-2). So I'll reserve judgement until Morrisville plays both Stevensen or Endicott.

Your last paragraph is very true. I was going by current stats only of course since those are the only stats I could go by. I'll be very interested to see how they do against both of those opponents too.

[tjoneslo]

Re: NESCAC 2016-2017 season

This is a really brutal part of the schedule for Bowdoin. Thursday at Fenway vs Conn College, Saturday/Sunday against Amherst, Tuesday (Today) vs Endicott, then Midd on Friday/Saturday. I understand the excitement behind playing outdoors at fenway, but scheduling a midweek game before both Amherst and Midd seems like a recipe for bad outcomes.

End of the first on Bowdoin vs Endicott is 0-0.

[shelfit]

This is a really brutal part of the schedule for Bowdoin. Thursday at Fenway vs Conn College, Saturday/Sunday against Amherst, Tuesday (Today) vs Endicott, then Midd on Friday/Saturday. I understand the excitement behind playing outdoors at fenway, but scheduling a midweek game before both Amherst and Midd seems like a recipe for bad outcomes.

End of the first on Bowdoin vs Endicott is 0-0.

Tough loss for Bowdoin as they give up 4 in the 3rd period for a 5-1 loss. Must be very frustrating to lose like that when you just outshot your opponent 40-27!

[tjoneslo]

Re: NESCAC 2016-2017 season

The Endicott goalie Jonsson is really, really good. I saw the first two periods of the Bowdoin game, and the Middlebury one. In both games she was making some pretty amazing saves. If you want a reason why Endicott was ranked, Jonsson is the key.

[obserbear]

Re: NESCAC 2016-2017 season

Endicott defeats Trinity on an OT powerplay 2-1.
The rest of the conference action:
Amherst at Colby-P&W seem to be on a roll
Williams at Conn College: two mystery teams, Williams in the vague upset
Wesleyan at Hamilton: Continentals need to show they are con not pre
Middlebury at Bowdoin: PB looked good after Fenway then had a lost weekend in the Pioneer Valley (followed by the loss at Watson to the Gulls); Panthers rounding into post season form

[obserbear]

Re: NESCAC 2016-2017 season

Middlebury first year Sheline scored the game winner (her career first) midway in the 3rd and Panther net minder Neuberger (20/21) out dueled Bowdoin goalie St. Denis (24/26) in back stopping Middlebury (5-1-1 NESCAC) to a closely contested 2-1 win over Bowdoin (3-4-1 NESCAC) at Watson Arena this evening.
Goal play dominated a scoreless 1st; St. Denis was sharp denying Hlinka on a powerplay one timer from the left dot and stuffing Navratil at the top of the crease on a Panther 3x1 at 13:
The 2nd opened with Neuberger flashing her left pad at :20 when Bergin stepped in grabbing a Panther breakout pass in zone at the blueline and rifling a shot on net. The Panthers scored when Young ground the puck from the right wing corner along the back wall, coming out from St.Denis' gloveside for a shot, grabbing her own rebound and lifting a forehand in up over St. Denis.
Bowdoin scored on the powerplay early in the 3rd. The Polar Bears broke in zone over the left wing blueline, with the Midd D pinching against the side boards. The puck came free with Glass in for a shot from the left circle, saved by Neuberger; Greason had a put back and Leininger scored with the puck jammed beneath Neuberger stickside. Pretty goal for the game winner. Hlinka played strong on the boards deep in the right corner; she moved the puck to Winslow. Winslow found space and from wide right wing slipped a perfect tape to tape feed to Sheline, joining the play, crashing the net and Sheline found net low to St. Denis short gloveside. Bowdoin was mounting late offensive pressure and was aggressive in pulling the goalie for the extra attacker, but the Panther D were able to keep the puck wide and prevent a scrum developing at the crease.

[obserbear]

Re: NESCAC 2016-2017 season

Bowdoin 2 Middlebury 1 OT

[shelfit]

Bowdoin 2 Middlebury 1 OT

But the good news is the Middlebury men's team won their first game of the season today, so I'm sure Bill is happy for them.

[obserbear]

Re: NESCAC 2016-2017 season

Nice win for the Polar Bears. It is easy to look at the win and spotlight the goal play of Bowdoin goalie St. Denis (30/31...and the way she kept stoning Panther Young might have Young seeing 29 in her bad dreams), but the squad played with a short bench, lost offensive presence Dashille to an injury as the game went on, saw Midd net the EA goal and still had the poise to get it done in OT. Rathke opened the scoring on a powerplay; playing catch on the blue line, D to D to D, Bergin set up Rathke for a big slap shot from left point; the shot was up, through traffic and in over the screened Middlebury goalie Han. That goal stood up and, with time running down, Middlebury had pulled the goalie seconds before a Polar bear penalty and went on to score an EA pp goal. Watson had the puck slightly right of center field on the blue line, had space and launched a shot which was deftly tipped from the gloveside of the crease into the roof of the cage by Hlinka. The OT ended in chaos. NESCAC OT skates 4x4 and then there were penalties. Midd is assessed 2 minutes and 1:21 later Bowdoin is assessed the same, so we are watching 3x3. Just as the Midd penalty expires and Watson leaves the box, a collision on ice has caused the Bowdoin bench to erupt screaming for a call, and the action is directly in front of the bench and a change is taking place, so suddenly Bergin has sprung Fichter, coming off the bench door at the Midd D zone blue line, in alone with time and space; Fichter showed forehand low gloveside and then ripped a shot back to and inside the stickside post. End of the action.
I cannot speak to Coach Mandigo's joy at Coach Sinclair's triumph. There was something about past captain parent negative karma (and there were a lot of Midd parents in and about Watson, karma not withstanding) and something about trading players, so I just do not know.
Anyway the NESCAC standings are now in such chaos I don't even want to think about them. Outside of Colby and Trinity, the order of finish could be an almost infinite number of permutations. Go out and watch!!!

[CrossCheck]

Re: NESCAC 2016-2017 season

So much for your prognostication skills....

Weslyean proving they are most improved team in the Conf. Don't think they are top-4 but a dangerous team from here on out.
And watch out for those Flying Camels...destroyed Williams in sweeping them from the top slot this weekend...I think Williams could be in for a hard landing as they begin to play the top teams in the conf. Ditto for Hamilton.

[obserbear]

Re: NESCAC 2016-2017 season

So much for your prognostication skills....

Weslyean proving they are most improved team in the Conf. Don't think they are top-4 but a dangerous team from here on out.
And watch out for those Flying Camels...destroyed Williams in sweeping them from the top slot this weekend...I think Williams could be in for a hard landing as they begin to play the top teams in the conf. Ditto for Hamilton.

I am all for Flying Camels, just a matter of which team shows up. Going into the NESCAC playoffs, what match up would you like? Want to play Trinity a one or done?

[CrossCheck]

Re: NESCAC 2016-2017 season

I am all for Flying Camels, just a matter of which team shows up. Going into the NESCAC playoffs, what match up would you like? Want to play Trinity a one or done?

Agreed...depends which team decides to show up [but that really only applies to the goal scoring, which comes and goes depending on who knows what]...The defense and goaltending [look it up] are equal to or better than any team in the conf.

The better question is who want's to play the Flying Camels come playoff time?....especially if the game is played in the friendly confines of Dayton Arena, where a certain team may not enjoy their typical a 2 to 1 advantage in penalty power play time [lol].

[obserbear]

Re: NESCAC 2016-2017 season

Big test for the Purple and White hosting Elmira tonight

[obserbear]

Re: NESCAC 2016-2017 season

Conn 6-0 in the 3rd???