Colgate 2011-12

[klumpmypants]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

It's Vaughan.

And I also completely agree with TheGreenCoat's post. It's still WAY too early. At least we didn't lose this one, which last year we probably would have. Smith is back to where he was sophomore year and had Mihalik played he probably would have had a shutout.

Sorry, don't know how no one has ever corrected that before.

[TheGreenCoat]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

A bitter day for 'Gate sports - all too frequent these days. My feeling is that the great Hyannisport experiment courtesy (I believe) of our AD will come to a humane end - a 660-mile round trip against Army in front of 1300 fans. Frankly, give the kids a weekend off...my guess is that if the players were honest they'd rather be studying Plato's Cave in Hamilton, New York than fulfilling some administrative fantasy.

[TheValleyRaider]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

And I also completely agree with TheGreenCoat's post. It's still WAY too early. At least we didn't lose this one, which last year we probably would have. Smith is back to where he was sophomore year and had Mihalik played he probably would have had a shutout.

Did Evin play poorly? Were the goals necessarily his fault? I don't actually know, I only listened to the 1st period, but as GreenCoat mentioned, without more balanced scoring, we're going to have trouble playing well consistently

A bitter day for 'Gate sports - all too frequent these days. My feeling is that the great Hyannisport experiment courtesy (I believe) of our AD will come to a humane end - a 660-mile round trip against Army in front of 1300 fans. Frankly, give the kids a weekend off...my guess is that if the players were honest they'd rather be studying Plato's Cave in Hamilton, New York than fulfilling some administrative fantasy.

Yeowch. Losing to Georgetown. I mean, it was probably going to happen sometime, but still...

[Rainman]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

I was at the game. Army is probably the most physically-fit teams we will see all season, given the fact that their players go through military training. Why they don't have a winning record ... I can't answer for that.

It should be noted that Kurtis Bartliff, Jeremy Price, and Mark Nasca were scratches tonight. All 5 freshmen were in the lineup and our three sophomore non-goalies skated. I can't help but feel that we were possibly using this game to evaluate our underclassmen. Anyways, Wagner had a mini-breakaway in the 1st where he beat the Army goalie but the puck decided to take its own bounces keeping us from getting on the scoreboard. At that point I knew this wasn't any cakewalk of a game. Then later on in the 2nd when Army scored to make it 1-0, then 2-0, I was thinking "yep, this is a trap game."

As much as I regret saying this, I can't help but feel for the 1st two periods we weren't playing with the same level of physicality or aggressiveness I saw in both of the Miami games. It was almost as if the 3-22-2 team came out to play for 40 minutes. But someone or something must have fired up the team in the 2nd intermission, because we scored twice in the first 5 minutes to tie it. The score should have read "Austin Smith 2, Army 2".

Then after tying it we kinda took our foot off the accelerator. It was almost as if we were playing down to the level of our opposition but once down 2-0, we crank it into overdrive. Yes, its early, but we gotta play to win, regardless of the opponent. Fortunately we didn't lose.

0 for 6 on the power play isn't going to help us, but hurt us. Just one PPG last night and we would have won.

Oh well, on to Niagara. It's early in the season and I'm thinking this was the one "bad" game within a string of good games.

[sk8tronthepond]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

A bitter day for 'Gate sports - all too frequent these days. My feeling is that the great Hyannisport experiment courtesy (I believe) of our AD will come to a humane end - a 660-mile round trip against Army in front of 1300 fans. Frankly, give the kids a weekend off...my guess is that if the players were honest they'd rather be studying Plato's Cave in Hamilton, New York than fulfilling some administrative fantasy.

An excellent test for this young team tasting early success and back on the "national scene" having recently been ranked. You hope as a team they will learn from this experience.....playing to a tie against a team that they should have beaten.

That is why it is an excellent test. Where are the leaders, who are the leaders, as a team can we reach the level of play that will bring success on a consistent basis no matter who the opposition is??? All real questions which need to be answered from within.

Hopefully, those questions have been answered within this group because they certainly have the potiential to do something special this season!

[TchrBill]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

After Union whacked them 8-1, I thought this would be a cakewalk. Guess the team did, too. When will we learn?! BU probably thought the same against HC last night. Don't mind the Raiders playing this game...obviously we need the practice and the reality check. In fact, one blog had a Yale fan wishing his team could participate. I think its popularity will only continue to grow. Hope there were many loyal 'Gate supporters in the stands.

My guess is Evin was in net to keep him ready as an alternate this season. Military training aside, Army doesn't seem more physical than anyone else...always impressed with the size of NoDak...and Cornell.

Couldn't get a radio feed. A drubbing in football to Georgetown...can't stop shaking my head over that one. A season of what ifs. My, how we've fallen.

Miami underperforming so far but still, 3-1-1 after last season ain't too bad...

[ColSkate65]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

Yeowch. Losing to Georgetown. I mean, it was probably going to happen sometime, but still...

It wasn't so much the fact that we lost, as the way we lost that hurts the most. The Hoyas were due, but we didn't even show up.

Back to hockey: got to agree with Greencoat. What exactly are we getting for these long forays to Cape Cod to play Army. A good tune-up test could be played at West Point or Hamilton, without the 600 mile bus trip. Almost have to believe the long journey took some of the starch out of both teams. It's not like we're playing in the Boston area where such a game would help recruiting. How many great college players are born and living on Cape Cod?

[Gaterrooter]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

This Army team played an undefeated Merrimack team to a 3-2 game at Merrimack last week. By the way, another ranked team we will face in December is Merrimack. Give the boys credit, this Army team can play a close defensive game. Also, Bartliff and Price were both out. It's a marathon and they'll be bumps along the way. Happy to see them BATTLE back yet again, this time aginst a mucking and grinding team.

['Gate Radio]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

FYI, for those having problems with the WKXZFM.com web stream, you can still listen to games on the Internet via TEAMLINE.

Here's the link to the Colgate men's hockey page on TEAMLINE - http://www.teamline.cc/sportpage?tea...7&eventcode=25

From what I can tell, TEAMLINE has picked up all the games and has archives for all but one contest (Nebraska Omaha) because that game was on a radio station not tied into the Internet broadcast feed.

In re: last night's crowd. The building was pretty much full. Not quite as filled as last year but there was a good-sized crowd and I think the folks there were happy with the turn-out. One thing that has to be kept in mind is that last year there was a Colgate alumni event in conjunction with the game. This season, the game went up against a big alumni event down in Washington D.C. in conjunction with the Georgetown football game. Obviously people could not attend both.

I wouldn't be surprised to see another game on the Cape so don't be shocked if one is announced.

[Gaterrooter]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

A couple of very interesting points: Although very early.

1) Miami-Ohio is the team with the #1 strength of schedule in the country. That give's us a good bump. Interestingly enough guess which team has the #8th hardest schedule to date? Army.

2) We have moved up to 8th in the power and RPI rankings after this weekend. UNO swept this weekend so that helps a lot.

3) We could move up a spot or two in the rankings even after the tie last night. North Dakota and Miami were swept this weekend and BU lost to Holy Cross last night.

Not a great weekend but could have been much worse with a L.

[hockeyenthusiast]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

I agree with everything Gaterrooter has said. Gotta look at the positives, last year's team maybe doesn't rally back to tie. In each game we haven't lost, we've trailed at one point and come back to salvage a result. I think Holy Cross's win over BU last night serves as yet another example of how tight college hockey is throughout the country. Hopefully yesterday's tie will serve as a bit of a wake-up call. I think we'll see a much better effort next weekend against a tough Niagara team, plus the team will probably want revenge after last year's sweep.

[Rainman]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

2) We have moved up to 8th in the power and RPI rankings after this weekend. UNO swept this weekend so that helps a lot.

Going into last night's game, we were 8th in RPI and PWR. After last night's tie with Army, we moved up to 7th in both.
Keep in mind it's early in the season. Once January rolls around, where we rank in these statistics will give us a more realistic picture of where we compare to other teams.

Also: our tie with Army could come back to bite us in the "record vs. common opponents" category in the PWR. Army plays Union, Merrimack, and Brown -- that's 3 common opponents. Union and Merrimack both defeated Army. Brown probably won't be a TUC. But if we were to defeat Merrimack we'll have the H2H comparison with them. Same goes for Union.

It's still a young season and we've still got 27 regular season games to prove we can be a force to be reckoned with.

[hockeyenthusiast]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

Going into last night's game, we were 8th in RPI and PWR. After last night's tie with Army, we moved up to 7th in both.
Keep in mind it's early in the season. Once January rolls around, where we rank in these statistics will give us a more realistic picture of where we compare to other teams.

Also: our tie with Army could come back to bite us in the "record vs. common opponents" category in the PWR. Army plays Union, Merrimack, and Brown -- that's 3 common opponents. Union and Merrimack both defeated Army. Brown probably won't be a TUC. But if we were to defeat Merrimack we'll have the H2H comparison with them. Same goes for Union.

It's still a young season and we've still got 27 regular season games to prove we can be a force to be reckoned with.

True, but if we beat them it won't matter. Plus we have like 11 more common opponents with Union and at least 1 or 2 more with Merrimack. I wouldn't be too sure about Brown. They beat Waterloo, who beat Yale.

[Gaterrooter]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

Brown will be tough this year.

IMO the most over rated team this year in the preseason polls is Yale. Look at the talent they lost off last years team, including 2/3'rds of their top line and their goalie who PLAYED 34 GAMES. Reminds me a lot of what was projected of Miami-Ohio this year after losing their 2 top scorers and a Hobey winner. At least Miami O kept their goal tending from last year.

[ColSkate65]

Re: Colgate 2011-12

We're up to #13 in the USCHO rankings. Six of top 20 are ECAC teams with Cornell and Harvard on the bubble. When was the last time we were ranked ahead of BU? Gotta love it!