All posts for the month October, 2014

Weekend Preview: Minutemen Conclude Six Game Road Trip With Visit To Maine

Massachusetts hockey fans should be pretty content with this three weekend, three state, road trip so far.  The inexperienced team went out to the Midwest and split with a defensively strong Michigan State team in the first leg of the trip.  Last weekend on a jaunt out to Boston the team got some unexpected heroics from Emerson Auvenshine and Henry Dill to defeat the Northeastern Huskies and then the next night were a bit overwhelmed by #6 Boston College, but still played respectably.  This weekend’s series against Maine up in Orono will really define whether this road trip, the team’s longest of the season, will ultimately be considered a success or a disappointment.  Though it’s still early in the season a sweep at the hands of the Black Bears could have serious repercussions.  UMass already already played more conference games than anyone else and Maine is one of those teams picked to finish in the middle of the Hockey East standings that the Minutemen will have to beat if they want to do better than their 11th place predictions.

Maine has had an odd schedule so far to say the least.  It’s not often that that the Black Bears travel north on a road trip, but they did just that when they started the season in Anchorage, getting swept by the Alaska-Anchorage and Alaska-Fairbanks in the Kendall Hockey Classic.  They returned home the next weekend but had to host defending national champions Union and promptly got swept again.  Last weekend they were able to get some swift revenge as the UAA Seawolves visited Orono and Maine got a win and tie against the Alaskans this time around.  Still the 1-4-1 start on the season has a lot of Black Bear faithful unhappy.  It’s likely that coach Red Gendron is feeling the same.

Coming into the season it was expected that Maine would be strong offensively but potentially struggle on defense and in net.  That hasn’t been the way it’s played out early on however.  Maine is scoring just 1.83 goals per game so far, 10th best among Hockey East teams.  The team’s shortfall in scoring is very obvious as defenseman Ben Hutton and winger Devin Shore, All-Americans last year, have not come through so far.  Last season the duo combined for 29 goals and 72 points.  Through six games this year they’ve combined for just two goals and an assist despite being 1st and 2nd on the team in shots on goal, and are a combined –7.  The stars so far for Maine have ended up being sophomores Cam Brown (3G, 3A) and Blaine Byron (2G, 2A).

Gendron has used a combination of goalies so far on the season, but sophomore Matt Morris has been the clearly better goaltender so far.  Morris has started four games to freshman Sean Romeo’s two and so has had a respectable .918 save percentage in those outings.  Morris started both of the games last weekend against UAA and will likely get the starts again this weekend.

In terms of the situation in net for the Minutemen, I would expect to see freshman Henry Dill in net again for at least the Friday game.  The reigning Rookie of the Week played well enough in both games to keep his team in the game and I don’t think Micheletto would make a change at this point.  Still, if he’s unable to handle the hostile Alfond environment on Friday and plays poorly then Steve Mastalerz will be ready to go on Saturday.  In front of the goaltenders I think we’ll same the same sort of setup as last week.  While defensemen Maddison Smiley and Ben Gallacher did make the trip to Orono their playing status is still unknown as they both try to return from injuries.  So it’s probably likely we’ll see the same five defenseman with the addition of Emerson Auvenshine on the blueline on Friday.  Considering the question marks surrounding this defensive unit coming into the season and then the injury issues that have complicated the situation, I thought the unit played very well last weekend.  On Friday they gave Dill the support he needed to limit the Huskies to two goals and then against an always talented BC team the team only allowed one even strength goal.  Maine is a lot like Northeastern in that they have some skilled but underachieving and therefore hungry players on offense.  Just as UMass kept hungry, overdue Huskies like Kevin Roy, Zach Aston-Reese, and Mike Szmatula off the board on Friday, they’ll have to do the same for Shore and Hutton this weekend.

Offensively UMass has looked pretty good.  Their 2.40 goals per game is above the 2.23 they had last season.  While the 15% power play percentage is nothing to write home about, it is fourth best among Hockey East teams.  And beyond the stats is that UMass has gotten timely goals, namely the Patrick Lee gamewinner in Lansing with 9 ticks left and Auvenshine’s key third period goal last week.  What’s amazing is they’ve been able to generate this much offense despite getting practically nothing from their top line of Frank Vatrano, Dennis Kravchenko, and Troy Power.  Those three have combined for just three points and zero goals.  It’s still relatively early in the season but the drought for those players is getting to the point where it’s very concerning.  Typically I would expect a coach to switch up some players to get them going, but when the second and third lines are clicking as they are do you dare change lines?  Probably not.  One thing is for certain is if UMass is going to have some sustained success, they absolutely have to have the first line scoring.  Hopefully that starts this weekend because the other guys can only carry the load for so long.

Huge four points on the line this weekend.  Huge.  You’re facing a Maine team that’s struggling which is definitely the best time to visit Alfond Arena, a place that’s not very friendly to opposing teams.  It’s good that the freshmen have gotten to experience a few different road environments before heading to Orono and hopefully they can use those learnings to their advantage.  Though the Black Bears are on the schedule for another two games later on in the season, these are the ones to win because these are the ones that will count in the Hockey East standings.  A couple wins this weekend could help solidify an early season foothold towards the top of those standings for the Minutemen.

Beer The Triangle

It’s been a few years since I’ve been up to Orono but the best beer spot I found in my trips there was Nocturnem Draft Haus.  They currently have Maine Beer Company Lunch on draft.  I suggest you have at least two of those because it’s near impossible to find on draft and is considered one of the better IPAs out there.  And then after that have an Ommegang Valar Morghulis while contemplating the fact that all men must die.

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There will be a couple familiar names across the ice for Maine this weekend.  Former Minuteman Andrew Tegeler is playing for the Black Bears after transferring from UMass a couple years ago.  On defense for Maine is Mark Hamilton who was a highly regarded recruit for the Minutemen at one time.

The Collegian has their preview of the weekend as well as a piece on the performance of Dill so far.

Hamilton is the subject of this story out of the Bangor Daily news.

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Captain Troy Power covers last weekend in his latest blog entry.

Mick McMahon is doing a great job digging into the statistics among Hockey East teams.  I think it shows that UMass must improve their play at even strength, which isn’t a surprise since they struggled five on five last year as well.

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by rocks22 on October 30, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Game Preview

Posted by rocks22 on October 30, 2014

https://fearthetriangle.com/2014/10/30/weekend-preview-minutemen-conclude-six-game-road-trip-with-visit-to-maine/

Recruit Update

Brandon Montour – D – Waterloo Blackhawks (USHL) – Dec 2014
8 GP / 1 G / 8 A / 9 Pts / 6 PIM /+1
Montour had two assists in an OT loss to Fargo this past week.  Montour has the second most points by a defenseman in the USHL and is tied for 9th among all skaters.

Brandon Egli – D – Vernon Vipers (BCHL) – 2015
7 GP / 0 G /1 A / 1 Pts / 5 PIM
Egli got his first assist of the season.  Unfortunately he’ll have to sit a few games for a brawl that occurred on October 18th

Jake McCarthy – D – South Shore Kings (USPHL) – 2015 or 2016
0 GP / 0 G / 0 A / 0 Pts / 0 PIM
McCarthy is still nursing an injury that is delaying his debut for the Kings.

Kurt Keats – C – Powell River Kings (BCHL) – 2015
15 GP / 15 G / 7 A / 22 Pts / 20 PIM
Keats continues to put up huge numbers.  He had four goals in the three games played this past week.  He’s tied with Vermont commit Craig Puffer for the BCHL lead in goals, leads the league in power play goals with six, and is tied for fourth in points.

Austin Plevy – C – Brooks Bandits (AJHL) – 2015
17 GP / 10 G /18 A / 28 Pts / 36 PIM
Plevy had a goal and two assists in two games this week.  He continues to lead the AJHL in points.  He’s tied for 7th in the league and goals and tied for third in game winning goals.

Shane Bear – D – Brooks Bandits (AJHL) – 2016
17 GP / 0 G / 7 A / 7 Pts / 35 PIM

Bear had an assist this past week and a game where he picked up 19 PIM.

Troy Conzo – RW – Des Moines Buccaneers (USHL) – 2016 or 2017
3 GP / 0 G /0 A /0 Pts / 0 PIM / -2
Conzo was held scoreless this past week.

Kyler Nachtigall – LW – Brooks Bandits (AJHL) – 2016
17 GP / 3 G / 3 A / 6 Pts / 33 PIM
Nachtigall was held off the scoresheet this past week.

Ty Pelton-Byce – C – Team Wisconsin U18 (Elite)/Madison Memorial (WI HS) – 2016
21 GP / 12 G / 12 A / 24 Pts / 8 PIM  Team Wisconsin U18
0 GP / 0 G / 0 A / 0 Pts  Madison Memorial
It looks like the playoffs took place for the fall league that Pelton-Byce played in.  He had a goal and an assist in three playoff games.

John Leonard – F – Springfield Rifles (Mass Selects)/Springfield Cathedral (MA HS) – 2017
10 GP / 13 G / 6 A / 19 Pts  Springfield Rifles
0 GP / 0 G / 0 A / 0 Pts  Springfield Cathedral
Leonard did not play this past week.

by rocks22 on October 28, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Recruit Update

Posted by rocks22 on October 28, 2014

https://fearthetriangle.com/2014/10/28/recruit-update-51/

Polls & Awards: Dill Named Hockey East Rookie of the Week

Congratulations to freshman goaltender Henry Dill who was named Hockey East Rookie of the Week for his effort this past weekend.  Dill had a .932 save percentage on a weekend that was highlighted by his 42 save effort in the Friday win against Northeastern.  You’ll notice in the linked release that Dill is also among the leaders of the Army ROTC Three Stars Award.  Zack LaRue was named a Top Performer as well.  It’s the second straight weekend that the Massachusetts hockey team has had someone recognized by the league as Steven Iacobellis was named Player of the Week previously.

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Minnesota received all the first place votes in this week’s USCHO poll.  Boston College’s win over UMass Saturday helped them move up a spot to #5 with rival Boston University just behind them at #6.  BU’s wins over Michigan and Michigan State lifted them up six spots from the previous week’s poll.  Lowell dropped one spot from 7th to 8th after splitting with the Michigan schools.  Providence dropped from 5th to 9th after only salvaging a tie in a trip out to North Dakota for a two game series.  A 4-0-0 start has helped Vermont to their #13 ranking.  Notre Dame is ranked as #20 this week after a sweep of Niagara that saw them outscore the Purple Eagles 13-3.

According to the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll, Lowell has annexed Providence College because UML is ranked both #8 and #9.  I’m sure there’s some kind of law about not operating a public college outside of the commonwealth’s borders so this act of aggression on the River Hawks’ part is probably only temporary.  If not it’s going to create havoc with the HEA playoff tiebreakers.

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The Collegian has their summary of the past weekend’s split.

by rocks22 on October 27, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Polls & Awards

Posted by rocks22 on October 27, 2014

https://fearthetriangle.com/2014/10/27/polls-awards-dill-named-hockey-east-rookie-of-the-week/

Saturday Recap: Penalties Hurt UMass in 4-1 Loss To BC

If the Massachusetts hockey team had been able to stay out of the box, the outcome of this game may have been very different than the final 4-1 win by #6 Boston College.  To the surprise of many (or me at least), this game started out as a defensive struggle.  Both teams did really well in minimizing their opponents chances and preventing shots from getting to their respective goaltenders, Henry Dill for UMass and Thatcher Demko for BC.  At the end of the period the shots were only 6-3 in BC’s favor.  That represented a dramatic improvement for the UMass defense which had allowed 14 first period shots and 42 total to the Northeastern Huskies on the prior night.

Unfortunately circumstances changed in the second and the game slowly started to get away from UMass at that point.  What was a physical game in the first turned into a chippy game in the second in what I thought was mostly initiated by the more experienced and well, larger Eagle players.  The Minutemen tried to respond in kind and unfortunately were unable to do so without crossing the line and picking up a host of penalties.  The festivities started six minutes in when UMass’s Anthony Petrella and BC’s Ryan Fitzgerald went back and forth with a hook and slash.  Steven Iacobellis and Alex Tuch got a couple of roughing penalties about a minute later.  The positive from this sequence was that UMass looked to be the better team four on four.  BC would pick up their first goal while at even strength at 14:15 from Tuch, which was followed shortly after by an interference call on Emerson Auvenshine.  On the subsequent penalty kill Jake Horton took an unnecessary slashing penalty and BC would capitalize with a five on three goal from Adam Gilmour .  UMass was never really able to get back in the game after that.

In the third things continued to get heated with a lot of activity after the whistle and UMass appeared to be thrown off rhythm by it.  A little over ten minutes in Troy Power went into the boards on Matt Gaudreau and received a five minute major and game misconduct for an elbowing penalty.  Horton would again take another bad penalty on the subsequent penalty kill, this time a high stick, and Gilmour had his second two man advantage goal of the night to put the Eagles up 3-0. Spending so much time on the penalty kill prevented the Minutemen from getting in sync on offense in the final period though and they didn’t end up getting on the scoreboard until 17:48 in on a Shane Walsh power play goal.  BC would add the empty net goal to seal their win shortly after.

There were some definite positives to take from the game.  The team defense played early on was very impressive for a defensive unit that includes just two upperclassmen, three underclassmen and a converted forward in Auvenshine.  UMass fans should also feel good that the team battled.  They fought for themselves, they fought for their teammates, and did not allow themselves to get pushed around by a bigger, veteran BC squad.  If the inexperienced UMass team was intimidated, it didn’t show.  Still, going forward the team will have to learn how to be physical but not put yourself at a disadvantage.  Some of the roughing type of penalties can be tolerable in a game like last night.  Two stick infractions to give the opponent a couple five on three opportunities is not however.  If the game turns into a learning opportunity, then I don’t think the loss will mean a lot in the long run.  Sure it’s never enjoyable to sit through another loss at Conte Forum, but that disappointed feeling was nothing a couple of post game beers at Publick House couldn’t cure.  Two weekend road trips, two states, two splits.  I’ll take it.  Up next, Orono.

Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Shane Walsh
Not only did Walsh have the lone goal for the Minutemen but he was a team best 11 for 17 in the faceoff circle.

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Recap from SBN Nation College Hockey.

USCHO recap.

Goal by goal BC point of view from BC Interruption, including the Walsh goal.

by rocks22 on October 26, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Game Recap

Posted by rocks22 on October 26, 2014

https://fearthetriangle.com/2014/10/26/saturday-recap-penalties-hurt-umass-in-4-1-loss-to-bc/

Friday Recap: Dill Shines For UMass In 3-2 Win Over Northeastern

The theme of this young season is that the Massachusetts hockey team continues to progress, finding ways to overcome challenges, and stays competitive.  Last night the Minutemen made strides in keeping their opponents off the scoreboard in a 3-2 win over Northeastern.  The main reason for this was the play of freshman goaltender Henry Dill who stopped 42 of 44 shots in just his second collegiate shot but that doesn’t mean this wasn’t a team effort.

Northeastern got on the board first 3:46 into the game when Zach Aston-Reese made a nice move on Jake Horton to skate into the slot and got the puck to Torin Snyderman who shot past Dill.  Horton would make up for it just two and a half minutes later by shooting on Derek Roy, who was a surprise starter in net for NU.  Zack LaRue got his stick on Horton’s shot for his second goal of the season, tying the game at a goal apiece.  The Minutemen would take the lead later in the first on a power play goal from Ray Pigozzi, who followed up a three assist game last Saturday with his first goal of the season.  The Huskies tied it shortly after when Dill was unable to cover up a loose puck in front of him and Dalen Hedges jumped on it and put it into the net.

At the end of the first with four goals on the board and 25 total shots it seemed like the game would end up being a barnburner, but the goaltenders would settle in and only one goal was scored the rest of the game.  That goal came off the stick of Emerson Auvenshine who was inserted into the lineup at defense with Maddison Smiley and Ben Gallacher banged up.  The gamewinner came from a great cross ice pass on the rush from LaRue to Auvenshine who one timed it over Roy’s shoulder.  Dill kept the Huskies off the board for the final 11 minutes and UMass picked up their first Hockey East win of the season.

Dill will rightly get the accolades from the win for his 42 save effort, but the guys in front of him deserve credit as well.  Dill probably let up more rebounds than he and the coaching staff would like, but the defense and forwards were quick to clear the loose pucks and minimize potential second chances.  The team killed all seven of the Huskies’ power play chances and have now killed 15 of 16 opponent power plays on the season.  One area of improvement will be to not allow so many shots on net, but for a defensive unit that is pretty thin and now starting forwards, I thought last night was pretty good on the defensive end.

It won’t get any easier though as they face a Boston College team that put up six goals on Colorado College last night.    It should be interesting to see who gets the start in net as Steve Mastalerz has had some of the best games of his career against the Eagles, but Dill proved himself as a legitimate Hockey East goaltender last night.  Either way, it’s good to have options in net.  I couldn’t help but notice that when the buzzer sounded Mastalerz was the first guy off the bench to congratulate Dill on his win.  I think the bigger question going into tonight though is when we’ll see something from the top line.  While it’s been excellent that UMass has been able to win two in a row based solely on production from their second and third lines, if the Minutemen have any chance of upsetting the 6th ranked Eagles they absolutely have to get something from the line of Vatrano/Kravchenko/Power.

 

Fear The Triangle Player of the Game – Henry Dill
Obviously.  The highlights below include some of Dill’s better saves as well as the goals.

UMass Wins 3-2; Dill Saves 42

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The performances by Dill and Auvenshine are the focus on this Boston Herald recap.

Northeastern coach Jim Madigan blames the lack of puck luck for his team’s loss in the USCHO recap.

by rocks22 on October 25, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Game Recap

Posted by rocks22 on October 25, 2014

https://fearthetriangle.com/2014/10/25/friday-recap-dill-shines-for-umass-in-3-2-win-over-northeastern/

Weekend Preview: UMass Heads East To Take On Northeastern and BC

Northeastern Huskies 0-3-0 (0-1-0) Hockey East T-5th

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Massachusetts Minutemen 1-2-0 (0-1-0) Hockey East T-5th

The Massachusetts hockey team heads to Boston (and Newton) this weekend to take on a couple of Hockey East foes in Northeastern and Boston College.  After starting their three week, three state, six game road trip in Michigan last weekend, this week finds them in the more familiar hub before heading north to Maine next weekend.  This weekend presents an opportunity to get their first Hockey East points against two teams that are in somewhat uncomfortable situations.

Northeastern was one of the bigger surprises in all of college hockey last year.  The Huskies went from just 9 wins in 2012-13 to 19 last year, finishing tied for fourth in Hockey East and narrowly missing a tournament berth.  The team was second to BC in offense thanks to young and talented players like Kevin Roy (19 goals) and Mike Szmatula (15 goals).  Five of their top 7 goal scorers were sophomores or freshmen.  Probably a bigger surprise than their young firepower though was the play of their veteran goaltender, Clay Witt.  After playing just 16 games coming into his redshirt junior year Witt ended up putting up huge numbers last season, finishing second in the league with a .932 save percentage.  Between the youthful scorers and Clay Witt passing over pro offers to come back to St Botolph Street, big things were expected of the Huskies this season, picked fourth in the league by the coaches and even receiving a first place vote.

Fast forward to two weekends into the season and things probably couldn’t be any worse for Husky fans.  Their team comes into the weekend a very surprising 0-3-0.  It’s not just the losing record however, it’s how they’ve lost.  Opening night at Matthews Arena saw the home team lose to Vermont by a score of 6-2.  Unfortunately for the Huskies, they haven’t scored since as last weekend they travelled to upstate New York to play a very good Colgate team who shut out the Huskies 3-0 on consecutive nights.  That kind of early season performance puts Northeastern second to last in defense and dead last in offense among Hockey East teams.

An optimist may think UMass is fortunate to take on the Huskies when they’re playing so incredibly poorly.  But on the flip side this team has to embarrassed and hungry.  Coming home after getting dominated so thoroughly means they could be pretty dangerous.  This team is having a really, really tough time getting things together right now but they didn’t somehow become less talented.  Witt is still the same player who had four shutouts in the league last year and Roy, my personal pick for Player of the Year, is not going to be held goalless forever.  The Minutemen will have to be very careful around this wounded dog.

Boston College

#6 Boston College Eagles 1-1-0 (0-1-0) Hockey East T-5th

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Massachusetts Minutemen 1-2-0 (0-1-0) Hockey East T-5th

It’s not the same as the lopsided results that the Huskies have produced so far, but the Eagles losing to a rebuilding Lowell team 5-2 in the season opener raised a few eyebrows.  BC in that game produced just 21 shots on net.  Just 21.  For the usual high flying Eagle program which scored over 4 goals a game last season that statistic was a shocker.  They did follow it up with a 6-2 win last weekend in Rochester over RIT.  Still, that first result against Lowell has to make fans scratch their heads a bit.

It has been the young guys producing for the Eagles so far as 5 of the 7 goal scorers are underclassmen.  Sophomore Ryan Fitzgerald is the only multi-goal scorer, finding the net in each of their games.  BC has also gotten some good production from the blueline with four different defensemen scoring goals.  Junior defenseman Teddy Doherty leads the team with three points coming into this weekend on a goal and two assists.

While his offense didn’t get him much help against Lowell, sophomore goaltender Thatcher Demko didn’t do them any favors either, letting in four goals on 23 shots.  That’s a long ways from the .919 save percentage that landed him on the Hockey East All Rookie team last year.  He looked better last week making 25 saves on 27 RIT Tiger shots.  The Eagles will be taking on Colorado College in a non-conference game tomorrow night before the Minutemen take the B Line out to Conte Forum to meet them on Saturday.

To completely oversimplify things for UMass I think they just need to keep doing what they’re doing.  Meaning, last weekend we saw them build upon each previous game, improving with each outing.  They hung in tough with BU for two periods in the opener only to completely unravel in the third when faced with a two goal deficit.  In the first game in Lansing the adversity came early in the form of an early Michigan State lead and a key injury on defense.  But the team didn’t unravel, they continued to fight to the end, ultimately still losing.  Last Saturday the team played hard again and still looked like they were heading for an 0-3 start to the season.  But again they battled, tied the game with five minutes left, and then capitalized on an ill-timed Spartan penalty to get the dramatic victory.  They’re an inexperienced team and I think what we’re seeing is the players going through a situation, learning from it, and then knowing how to respond when faced with something similar.

There are still going to be challenges to overcome however.  The most obvious is depth on the blueline.  Ben Gallacher is still recovering from a nasty hit last weekend.  That leaves UMass with just six defensemen on the roster.  In his coach’s show this week Coach Micheletto said that Maddison Smiley was questionable.  Smiley is recovering from illness and may not have the stamina to go both nights yet.  That means a forward will have to step up (step back?) and play defense if Smiley can only dress one night.  Mick said Emerson Auvenshine has already been taking shifts at defense in practice and he has in mind some other options as well.  Auvenshine seems like a logical choice given his style of play but for a team that is giving up over five goals a game potential problems dressing defensemen should make UMass fans a little squeamish.

The Minutemen scored 7 goals against a solid Spartan defense anchored by one of the better goaltenders in the country.  That is reason for optimism.  Add to the fact that the majority of the offense came from underclassmen.  It’s only a couple games but last weekend UMass had two lines clicking with the Keith Burchett, Shane Walsh, Dominic Trento combination looking good on Friday and the Ray Pigozzi, Steven Iacobellis, and Patrick Lee line totaling three goals and 10 points on Saturday.  Now the Minutemen just need the top line of Frank Vatrano, Dennis Kravchenko, and Troy Power to make a strong showing.  If they don’t get it going on Friday, maybe facing the team the team he was once slated to play for would be enough motivation for Vatrano to breakout against BC.

While each game has seemed like some kind of learning experience for the team this season, these are still important games and unlike last weekend these count in the league standings.  Hockey East points in October are worth just as much as the ones in February and though all these road games may be unfair for a team still trying to get to know each other, the outcomes of these games could have long ranging consequences.  Though very different from each other, both these arenas can be difficult places to play, especially for the first time.  When you skate at Matthews you’re skating into a part of history, with a rowdy student section, and fans who are literally hanging over the ice from their storied balcony seats.  Conte doesn’t have the same character, but it’s a place where BC doesn’t lose very often and they have quite a few banners to prove it.  Last weekend this Minuteman team proved they can fight and win halfway across the country.  This weekend they can show they’re capable of doing the same against league opponents in-state.

Beer The Triangle
There’s a certain bar that I usually send fans to prior to Northeastern games (no, not Uno’s) that’s one of my favorites.  I may send you there in the future, but this time I’m just going to ask you to read this.  For before or after (I prefer after) the BC game regular readers already know where I’ll send you.  Here’s what you’ll currently find on draft at Publick House.  I haven’t had the Allagash Farm to Face, but it piques my interest.  Maybe we’ll get lucky and Port Older Viscosity will be on draft by Saturday.

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I did a Q&A with BC Interruption ahead of Saturday’s game which supplements this preview.

The Collegian previews the weekend ahead as well as focuses in on the early success of the Pigozzi/Iacobellis/Lee line.

The Gazette has their weekend preview.

by rocks22 on October 23, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Game Preview

Posted by rocks22 on October 23, 2014

https://fearthetriangle.com/2014/10/23/weekend-preview-umass-heads-east-to-take-on-northeastern-and-bc/

View From Section U: On The Subject Of Triangles

Sorry, no View From Section U column tonight.  At least nothing original.  I’m going to use the evening to get a jump of the weekend preview as well as try to get to some other stuff I’ve ignored.  But I figured I may as well dust off something from the archives for new FTT readers.  I’m sure there are probably some new students and fans that have found their way to the blog since the restart who may be asking themselves, “What’s the deal with the triangles and why should we be afraid of them?”  I’d like to say that the blog’s name is based on my own interpretation of a can’t miss triangle offense which I took years developing.  But, I’ve never played hockey and don’t have a great knowledge of the Xs and Os, so that’s not it.

It has to do with those wonderful jerseys that were ranked higher, at least in this list, than any team that wore them.  So I’ll take this opportunity to bring the myth and magic of the triangle to those who have only recently become UMass fans.  It’s also timely since the subject of triangles came up during this past weekend’s radio broadcast, with play-by-play announcer John Hennessy even mentioning a phobia of everyone’s favorite geometric shape (your check is in the mail, John).  So here’s what I wrote about the infamous beloved triangle back in 2010 when the team was going through some trying times:

In the tradition of Paul Revere, Billy Dawes, and Samuel Prescott, I am officially alerting the Minuteman militias.  “The Triangles are coming!  The Triangles are coming!”

I’m sure many people have started reading the Fear The Triangle blog in the past year without really knowing what the phrase even means.  Well I guess it’s time to fill you in.  The triangle of course refers to the old pennant jerseys introduced by former coach Joe Mallen when the program was resurrected in 1993.  That year also marked my first year at UMass and when I first started following the team.  Many of the friends whom I watch the game with started following the team around the same time or a few years later, but we all remember those Mallen years vividly.  Or should I say we all remember those years, unfortunately.  That was some pretty bad hockey bad then.  Not only did UMass lose regularly, they lost in epic fashion at times.  It wasn’t easy being a UMass fan back then, but we had fun and stuck with the team anyway.  Flash forward to 2006.  The team had long since abandoned its triangle jerseys and somewhat abandoned it’s losing ways.  Kinda.  The 2006-2007 squad got out to a good start with a 6-1-1 record.  But then it all came apart.  The team proceeded to go 2-6-2 over the next 10 games, with the last being a 2-1 loss at, of all places, Lawler Arena at Merrimack.  Seeing UMass basically undo all they had accomplished earlier and reverting back to the form of the Mallen years, I had a desperate idea.  If the team was going to play like the team of old that wore triangles, then we were going to play the part as fans.  A call was put out to the hardcore group of fans; it was triangle time.  Our newish block logo UMass jerseys were put away and the old 90’s era jerseys were taken out of mothballs and worn to the very next game.  What do you know, a 4-2 win at home over Merrimack.  Well that was pretty cool, so we had to wear them again right?  UMass plastered Lowell 5-1.  In fact UMass would go 5-1-1 over the next 7 games.  The season was back on track and amazingly enough at end of it all UMass had its first NCAA berth and first tournament win.  In subsequent years, in trying times when the prospects of the season look dire and the team looked downright horrid, the triangles were brought out and for the most part the team would enjoy some success.

Some teams have rally hats.  Some have rally towels.  Hell, some even have rally monkeys.  UMass, for whatever reason, has rally triangles.

Well, losers of 6 of 7 and being dominated by a 9th place Merrimack team by the score of 4-1 sure sounds like a triangle-clad team to me!  Therefore the gauntlet is being thrown down.  If you have a triangle buried somewhere in your closet or know someone who does, make sure to locate it and don it tonight.  At best whatever magic it contains may just help the team get out of its funk.  At worst, we’ll all be dressed appropriately for the level of play on the ice before us.  Who knows.  Maybe the team will in fact win.  Maybe they’ll go on a little run.  Maybe they secure a place in home ice and the pairwise to end the season.  Maybe UMass opponents will know what it means to fear the triangle.

 

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The Collegian has this article on the performance of Patrick Lee, Jake Horton, and Keith Burchett so far on the season.

Troubling news on the coming seismic shift to college sports with the news that Texas will be paying each of their student-athletes $10,000 a year in the future.  Not just the athletes in their revenue driving sports, but all athletes.  It ends up being $6 million a year.  The entire UMass budget is a little less than $30 million, so this is obviously something UMass and a good portion of DI schools would not be able to match.  How UMass chooses to address the disparity, especially in football and men’s basketball, and how that would affect hockey remains to be seen.  I think a more immediate concern is if schools that currently play DI hockey choose to pay college hockey players something similar.  Certainly the Big Ten schools, Notre Dame, and potential Boston College could start offering their athletes considerable sums to play there, which puts everyone else at a huge disadvantage.  We’ll see how things continue to shake out.  But I think college sports as we’ve grown accustomed to is going to be a thing of the past.

by rocks22 on October 22, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in View From Section U

Posted by rocks22 on October 22, 2014

https://fearthetriangle.com/2014/10/22/view-from-section-u-on-the-subject-of-triangles/

Recruit Update

Brandon Montour – D – Waterloo Blackhawks (USHL) – Dec 2014
7 GP / 1 G / 6 A / 7 Pts / 2 PIM / 0
Montour picked up his first goal of the year in a 2-1 loss for the Blackhawks.

Brandon Egli – D – Vernon Vipers (BCHL) – 2015
6 GP / 0 G / 0 A / 0 Pts / 0 PIM
Egli played this past weekend for Vernon but didn’t register in the scoring.

Jake McCarthy – D – South Shore Kings (USPHL) – 2015 or 2016
0 GP / 0 G / 0 A / 0 Pts / 0 PIM
McCarthy is still nursing an injury that is delaying his debut for the Kings.

Kurt Keats – C – Powell River Kings (BCHL) – 2015
12 GP / 11 G /7 A / 18 Pts / 10 PIM
Keats has now scored a goal in six straight games, scoring 7 goals total to go with three assists in that span.  He’s second in the league in goals and 6th in points.

Austin Plevy – C – Brooks Bandits (AJHL) – 2015
15 GP / 9 G /16 A / 24 Pts / 20 PIM
Plevy had two goals and three assists this past week.  He continues to lead the AJHL in points while ranking 6th in goals.

Troy Conzo – RW – Des Moines Buccaneers (USHL) – 2016 or 2017
2 GP / 0 G /0 A /0 Pts / 0 PIM / -2
Conzo played his second game of the season for the Bucs but didn’t make it into the scoring.  One thing to keep in mind about Conzo is he is one of the younger players on his team.  He will still have one or two seasons in the USHL most likely after this one.

Kyler Nachtigall – LW – Brooks Bandits (AJHL) – 2016
15 GP / 3 G / 3 A / 6 Pts / 33 PIM
Nachtigall had a goal and an assist this past week.

Shane Bear – D – Brooks Bandits (AJHL) – 2016
13 GP / 0 G / 6 A / 6 Pts / 16 PIM
It appears there was a stat correction this week as Bear actually lost a couple assists.

Ty Pelton-Byce – C – Team Wisconsin U18 (Elite)/Madison Memorial (WI HS) – 2016
18 GP / 11 G / 11 A / 22 Pts / 8 PIM  Team Wisconsin U18
0 GP / 0 G / 0 A / 0 Pts  Madison Memorial
Pelton-Byce had two goals and an assist in the past week.  He’s among the league leaders in goals and points.

John Leonard – F – Springfield Rifles (Mass Selects)/Springfield Cathedral (MA HS) – 2017
10 GP / 13 G / 6 A / 19 Pts  Springfield Rifles
0 GP / 0 G / 0 A / 0 Pts  Springfield Cathedral
T.A. from Hockeyrecruits4u blog passed along the info that Leonard is playing for the Springfield Rifles of the Mass Selects league before his high school season starts.  Leonard has mostly played with the U16 team where he currently is 4th in the league in goals and 7th in points.  He did play one game with the U18 team where he scored a hat trick.

For those interested, here is the Springfield Rifles logo:

Hmm….there is something very familiar about that image…  can’t put my finger on it…

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UMass had two of the Top 5 plays highlighted on the NCAA Hockey website with Patrick Lee’s gamewinner grabbing the top spot.  I’m still partial to the Horton goal sequence though that came in at #3.  If you want to feel optimistic about this season watch that highlight a few times.  The ticket office should burn that play on DVDs to be sent to any lapsed season ticket holders.  Any Pond Club mailings should include a DVD of that play personally signed by each player that touched the puck.  A video board should be added to the side of the practice rink just to show it over and over to the poor students making the long walk in from the yellow and green lots next to Mullins and make their daily trek a little better.  Assistant coaches Joey Gasparini and Ryan Miller should save the highlight onto their phones to aid them in their recruiting trips.  All FBS football conferences that UMass is targeting for membership should be shown that video, just because hockey.  Coach Micheletto should walk in to the next UMass sports luncheon, show the play on a loop while blasting AC/DC, and just walk out leaving the luncheon regulars in stunned awe.  If you aren’t excited after watching that play there is nothing more I can do to help you, you might as well delete FTT from your bookmarks.

Here’s the latest blog entry from Troy Power chronicling the road trip to East Lansing, complete with video this week.

Here’s an interesting first piece in a series from USCHO on the current challenges in scheduling games in college hockey.  This is obviously something that is affecting UMass, as seen with all the non-conference games against Hockey East teams in the last two seasons.

by rocks22 on October 21, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Recruit Update

Posted by rocks22 on October 21, 2014

https://fearthetriangle.com/2014/10/21/recruit-update-50/

Polls & Awards: Iacobellis Named HEA Player of the Week

Congratulations go to Massachusetts sophomore forward Steven Iacobellis for being named the Hockey East Player of the Week.  While Iacobellis was named the team’s Rookie of the Year last season, this is the first Hockey East weekly honor for Iacobellis who had two goals and two assists in Saturday’s win over Michigan State.  Patrick Lee was named one of the weekly Top Performers for his three point weekend that included the game winner in the waning seconds of Saturday match.

Iacobellis was also named co-UMass Athlete of the Week with running back Shadrach Abrokwah.

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Hockey East owns an entire block of this week’s top ten in the USCHO poll with Providence, Boston College, and Lowell coming in as the 5th, 6th, and 7th schools respectively.  The Friars didn’t move in the poll after playing an exhibition game against the USA Hockey U18 team this past week.  BC moved up a slot with their 6-2 win at RIT while Lowell jumped two spots after gaining a win and a tie against Quinnipiac.  Boston University’s win over UMass keeps on giving as the Terriers have still only played that one game on the season yet slid up to #12 in the poll.  Vermont has joined the rankings at #17 after starting the season 3-0-0.  Notre Dame, Merrimack, New Hampshire, and Northeastern are all getting votes.

Like the USCHO poll, the Minnesota Gophers are the top team in the USA Hockey Magazine/USA Today poll.

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The highlights from this past weekend have been posted on UMass Athletics.  They’re worth a watch.  From Friday’s highlights I was impressed by Shane Walsh’s long cross ice set up to Keith Burchett’s first goal as well as the nice job by Dennis Kravchenko and Zack LaRue on the shorthanded goal.  On Saturday, the Lee gamewinner is certainly the big highlight, but the second goal of the game shows some excellent puck movement and a nice job by Lee in collecting a loose puck to start the whole play off.  On that sequence is some of the best passing I’ve seen from UMass in recent memory so make sure to check it out.

Here’s the weekend recap from the Collegian.

And here are some weekend thoughts from the Spartan viewpoint at The Only Colors.

Jeff Cox of SBN College Hockey has UMass at #10 in his Hockey East power rankings.

USHR is reporting that former UMass and BU recruit Liam Coughlin is now committed to Vermont.  Coughlin was all set to join UMass this semester until he backed out of his commitment in April for BU, which he had dubbed his “dream school”.  Well that dream didn’t last long as he was already on the outs with BU by the end of the summer.

by rocks22 on October 20, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Polls & Awards

Posted by rocks22 on October 20, 2014

https://fearthetriangle.com/2014/10/20/polls-awards-iacobellis-named-hea-player-of-the-week/

Weekend Recap: Massachusetts Splits With Michigan State

Coming off last weekend’s 8-1 loss where the young Massachusetts team collapsed in the third period when faced with adversity, what I was hoping to see in this weekend’s series with Michigan State was an ability to battle and stay in the game.  I think you can safely say that was accomplished as the team fought hard all weekend on the way to a split with the Spartans.  The Minutemen got exactly what they needed if they want to be successful this season; a lot of contributions from the freshmen and sophomores.

I was only able to listen to both games, so I won’t be able to get too deep in my analysis.  On Friday the Minutemen lost 5-3.  After a first period that saw MSU take a 2-0 lead and UMass defenseman Ben Gallacher get seriously injured after a check from behind, one had to wonder how UMass would respond in the second.  It was an early test to see if the team had learned anything from the third period against BU.  And it didn’t take long for them to show that in this case they would choose to battle rather than fold.  They scored two quick goals to start the second frame, the first a was off the stick of Keith Burchett after a nice cross-ice pass (or shot?) from Shane Walsh.  Just a few minutes after that Zack LaRue tied the game on a shorthanded goal after a nice feed from Dennis Kravchenko.  Michigan State regained the lead midway through the period on a power play goal.  Being down a defenseman started to take its toll however and Michigan State would extend its lead to 5-2 after a couple goals early in the third.  Again UMass hung in there and Burchett would score again on a wrister, again off a pass from Shane Walsh, 13 minutes into the period.

That would do it though and Michigan State picked up the win.  Judging from the radio commentary UMass continued to show lapses in their own defensive end and got a shaky performance from Steve Mastalerz in net.  Still, they had to play with five defensemen the whole game so that certainly had an effect on how the defense fared.  The Gallacher injury is a tough one since UMass is only carrying seven defensemen on the roster until Brandon Montour is due to arrive in December.

There were some key positives on Friday despite the loss.  Certainly the play of Burchett and his linemate Walsh were the most obvious.  But I think just the fact that most of the game was give and take with both teams trading scores showed that the young UMass team is maturing and learning how to handle the different situations that come up during the game.  While there were breakdowns, the team played hard for all sixty minutes and they were never really out of the game.  And it put them in a good jumping off point for Saturday.

FTT Player of the Game (Friday) – Keith Burchett
This is an easy one.  Some of the other freshman forwards had the great reputations as forwards, but it ends up being Burchett to have the first breakout game among the group.  Good things happen when you attack the net, and that’s exactly what he did in his first goal when Walsh found him from the other side of the ice.

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The theme of the weekend was battle, and that’s exactly what Saturday’s game was.  A battle.  Luckily for the Minutemen they got the last punch in just before the bell.  Patrick Lee’s first collegiate goal with 9.9 seconds left gave UMass its first win of the season with a 4-3 final score.  The game was dominated by the underclassemen with freshmen and sophomores accounting for all four goals and 11 of the 12 points in the game.  On the other end of the ice freshman Henry Dill got a win in his first start, finishing with 28 saves.

The teams were held scoreless for the first 15 minutes of the game and then quickly saw three goals scored in the last five minutes of the period.  Steven Iacobellis got the scoring started only to have Spartan Matt Berry answer just over a minute later.  Jake Horton then picked up his second goal of the season to give the Minutemen the lead going into the second period.  Berry would pick up the lone goal of the second period and then take the 3-2 lead just seconds into the third.  It stayed that way for most of the third until Iacobellis picked up his second with four and a half minutes left in the game to tie it.  Michigan State would make a critical mistake with four minutes left in the game when Justin Hoomainian got a game misconduct for a contact to the head penalty, allowing UMass to play the balance of regulation with an extra man.  With 9.9 seconds left Lee got the game winner and UMass comes home to Amherst with the split.

There were a lot of positives to take away from last night’s game.  Obviously freshmen Lee and Dill playing big roles in the win is one of them.  Horton is living up to his reputation as an offensive threat with his second goal on the young season.  The biggest thing last night was how well sophomore forwards Iacobellis and Ray Pigozzi played.  After being held scoreless in the first two games of the season Iacobellis had the two goals to go with two assists.  Pigozzi had three assists on the night.  There are still a few things to be concerned about however.  The depth at defense could be an issue if Gallacher is out for a while.  UMass fans are also wondering when they’ll hear from Frank Vatrano and Dennis Kravchenko.  The two are first and second on the team in shots on goal but have only combined for one point through the first three games, an assist by Kravchenko.   Freshman Anthony Petrella was also expected to be an offensive threat after leading prep powerhouse Shattuck-St Mary’s in goals last season but through three games hasn’t registered a shot on net.

The split was a success from my standpoint as the team made strides in shaking off the poor performance against BU last week.  The freshmen showed that they can be counted on to contribute and did not seem to be intimidated by playing on the road.  That’s key considering next weekend they’ll be playing in their first league road games at Boston College and Northeastern.

FTT Player of the Game (Saturday) – Steven Iacobellis
Lee was the hero and Dill did well in his first start but two goals and two assists, including on the game winner, gets Iacobellis the nod.

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Friday’s recap and Saturday’s recap from UMass Athletics.

USCHO’s game story from Friday.

There wasn’t much other coverage of the series to share.

by rocks22 on October 19, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Game Recap

Posted by rocks22 on October 19, 2014

https://fearthetriangle.com/2014/10/19/weekend-recap-massachusetts-splits-with-michigan-state/

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