RPI Series Recap

Clinched the series during our weakest game

It took 3 games, but the team eventually earned their ticket to Albany, after what became a thriller Sunday night in Lynah.

Friday night's game featured only one goal, and it came off of the other team's stick, late in the 3rd. It was not a great shot from what I hear, though I could not see it well [the goal was on the section-G end of the ice, I sit on the other side]. Otherwise, the name of the game was York. Or, I suppose, York-plus-posts-plus-why-cant-we-bury-the-darn-puck.
We played really strong in the 1st. The 2nd was kind of weak. The 3rd, our offense started buzzing, and our defense...looked as though they got excited by our offense, and started being more interested in trying to help generate chances than they were in trying to stop RPI chances.
Take-away messages from that game: Our defense needs to settle down and get the job done. Our offense needs to capitalize when given an opportunity [or 10].

Another result of Friday's game was the famous Schaefer suspension. If you have not yet, check out CHN's blogger's take on the suspension. Its interesting. I personally did not think friday's officiating was any worse than a standard ECAC game, but then again I do not particularly think any ECAC game is called well. Anyway, whether this was the cause or not, saturday saw 2 new refs. And they were whistle-happy.
59 minutes of penalties later, Cornell walked off the ice with a win. 2-for-18 on the powerplay, that basically says it all. To be fair, though, we earned a number of those powerplays. Not all, some were really weak calls. But a number of them were a direct result of our players outskating, outpositioning, and outsmarting the RPI guys. The [Puckmen/Engineers/red?]s only defense was to take penalties. Working hard and drawing penalties is an excellent way to win hockey games. 2/3 of the game in the box may be a bit absurd, but the guys played the way they needed to to win. Plus, they solved York, and got the offense rolling a bit, both good things. And in all honestly, Scrivens didn't even have enough action to determine whether he was having a good game or not. He must've been so bored.

Game 3. Schaefer back behind the bench, and the league goes with 1 Friday ref and 1 brand new one (Feola, who I think does a very solid job regularly). I don't know if the teams got a talking-to after saturday's game, I don't know if they realized the season was on the line and they needed to shape up, I don't know if they were just too plain exhausted to play the same style, but Sunday's game was much cleaner. Not as many penalties, not as many missed calls. What it came down to though, York looked very mortal. Cornell took a quick lead on a not-very-strong shot. Traffic in front, but it was slow and along the ice. RPI tied it at 1 in the 2nd, but Cornell responded with 3 quick goals, putting the game away. The team looked tired by the end; maybe that contributed to RPI's comeback to make the game close on the scoreboard. Ben Scrivens had a solid game, better than he's had in 3 weeks. Michael Kennedy had some huge faceoff wins, including one with 30 seconds left deep in RPI territory that kept York on the ice, effectively for the rest of the game.

Next weekend's ECAC final-four matchup will be interesting. Princeton, like Cornell, limped through the spring, and needed 3 games to move on to Albany. Like Cornell, Princeton's strength starts from the net, with ECAC goalie of the year Zane Kalemba. During the regular season, each team only netted 2 against the other over 2 games. Opening night of the season, we shut them out 1-o in NJ, and then in the Spring the tigers came to Lynah, and put away 2 in the final minute of regulation to win 2-1. This is playoffs though, both teams will be playing for their season's future. And unlike this past weekend, we only get one shot at it this week.

The defense needs to show patience. The offense needs to show intensity. They are not gonna get many chances, they need to capitalize on the ones they do get. And Ben Scrivens needs to show what he had in November and December.

See you in Albany.

LETS GO RED!

Quarterfinal Matchups and Predictions

First the other 3 matchups. I'll post about our series later.

#12 Brown at #1 Yale
Mike Clemente carried Brown through the Crimson last week...only to earn a trip to the Whale this weekend. From my view, the two teams are exact opposites: Brown plays a slow, grinding game, and will rely heavily on Clemente if they expect to win. Yale hockey is incredibly fast-paced and skilled. From what I've seen this year, I have not been particularly impressed with any of their goaltenders. I expect Yales forwards to (literally) skate circles around the Brown defense. While it would be a nice Cinderella story, I don't think Brown is going to repeat their performance of last week. Yale is just too fast. Clemente faced 86 shots last weekend. If the games are even close, you can expect Yale to break 100. Speed and skill vs a hot goalie, no defense, and minimal offense; Yale wins.

#8 Union at #3 Princeton
Princeton ended the season with losses to now-eliminated Harvard and Dartmouth. They will be playing in front of their home crowd and looking to redeem themselves. They will come out of the gate flying. UC is coming off of their first-ever playoff series win, and will be hoping to ride that momentum. The tigers were nearly flawless in ECAC play in the last months of '08. The beginning of '09 has been one of inconsistency for them however, going only 7-7 in league play, including big losses to Union, and other weak team RPI. If I were to predict an upset, this is where I would pick it. Dutchmen in 3.

#7 Quinnipiac at #4 St Lawrence
The Saints have been monstrous at home this season. Since '09 started, they've scored 5 or more 4 times in their own rink (6, 5, 8, and 7). Add to that a 6-1 win in Providence, and they look like a high-scoring machine. Q is vastly improved with the return of center Brendan Wong from injury, but they are still the only team that needed 3 games to get to this point. After struggling at home against Colgate, I find it hard to believe that they will travel to St. Lawrence and put together 2 wins. The Saints will march to Albany with a sweep, outscoring Q at least 10-4 over the weekend.

What?!

We are guaranteed RPI next weekend.

Harvard was shut out twice at home. Last-place Brown became the first 12-seed in ECAC history [during this format of playoffs] to win a series. They play Yale next weekend in the Whale
Renssellaer also beat Dartmouth. Technically an upset, but really not as shocking as Brown's victory.

Union beat clarkson big tonight, earning their first playoff series victory in a resounding fashion. They await game 3 of Quinnipiac / Colgate, which so far has gone to overtime both games, to determine their opponent next weekend.

Brown and Playoffs

Not much to say about the Brown game. It was a poorly-played event from both sides. We "put in the scrubs", so to speak. No Scali, no Barlow, still no 22 Devin. In was Kary, 7 Davenport moved to forward, in was Whitney. I'm sure our team assumed that Brown would be a pushover. I assume they were tired from playing hard against a much faster team the night before. I assume some combination of these 3 facts combined for our slow start, but I wasn't worried.

PLAYOFFS

The ECAC regular season has finally reached an end. Next week will see Yale, Cornell, Princeton, and St Lawrence resting, courtesy of their top-4 standings and the corresponding bye. The rest of the league will look like this (with my predictions)

(12) Brown at (5) Harvard. This matchup is a no-brainer. Brown has had only 3 wins on the entire year. Harvard has come up with upset wins over both us and Princeton at Lynah East. I would bet the house on a 2-game sweep.

(11) RPI at (6) Dartmouth. Also pretty obvious. Dartmouth spent most of the season in the top-4, and also managed to upset both us and Princeton at home. RPI is pretty hapless. Big Green in 2.

(10) Colgate at (7) Quinnipiac. This is where things begin to get interesting. Colgate this season has had some surprising wins against some talented teams, notably Mass-Lowell, Maine [to reach us in the finals of the Estero classic], and an overtime winner in the Whale today. Yet they haven't done so excellently otherwise. This matchup could go either way, but I'm going to call it for Q in 3 games.

(9) Clarkson at (8) Union. This series is full of intrigue. The two teams ended the regular season tied for points, with the tiebreaker decideing home ice for the playoff bouts. In fact, the two teams ended the season against each other, with Union pulling out a 2-1 win on home ice. Yet the Dutchmen still have never won a postseason game, and Clarkson has been improving since starting league play with 6 straight losses. I know its easy to call the 8-9 game an upset, but I'm going with the Golden Nights in 2.

ROUND 2

The league re-seeds teams after the first round, making it impossible to predict who we will play the following weekend. For example Yale will play the winner of the Clarkson/Union matchup...UNLESS Colgate beats Q. In that case, Colgate goes to New Haven, and we see the winner of CCT/UC. As my predictions have it, we will be seeing Quinnipiac in the 2nd round.

The only thing worth pointing out are the teams that it is impossible for us to see. We will not see Harvard or Dartmouth [if either or both of them win, they will play SLU and Princeton]. We cannot see Brown, and [assuming Brown loses], we will not see RPI. We can see Colgate, only if either Brown or RPI also wins

My prediction: 60% chance of seeing Quinnipiac here for round 2, and then 15% for each of Union/Clarkson.