The opening of ECAC league play, came with bangs as both Rensselaer and Harvard picked up sweeps. Harvard was probably not a surprise,  but RPI certainly was. The Engineers have gotten off to a weird start to its season, at 1-4 but its win came against a strong Boston College team that has since gone 5-0-0. The weekend was certainly what the doctor ordered and I will talk about it more in depth below.

The ECAC again had a solid weekend in non-conference action, as it went 5-3-1 on the weekend. St. Lawrence picked up a win and a tie on the road against Penn State, Cornell swept Niagara, Brown lost a long game to Holy Cross and Colgate was swept by Providence. For all intensive purposes, the week was a success mainly because Princeton and Yale swept their respective Hockey East opponents at the Capital City Classic. Yale thrashed a previously unbeaten UMass team and Princeton defeated struggling Maine. The league still holds a .651 win percentage in non-league tilts, but are only 15-11-3 against the league’s other than the Atlantic.

Dartmouth Has Tons of Work to Do

Dartmouth did a better job of handling Harvard’s advantage in skill on Sunday than it did on Saturday, but the weekend still lacked a moment that I thought Dartmouth was going to be a factor this season. The Big Green were run out of its own building in a 7-0 defeat in its season opener and the next night it opened the scoring but gave up five of the next six goals in the game, to drop to 0-2-0 on the year. Bob Gaudet was quick to point out his team’s lack of compete and feistyness on Saturday but then again once Harvard got out to an early 3-0 lead, there was hardly a need for it because the Crimson put the game away quickly.  There was no thought that the Big Green could ever get back into it.

The Big Green did a great job of limiting chances on the weekend, but it just wasn’t enough because Harvard made them pay at every move. On Sunday it was able to limit its opponent to just 18 shots, but it was scored upon five times because those chances were quality ones that will go in most of the time. While it is great to give up just 18 shots, when five of those shots go in there is an underlying problem that shows a bigger weakness on defense, inconsistency. It is a problem that has plagued Dartmouth defenses in the past, just look back two seasons ago.

Dartmouth scored just twice on the weekend. Despite a territorial advantage on Sunday, the Big Green created just 20 shots of their own. Credit Harvard for keeping them out of the quality scoring areas, but Dartmouth also struggled to get themselves into those positions. We all knew that it would struggle to find consistent offense this season, as it lost most of its offense from last season and that certainly was the case over the weekend against a Harvard team that did give them the opportunity to do so.

All told, it has tons of work to do before this weekend. Neither, Brown nor Yale will pose the offensive threat that Harvard did but there is still talent on both of those teams that can find the net. Scoring will be key but improvements in the defense and in goaltending would go a long way. Neither of the latter issues should be present, but they certainly reared their ugly heads over the weekend.

Rensselaer’s Big Weekend but not so fast

Did anyone really expect RPI to sweep Union for a second straight season? I certainly did not, but we should credit RPI coach Seth Appert on putting together a gameplan to get the job done. It also marked the second year that it ran its rival out of the building in the opener. For RPI, the results are great but whether they are able to sustain it to going forward will be the ultimate challenge. Last season, it did give a bit of a push but it fell off. There is nothing to think it doesn’t happen again because of the Engineer’s struggles so far this season.

The weekend was an anomaly to RPI’s season thus far, just like it was last season. The Engineers corsi has hovered around some of the lower numbers in division I hockey, for much the past couple seasons. It has again been problematic as it is eighth worse in the country, a tick over 44 percent. Its record probably fits how it has played this season, but why is there such an uptick when it plays Union? That is the ultimate question that needs be asked, in my opinion.

Rensselaer is probably in better position this season to make a better run than it was last year. It is healthier, Jason Kasdorf has a ton to prove and it has young players that are molding well. Freshman, Evan Tironese won the ECAC Rookie of the Month award this week and it was well deserved. He leads the Engineers in scoring, with seven points despite having just a lone goal. He has added a point in every game, except for the Michigan titlt, and has added five points in three games against Boston College and Union. He adds to a talented young group that includes Drew Melanson, Viktor Liljegren and Lou Nanne that should start providing more offense. So in all, maybe I think RPI is in position to make a run into the top half? Consistency and being able to get more possession is probably the goal to make the results stick.

St. Lawrence is More Than Just Kyle Hayton

Over the weekend, SLU went down to Penn State and was able to pick up a win and a tie. It was probably the quietest of the weekend series’ in the ECAC, but it was one I was certainly watching. On Thursday night, Kyle Hayton surprisingly got the night off. His replacement, Arthur Bray, had a night to remember in his debut making 50 of 52 saves against the offensive juggernaut that has been developed down at Happy Valley. The save count may have been high, but it makes you realize that the Saints are much more than its star goaltender, Kyle Hayton.

Yes some of the 52 shots that Penn State had were quality, but most of them were outside. Getting outshot 52-26 is not ideal but it happens a lot , more often than not it is the team that is heavily outshot that wins or gets a result. It is the epitome of a bend but don’t break situation that often happens. Of course last season, Hayton made his name on racking up the saves much like Bray did against Nittany Lions.

It is a great luxury to have two goaltenders that can get the job done. Both Hayton and Bray have similar styles and are quick in the net. Bray having a good night, proves that SLU is more than just Hayton because it assures everyone there is another quality guy waiting in the wings if Hayton were to struggle at any point. It also proves the defense is probably a tad better at limiting quality shots than it is given credit for. The game was an anomaly for SLU’s season, because it has been better at possession this season and it has kept the shot counts way down. Hayton or Bray won’t have many games where they have to stop 40+.

Wednesday, November 4th, 2015 - 4:53 pm | Blogs, ECAC, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings