The Ivy League schools began play over the weekend. For some, it proved to be a rough night. For others, there were moments that showed hey they may have something to add. For Dartmouth, the one game it played had to be a big momentum boost for the coming weeks heading towards ECAC play. All told, the Ivies had a 4-4-0 record on the weekend, including the Big Green’s win over Michigan on Saturday night.

Union swept RPI in the opening league games of the 2016 season, continuing their hot start. The Dutchmen are now 6-1-1 on the season. Their offense is led by rejuvenated senior Mike Vecchione, who has 10 goals on the year and the game-winner against the Engineers on Saturday. The only team that has defeated Rick Bennett’s charges this season was Michigan at Yost. They will play at Holy Cross tonight, which has a win against Providence and defeated Brown on Friday, 3-0.

The league has in some senses struggled this season in non-conference play, but it was probably never going to equal last year’s impressive non-conference season. So many teams are young and have players in new roles. Other than a 5-1-3 record against the Atlantic, the ECAC has a record of 13-19-4 against the BIG and Hockey East. It has been tough sledding in some games, but with the Ivies back I suspect it will all get better. I also totally expect Clarkson and SLU to break their respective slumps at some point. Both teams have a good number of talented players. Without further ado here are my thoughts of the week:

Cornell Got Too Far Behind and the Concerning Start for Mitch Gillam

The Ivies always have rust coming out and that was certainly the case with Cornell over the weekend. In the first 12 minutes of its game against Merrmimack, it was down 2-0 and just looked shell-shocked with the new season. It didn’t help that the usually reliable Mitch Gillam was having a rough night between the pipes that really made the rust that much worse. It ended up losing the game 3-2. after getting down 3-0 and having Gillam pulled.

Despite the loss, Cornell is still the team I have pegged as an ECAC contender entering the season and a possible darkhorse to win it. After it got down by three in the second period, it was the better team and was able to wear down the Warriors, who were much the worse for wear the next night against UNH. The Big Red moved the puck in the second period, generating 18 shots. Against a team like Merrimack, getting 18 shots in a period is impressive and it is certainly an improvement from what I saw from them at stages last season. The offense as a whole, although it was unable to find the back of the net, looked better and so did the power play. On the PP chances, it moved the puck around the zone with ease, but Vogeler had a great game in the Warrior net. If it wasn’t for the great goaltending on the other end, Cornell may have just eked out a victory, but it just wasn’t happening.

Cornell took many silly penalties, which included an Anthony Angello facemasking call that all but stymied any chance for the Big Red to come away with a win. It happened with less than ten minutes to go and killed any momentum that it may have gained in the period. I felt, before that call, that they were knocking on the door to get within one and would ultimately tie it up. But, the penalty killed any chance. There were others in the game and coach Schafer put the big penalties on his team, while also talking about how difficult it was guage some of the other calls that have plagued college hockey this season. The big ones, however, were the unnecessary ones like the late facemask and an earlier one that led to a goal on the other side.

One should expect Mitch Gillam to rebound quickly, but his form has been pretty poor going back to last season. In his last eight games, Gillam has a .898 save percentage and has given up 24 goals. Gillam looked pretty beat on all three of the Merrimack goals. On Alex Carle’s power play marker, in particularly, he never looked set as the puck was shot from the point. He was screened, but it just looked like he was a tad off compared to where he has been in recent seasons. Hayden Stewart looked great in relief, which should provide a backup plan.

Cornell will be better because its offense already looks deeper and stronger.

Dartmouth’s Impressive Win

Although a win over Michigan is probably not as impressive this season, as it would have been last year when it had Kyle Connor and many other talented players, it is still an great victory to build upon. Getting Michigan at home, is also notable because it was the first time in the storied history of both programs that the Wolverines visited Hanover. Troy Crema scored the game-winner with 49 seconds left, in an impressive outing where the Green oushot the Wolverines 35-24.

I didn’t expect much from the Big Green this year, honestly. Dartmouth, like Colgate, lost many key pieces to its lineup and will be starting many youngsters that will lead to an inexperienced group. The Big Green overachieved last season, but now the rebuild gets deeper and its coach Bob Gaudet seemed to realize that. Dartmouth and Gaudet are used to this, it happens every four years, the rebuild just seems bigger now than it has been in the past for them but maybe it isn’t all that bad, because there were pieces to build around.

The difference between Colgate and Dartmouth is that the Big Green have those pieces. Crema had 19 points last season, Carl Hesler had 11 goals and Grant Opperman, Corey Kalk and others have shown the ability to put the puck in the net. The defensive side of the puck also has some pieces that were young last year, but have a chance to take a big step. Connor Yau had his moments last year, as a freshman, Josh Hartley, now a senior, and Tim Shoup will be tasked with leading the defensive corps. Those three wil mix with others, but the three of them proved last season they should be fine in the increased roles. The only BIG question mark was probably in net. On Saturday, Devin Buffalo allowed two goals and made 22 saves. Interesting to see a bigger sample on him, to see whether it continues.

Looking deeper in the Dartmouth win on Saturday, would show you that the Big Green had a good possession game. I have always enjoyed watching it, because its system IMO is probably the best in the ECAC. The fact it was able to get possession, shots at net and good goaltending against a quality opponent, should be a good sign that the young players are catching on and that the Big Green should pick up their share of wins this year. It also marked the first time they picked up an opening night win since 2011. What direction will Dartmouth go from here?

Harvard Looked Good but Does it Really Mean Anything?

Arizona State continues to improve and we should give them credit for that. Harvard should also be lauded for going out to the most beautiful state in the Union, ya I love Arizona and I am biased, but did their weekend really mean anything? I would argue as impressive as it was, it really doesn’t show us much.

The Crimson are still far superior in talent, like most ECAC teams are, to ASU. That is why they were able to put up 13 goals in two games on just 63 shots on goal over the weekend. ASU will get there, but just aren’t there yet. Other than a win against Air Force, the Sun Devils have struggled to compete in year two. Before the Harvard weekend, they had given 30 goals in just six games and scored 15. Take out its win against Air Force its goal margin was 28-10 in just five games. So as impressive as the 13-2 shellacking over the weekend Harvard had, it was right on par with other results the Sun Devils suffered this season.

As much as the scoreline appeared, Harvard according to the metrics you can find on the CHN team schedule page really didn’t dominate as much as other teams have against ASU. Yah, of course there are score effects but on Saturday when it was close, the Sun Devils were able to keep up with the Crimson and have dangerous opportunities that were saved by Merrick Madsen. The game was choppy and lacked any quality from either team. Saying Harvard was at all improved on defense, is more on the fact that it didn’t have to take risks during the game because it had a lead in both games. On the weekend, it had a 55 percent corsi rating at even strength and the same percentage for the game. The domination level was hardly what it appeared because ASU has struggled much more in its other games, with a corsi rating of 40% on the year which includes the two games against the Crimson.

I would argue we learned less about the Crimson over the weekend than any other team. We did learn there will be plenty of offense, with Sean Malone, Alex Kerfoot, Ryan Donato and the rest of its talented group of forwards but we knew they would. Did they get better where they needed to or was the weekend helped by the opponent?  We should learn much more this weekend, as the Crimson face Cornell and Colgate.

Tuesday, November 1st, 2016 - 2:44 pm | Blogs, Commentary, ECAC, Notes, Thoughts, Ramblings