[00:00:03] Speaker A: The following program is brought to you.
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The Daily Gazette Company presents the parting Shots podcast.
[00:00:18] Speaker C: Now here's your host, Daily Gazette sports editor Ken shot.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Thank you, Scott Geezy and welcome.
Subscribe today. Thanks for joining me from the parting Shots podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. Well, it's all ECAC hockey on this edition of the podcast. Of course, on Wednesday I spoke with Union men's head coach Josh Halgey previewing the Brown game this Saturday. 04:00 Ms. Ring, the first round single elimination game in the ECAC hockey tournament. And of course also talked about the games last weekend at Cornell and Colgate. We're going to focus a lot on Union and Brown in this edition of the podcast. We're also going to take a look back at a particular union Brown game from 30 years ago. So we have a lot of fun with that. We're going to talk with four members of the union men's hockey team, Ben Tucker, Kyle Chauvette, Liam Robertson and John Prokob. They were available for Tuesday's media availability. On Monday, I spoke with Brown head coach Brendan I should take it back. Tuesday I spoke with Brendan Whittett. We'll talk with him, the Brown head coach, about his team. And as they get set to come to Schenectady to play the Garnet Chargers, Dan Rubin of USCHo.com. He's going to make appearances the next three weeks. We look at all the first round matchups. The tournament gets underway Friday with two games. Yale is at St. Lawrence and Princeton is at Harvard. Of course, the Saturday games besides Brown and Union RPI is at Clarkson. So Dan and I broke it everything down. I hope you enjoy that as well. And as I said, we're going to take a look back to 1994, union's third season of division one hockey and a memorable night down at me and auditorium in Providence, Rhode island when Union scored a late goal by Chris Albert to beat Brown three to two and clinch its first ever ECAC hockey tournament berth. Back then, ten of the twelve teams made the tournament. So I talked with Michael Gallant and Jeff Giampetti. You'll get to hear them reminisce about that game and what it meant to the program at that time. So we'll take a break here and we'll talk with the Union hockey players, Ben Tucker, John Prokoff, Leah Robertson and Kyle Chavette. And then after that, we'll hear from Brown head coach Brendan Whittit. You're listening to the parting shots podcast.
[00:02:51] Speaker D: School sports are played by humans, coached by humans, and officiated by humans. So the next time you're sitting in the stands at a school athletic event, please remember this and maintain your humanity, especially when it comes to judging and critiquing athletes, coaches and officials. Please show your fellow humans some respect. They'll appreciate your empathy.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: This message presented by NISFA and the New York State Athletic Administrators association, want to get all the latest news from the Daily Gazette on your phone or tablet? We have an app for that. The Daily Gazette app allows you to read all the newspaper stories and columns from our dedicated team of journalists. The app is free.
[00:03:33] Speaker C: You can download the app from the Apple or Google App Stores.
Hi, this is Union college athletic director Jim McLaughlin. You're listening to the parting shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Shot.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Welcome back to the podcast as we preview Saturday's ECAC hockey tournament first round matchup between Union and Brown at 04:00. Start Saturday at Messerink. The teams split the season series, each getting three points, and they both won in the opposing team's rink back in January, Union had a two one lead going into the third period, but some tenacious play by Brown forced union so many turnovers. They had just had some problems handling the puck, and it cost the Garner Chargers dearly as Brown scored a late goal extra attacker goal with about 27 seconds left. That sent the game to overtime, and Brown won it in the overtime three to two. And then in February, the teams met up at me and auditorium in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown had a two goal lead in the third period, but union scored two extra attacker goals to tie that game and send it to overtime. The game was not decided in overtime, had to be decided in a shootout, and union won the shootout to get the extra points.
Brown for years has been a pesky team, there's no doubt about that, and they've always given union fits. There's only one postseason game that they've ever played against each other. That was the 2013 ECAC hockey tournament championship game down in Atlantic City, New Jersey Union won its second straight tournament title with a three one win over the Bears that night in March.
So it's going to be, like I said, it's going to be an interesting game Saturday. I think it's going to be tighten it. And of course, Brown is dealing with a lot of injuries with their players. We'll talk with head coach Brendan Wittet in just a few minutes, but first, let's hear from the Union hockey players that were available at Tuesday's media availability. Team captain Ben Tupker, goaltender Kyle Chauvet, senior forward Liam Robinson and sophomore defenseman John Prokob.
All right, gentlemen, big game here on Saturday. You got home ice for the second consecutive year in the first round. Ben, how important will be take advantage of it this time against Brown?
[00:05:49] Speaker E: Yeah, I think for all of us, we always love playing at home. So to have the fans, the environment backing us on Saturday night, that's going to be huge. So, yeah, we're just going to try and build off the atmosphere.
[00:05:59] Speaker F: Yeah, I agree. Not much more to say to that, but I think it's going to be huge to have the home fans and I think it'll be good energy in the building. So I think it'll be huge for us.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: Liam, especially a Brown team that's coming in really banged mean Saturday night. They only dressed five defensemen. They were actually two skaters short and they lost the defensemen early. And he came to a game as Connor. So how important is it to be able to jump on this team early and maybe give them less confidence going into this game?
[00:06:27] Speaker G: Yeah, I mean, that's what our game plan is every game. And seeing that, that's all the more reason to jump on them right away, especially at home like these guys talked about, we love playing at home. And with hearing that, that's another reason why we should just be prepared and be ready to go as soon as the puck drops on Saturday night.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: John?
[00:06:46] Speaker G: Yeah, I mean, jumping on them the first five minutes is what we do. So it's going to be essential, especially in a playoff game, to do that to them.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: You guys went to overtime in both games. One went to a shootout. How much can you learn? We'll start with Ben. How much can you learn from those games, those close battles that you've had with Brown?
[00:07:06] Speaker E: Yeah, I think at this point in the season, you're pretty familiar with any team's style of play, but at the same time, in a one game playoff, you got to kind of put that aside and just know that for those 60 minutes, any team can win. So although we kind of do know what to expect with them and their systems and what they do structurally, at the same time, it's just a matter of who kind of competes harder and gets the job done in that night.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: The two games really, as Griffin said, both over time, completely different outcomes. You guys had the two one lead here against Brown, Kyle, and then lost overtime. Give up an extra tackle late in third. You guys rallied down there so what did you learn from each game and how do you apply it to this one?
[00:07:49] Speaker F: Yeah, I think it's going to be a good game, obviously, but I don't think they've seen our best yet either. And I think we just got to come out and play our game and get on them. Early playoff game. I think it comes down to just compete level and who wants it more at this point. Obviously we've seen them twice, but yeah, it's just going to be about playing our game.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Liam, how important was it to come back against Brown down there?
You got the extra point.
What did you learn from that game and how do you apply that? Basically the same question, I guess.
[00:08:23] Speaker G: Yeah, I mean, it was very important, especially at that time of the year. We were looking to grab points, as many as we could at the time and especially losing to Yale the night before.
Grabbing that extra point was crucial for us at the time being and it's nice to see them again and like Kyle said, they haven't seen our best yet and just kind of focusing on us. I mean, playing our game, I think that's more important than focusing on what they do. Although we will know all their stuff and we've seen them before, so we know what to expect. But focusing on our game is the most important thing.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: You guys beating Cornell after what happened last year, how much confidence does that kind of give you going into the playoffs that you guys can play with and beat some of the best teams in the league or ranked highly in the league, especially on the road?
[00:09:12] Speaker G: We'll start with, I mean, especially beating a high ranking team, especially after what happened last year in their building.
Getting that was awesome. It just proves that we can play with any team. We can beat any team. I think that was a huge confidence boost for our guys. It just kind of shows them that we can be in this and we can do something with this playoff run here.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: John, how important will it be to play? You guys were consistent against Cornell, maybe not so much against Kawait. So how much will it be important to play consistent hockey on Saturday?
[00:09:45] Speaker G: Yeah, like Liam said, it was a.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: Big confidence call for our group, showing.
[00:09:49] Speaker G: Them that we can win any game that we can go into and playing the exact way we played against Cornell. I think we'll do really well in.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: The playoffs coming up.
You guys a little disappointed didn't get to face RPI because it had a good chance there?
[00:10:05] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, I think we've seen RPI a few times this year. I don't think any of us had necessarily a preference for the first round like we touched on. I think that our league's really deep and anybody can beat anybody, so it's not necessarily like we were rooting for anybody over anyone else.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Brendan Whittett is in his 15th season as Brown's head coach. He was also a player for Brown, a 1994 graduate.
He's been in a long time. He was an assistant at Dartmouth for a while under Bob Claudette and he's been had a long coaching career in college hockey. So I get a chance to talk with him on Tuesday about his team. His team is dealing with a lot of injuries. I'll tell you what happened in the Harvard game on Saturday. They just dressed 17 players, two under the limit.
They only had five defensemen and they lost one defenseman, Brent Bliss, to a major for hitting from behind. And game is kind of early in that game against Harvard last Saturday, so they end up playing with four defensemen. We talked a little bit about the injuries, talked about his team.
So here's what Brendan Wooditt had to say.
[00:11:16] Speaker C: Brendan, third meeting of the year between union and Brown. It's been an interesting series.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: It's been an interesting series from the.
[00:11:24] Speaker C: Get go from day one between these two programs. What is it about your team that always seems to give union fits?
[00:11:32] Speaker F: I don't know.
[00:11:33] Speaker H: I don't know if we always give them fits.
In some ways I think we play very similar.
I'm just talking about this year's union squad in terms of playing the game honest with an intensity and a work ethic.
We try and make sure whoever we play, we just want to be really good defensively and structured and kind of take away the middle of the ice. We also battle hard. I mean we've always kind of had that as part of our dna. It's kind of how I was as a player. I mean I was a battler. I had to and I want my teams to have that at its core in terms of that work ethic and that tenacity.
And again, I also think some of the battles we've had with union over the year, there were years there, they were the best team in the country. I mean you have to make sure you show playing when you're playing.
So for it's we look at it as a know, I still go back to I think we lost the union and ECC championship game and that was a really good team we had. But I think that union team was on the precipice of maybe winning the national championship the following year. I could be off on that.
[00:13:03] Speaker C: Yeah, you're right.
[00:13:07] Speaker H: They were stacked, but we had a good go of it and a good run.
The one thing I do think by and large my teams and over the years will rise to challenges and those obviously playing union is a big challenge.
[00:13:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:25] Speaker C: Because you guys have been racked with injuries last past month. You guys have to be in Clarkson.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: On January 20, you were six and.
[00:13:33] Speaker C: Seven in the conference and 811 and one overall. But the last nine games, seven and two. But how much have injuries played a role that because I was looking at the line chart for Saturday's game against Harvard, you were down two players.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: You only have five.
[00:13:48] Speaker H: Defense address yeah, we're struggling. It's been a struggle the last month and a half. It really mean. I want to say we're down eight guys, of which a lot missing. We're missing some pretty good players. Guys that are our top two centers have been out.
You're missing three of your top six up front. We're missing Jackson Monroe on the blue line who is an outstanding puck moving defenseman and gets you out of been a it's been a challenge.
You don't ever want know fall back and say injuries are what has kind of wreaked havoc with our team. But unfortunately injuries have wreaked havoc with our team and it's just been one after the other after other. You're right. I mean we go in with on the road last weekend. We don't have a full complement of players. Everybody that's healthy was playing and some of those guys were playing at the beginning of the year and I've been thrust into not just playing but playing on the power play, playing on the penalty kill, being on six or five situations and it's been a hard one the last month and a half. I felt good about some of the growth that some of the guys have had, but we're also going to well, a lot. I mean, you look at like you mentioned our decor, right? I mean we started with five. Bret Bliss gets kicked out who's a pretty good defenseman for us. Three minutes into the game you're down to know another one. This guy by Evans who has just recently started playing. He's a junior, hasn't played a lot. He gets hit from behind, gets so, so we're moving back. Gavin Pushkar, a senior forward to the blue line and not only just moving back there, he's playing. So it's been hard put it that know it's been we, we were close. We were right. I felt really good about our team. We have an unbelievably good young group of players, our freshmen and our sophomores into dispersed out with guys like Jordan Tennelli and Matt Sutton, some pretty good older guys, but they've been injured. They're not know our team is what our team is and we just. We have to find a way.
[00:16:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, you guys came in the union back on January 5 down to one in the third period and I felt you guys played a great third period. You had union really on their heels and then you end up scoring the goal with 26.7 seconds left and then end up winning it in overtime. So how much confidence you guys have coming into Mesa knowing that you've won.
[00:16:45] Speaker H: Here earlier this mean it's always good when you have some success on the mean. I do know union at that time.
I don't know if they had some illness, some injuries.
It was a tough stretch at that time for them. We're going through that stretch and we have been for a while here.
We're missing guys. So I mean, for us, I know it's going to be a challenge. They're a really good hockey team. They got some good veteran guys.
They got an unbelievable power play. The specialty teams are very good on both sides.
For us, we're just going to have to play hard, heavy hockey. We're going to have to make sure we take care of the puck. We can't needlessly put them on the power again. I mean, I think our guys are going in confident and understanding that it's going to be a battle. Union is a very well coached team and they're a team that has made tremendous strides this year, I think.
[00:17:49] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, what about the job Josh has done in his second year? Obviously getting used to being a head coach last year. Have you seen improvement in.
[00:18:01] Speaker H: Is a. Josh is a real good guy and obviously knows the game inside and out and he's good coach and he's been a head coach prior, not at the college level, but he was a head coach.
They have the makings of a really good hockey team. I think they have a team that complements each other well and like I said, I think they play the game fast and hard.
I think it's a team offensively that you can't give a lot of room to. I mean, they seem to have the ability to score, so we're just going to have to make sure that Zacher is on his game, which he was against Harvard, and continue that into this weekend. And we're going to have to defend to when we have the puck we're going to have to possess, so we don't want to be chasing the game all night.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:55] Speaker C: Is there any particular union player you have to keep a focus on?
[00:19:00] Speaker H: I think they have a lot of players, quite honestly, but the kid, and I know I'm going to pronounce it wrong, the Prokoff defenseman, I think he's outstanding, I really do. But I also like their forward group and they contribute so much offensively, but they seem to have a pretty deep forward group in terms of guys that play hockey the right way.
Again, I know that we're going to have to match their intensity and their battle level or it could be a long night.
But he's the one that I know. I see him a lot on the video and obviously he puts up points and he was a good player last year for him and he's a very good player obviously this year for him also.
[00:19:45] Speaker C: So what is going to be, you think, the key for you guys to get the win on Saturday?
[00:19:52] Speaker H: Again, I mentioned some of it, Ken, but I think we're going to have to obviously get good call tendering and we're going to have to play very intelligent hockey. We can't needlessly turn pucks over. We have to make sure that union has to come 200ft and they have to come through layers. We have to be physical and we have to be aggressive and assertive, but under control. Again, not needlessly give them od. Men rush situations or situations where they're able to jump numbers up the ice.
And again, that boils down to really good goaltending and a good defensive structure from him out. That being said, we're going to make sure we play in your face. So we'll be up ice and we'll be aggressive and assertive again. We need the puck and scoring has been a little bit of an adventure for us without some of these top players that we've been missing offensively. And we got to make sure that when we have a chance to shoot, we're shooting and we're taking away the goalie's eyes and we're playing in that hard ice, both sides, because I know they go to that heart. Also. We got to make sure we're defending the right way and then on the converse side, make sure that we're giving the goaltender something to occupy himself with besides just the pocket, making sure that we're in his grill.
[00:21:24] Speaker B: Coming up, we're going to continue our look at the first round of the ECAC hockey tournament. Dan Rubin, who covers ECAC hockey for uScho.com. He's also the play by play voice of Bentley hockey. He'll join me next here on the parting shots podcast.
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[00:22:27] Speaker A: Hi, this is four time Stanley cup champion and New York State Hockey hall of Famer John Tennelli. You're listening to the parting shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Schott.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: Welcome back to the podcast as we continue our look at the ECAC hockey tournament first round action this weekend. And joining me now to help preview that, he writes about the ECAC hockey for uScHo.com. He's also the voice of Bentley hockey. And that's Dan Rubin joining us. Dan, I think this is your first go with the podcast, isn't it?
[00:23:02] Speaker A: Is. It is first foray. And I'm glad to be doing this, especially since my season ended on Saturday night.
So I get to keep the drive going. I don't have to give up playoff hockey so quickly.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: Well, I just put the rumor to rest that Mr. Overtime was not in the building Saturday night for that Bentley Robert Morris game.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: When, if me and you were ever in the building together, do we think that the game will just never end? It will just keep going until, for eternity. It'll be like one of those never.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: Ending ods haven't covered two, five overtime games, a four overtime game, a triple overtime game. Yeah, when people know I'm in the building, they're scared. That's a fact.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: It was funny not to hijack the conversation here, but on Wednesday I said to my wife, she goes, so this doesn't go to shootout like regular season? I said, no, this keeps going. And I can guarantee you we're probably getting one. I said, I'm good for one overtime game a year. This is probably the only overtime. Since it's a one game series and we're the six seeds, I'm probably not getting another one. If we win, I can guarantee you this is going to overtime. And it was three one in the third period, Robert Morris had the lead. I was like, still going to overtime. Trust me, this is going to overtime. I just knew it was coming. And sure enough, the hockey gods didn't disappoint me. They gave me 19 minutes and 50 seconds of an overtime. So I was thinking of you the whole time.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: Actually, I had to take that back. I've actually covered two four overtime. I think I've covered one four overtime game. That was the St. Lawrence Bu 2000 east regional game at then Pepsi arena. Now it's MVP arena. It's had so many names over the years. But I'm going to have a theory. If you don't score with by the time there's five minutes left in the first overtime, just play the rest of the overtime out and go to a second overtime. You scored 10 seconds left. Like, you wasted all that time there to get a goal. You should have gotten it earlier.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: I was actually happier that we did that than going through the next intermission. And then you open up the second overtime, and the goal happens right away. At least I didn't waste another 17 minutes of waiting for an overtime and then waiting for an intermission. I mean, and then skating around, unlike what happened, the triple overtime game down at Brown, when my brother and I in the third overtime had happened relatively early in that one. And I just remember, end of the second overtime, looking at him, and everybody was skating in sludge with, like, four minutes to go. And I'm like, yeah, this game's going again.
People were actively crying in the press box.
Our replay operator had her 21st birthday going on at her apartment, and she could not go to it because she was stuck where she's like, so when does this game get called? It doesn't. We go all night.
We're here all night.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, one year when Eric McDowell was the Sid union. And we'll get to the AC hockey gear in a moment. One year, I think it was the Yale's game. Two of the Yale went forward times. I think after the second overtime, he went out to Burger King, got whoppers for everybody, including the officials.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: That's a gentleman. That is a gentlemanly move.
That is the move of moves. Because you know what? At that point, everyone just needs, like, granola bar, sodas, caffeine, coffee, whatever you can get your hands on, go into a full fledged, like, get everybody that is a hall of fame and get into Toronto for that.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: Well, let's take a look at this weekend's first round action. Two games on Friday, two games on Saturday. Let's begin with the Friday games.
St. Lawrence will be hosting Yale and Princeton will be at Harvard. Let's take a look at the first the Yale St. Lawrence game. Interesting matchup. Yale struggled to score goals all year and St. Lawrence only has one guy with over ten goals with me. How do you see this series series by game.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: One game series. Anybody can win, right?
That's kind of the name of the game. When you have a one game, anything can happen. Weird things can happen. The one thing that kind of sticks out for me is that this is going to be a matter of St. Lawrence being very good at home in the north country. They probably should have been better than finishing where they did in 7th, but they couldn't win on the but that that should help them here against a Yale team that had struggled to win on the road. Now the equalizer, the great equalizer for me in this is going to be what happens if this game winds up being lower scoring, which it should be because Yale figured out an answer in goal with. He's been. He's been great the second half of the season and they're a little top heavy in terms of scoring. So they have a line or two that can probably put the puck in the net if they stay on the ice, if they don't wind up in a penalty kill situation. This is a game that of all the games that you're looking at, there's always going to be one upset of a road team. This is the one that you kind of have to put a team on blast and be like, hey, St. Lawrence really has to watch out here at home because Yale is a dangerous opponent.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: Yeah, Yale did that last year, came to RPI and pulled off the upset. I think they were probably a worse team last year. I think they were the 11th seed last year when they played RPI. I believe the RPI was six. And they're dangerous only because they can make you play a game which is slow it down and just muck it. Mean. Like I said, they don't have much in the way of offensive talent, so I think that's the way they got to play.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: Yeah, they're going to have to score with the top lines. They're not going to stick out a third or a fourth line and freak you out with a guy who can skate up the ice and put it in the back of the net. That's just not how they're wired. So I think the way that they've played the second half of the year has been kind of in that vein of being able to keep games low and then do something strange as the game gets late. I think about the game against Brown. It was a one nothing lead early on a shorthanded goal. Brown stuck back in and then they scored with, I think, 9 seconds left in the game. And it was one of those that you look at it and say, hey, that's a Yale type win, which is keep the game close and fight for something. Same idea with Cornell, which was they lost that game in a shootout, but they managed a one one game and both goals were scored in the first because Yale just packed it in and can shut a team down defensively. Conversely, I really do like St. Lawrence. I think that they have a system up there that's really been working. I think they look good against.
In the Princeton game. I think they look good in the Cornell game before it wound up in that seven round shootout, which I hate the fact that.
I hate the fact that playoff positioning was decided, know the shootout. But that's just a personal gripe. But they've been St. Lawrence's type of team that they can score four goals. Problem is, they could also go into a game and wind up tying a team like rit.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I looked at Yale and I saw the Yale Union game back in January, was a game union led two to one and late into the third period, all of a sudden, Yale took advantage of a couple of mistakes and scored three goals in two minutes and ended up winning that game four to two. So, like you said, if Yale keeps the game close and they get a break somewhere along the way, force the throwover, they can ruin somebody's season.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And they're probably one of the teams to do it, too, because it's going to boil down a bit to what they can do if they can stay out of the box or. I mean, the Yale power play isn't particularly great. The penalty kill is phenomenal, but they also don't want to go to that well too many times against St. Lawrence, who is kind of lower middle of the road. I think powerpoints are up in general. Power play goals are up in general, but they're at about 18% St. Lawrence. And even though you have a penalty kill, that, excuse me, that's the top ten in the country. If you're Yale, you don't want to ride that and you don't want to put that to the test too frequently because stock, this is going to be his trial by fire a bit in the playoffs because he's a freshman and what he does is going to be a learning experience. He's going to have to grow up. He's been very good, but he's still going to have to grow up very quickly in the playoff game. For a team that has been very heavily penalized.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: Let's move over to the Princeton Harvard series. It's actually a rematch of last year's quarterfinal round at Harvard. Swept. Interesting matchup, because Harvard's off year, this year, 617 and six.
Princeton, they've got great goal scoring, but they don't have great goaltending. So, I mean, this could be a shootout, I think, in this game, even though Harvard only has one guy over ten goals. But I think it could be one of those games where you could be 5465.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: Yeah, this is going to be a fun one. I'm excited for this one. And the thing is, when you look at a team like Harvard and they only have a certain amount of goals, and you also have to remember that they're playing six games less. So their eleven goal score, their nine goal score probably would have been up around 16 or 17 goals. If you're Joe Miller, if you add in a goal per game, or thereabouts, if you extrapolate it, he winds up to about 15 goals. Ryan Healy winds up to about the same. But the problem for hybrid is that everyone's been hurt. I think they only have a handful of guys that have been in the lineup all 30 plus games, and they've taken on a Princeton team that is at least seasoned. But I thought Princeton was going to be way better in the back.
They have not stopped anybody from scoring. And so if the Harvard team that shows up plays the way that it has, the second half of the year, particularly after the Beanpot, they lost that bean pot game to pc and they lost at five, nothing. And since then, they've been a completely different team, short of the one game that I know you saw out there with union, but the rest of the way, boy, Harvard, they're an interesting dark horse. They're just a team that you don't want to see in the postseason because they're finally healthy and they're finally starting to put it together. Princeton, their hope is that this has to be turned into a track meet because they don't think Princeton has actively stopped anybody this year with any type of regularity, short of the Brown Yale series, which. Those are two teams that don't score a lot.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: Yeah, look at Ethan Preston.
15 games played, his goals against average, 4.5. Arthur Smith playing 20 games, 3.9, although he was very good. Against Union and down there in Princeton last month and Connor Callahan in seven games of 5.2 goals against average. Another three goaltenders have a safe percentage over 900. So, yeah, you just wonder maybe if Arthur Smith gets high like he did in that union game back in February, maybe they can steal it and advance. But like I said, I think this is going to be a high scoring game. It'd be a lot of fun to watch Friday night.
[00:34:02] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think whatever happens is going to be determined five on five. Because I know whistles go away a bit in a postseason game, and they should. But Princeton, one of the best power plays in the country. Harvard, one of the least penalized team in the country. Harvard, I think, has only been penalized two minutes per game. And Princeton is coming in about 30% on the power play. So if there's a special teams opportunity, it's one of those that. That could be the deciding point of a six five game where you're looking at it and saying, okay, there was only one power play, but Princeton scored on it and there's your one goal difference. But when we say one goal difference, we're also going to be talking about a one goal game that's not a two one game by any stretch.
[00:34:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: At least it shouldn't be. Which is exactly why it will be. Because none of us.
[00:34:47] Speaker B: That's right, we don't play the games, we just cover them. So let's head over to Saturday, starting with the 04:00 matchup, union hosting Brown in the 611 game and Brown, to me, in the years I've covered this league has always been a team that they've had some good players, not great players, but they always seem to be a team that just can make things miserable for you and the union game back in January at Messarank, a game that union had, two to one, really struggled handling the puck in the third period. A lot of that was due to Brown's forechecking and ended up resulting in an extra tackle goal that tied the game, set in overtime. And then Brown won in overtime. And then back in February, down in Providence, Brown was leading for a while, but Union battled back, tied the game, had two extra attacker goals. Game was excited by a shootout. Union winning that shootout. What is it about Brown that makes him so pesky?
[00:35:51] Speaker A: A Ruben in the press box, my brother calling the games. I don't know. By the way, do we get a side wager on this one?
I think me and you have to throw down some type of flag wager on this one.
I feel like that's going to be something that we're going to have to do at some I Brown is set up in a way that is not a team that's going to consistently win a ton of regular season games, but they're always capable of making a deep run. And earlier in the year I was kind of really high on Brown because I thought, okay, one, from a personal standpoint, I've watched a lot of years where this team's been on the road in the first round of the playoffs, and I've watched a lot of years where they've done a lot of stuff with that and they've won a series where they shouldn't have, or they've won a game and forced a three game series against the good team and they've gone on a run. And what I think about them is that, like I've kind of talked about with Yale being top heavy, but the Brown top heavy lines are able to really score. St. Louis is a good goal scorer. Botchel can distribute the puck. Tyler Popp is kind of an all around type guy.
They have guys who can put the puck on net. And when you start shortening the bench and you start playing one to two pairings defensively and two to three lines in the third period of these games, that kind of plays into Brown's biggest issues, which has always been a lack of depth. I think back to even 15 years ago when they would move a guy like a Jordan Petris to the blue line because he was playing hurt, but he was able to give you one or two shifts defensively, but they always had defensemen that could play 30 minutes a game and they would just double shift them. And it wasn't even that they were double shifting out of necessity. It was double shifting because they earned the time. And that was something that Brendan Whittett said to me when I interviewed him earlier in the years. Hey, we have a lot of guys playing a lot of minutes, but the guys who are playing a lot of minutes want to and earn the right to be on there. It's not like they're tired. They're in peak condition. When I run down the list are guys who got hurt along the way. And there are guys who haven't played the full 30 games on the year, the full 29, and there are some big names in there. Jordan Tenlli played 16 games. Jackson Monroe only played 18 games. Max Scott played 22 games. So the injury bug has been a bit of a factor. But in a playoff game, it's scary to think that, that's the one team in Atlanta cock, who used to say AIC was never the team you wanted to run into because they're going to ruin somebody's season. And that was before they got really good back when they were playing 9th, 10th, 11th of a 910 eleven team league. Brown's kind of the same way. They're not just not going to win a lot of games during the regular season, but you're going to get to the postseason and I don't know, it's just a team that you look at and you're like, I don't really want to play them the playoff game, let alone a one game series.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, you mentioned the injuries. The game against Harvard on Saturday, they only dressed five defense. They were actually two skaters short. That's how much the injuries. And I think they lost the defenseman early in the game to a major penalty, game misconducts. They were down to four defensemen in that game. So like I said, the injury is going to be interesting how that's handled being union. Meanwhile, they've been an up and down team this year. You're finishing 6th in Josh Hogy's second year. A lot of talented offensive players this year. They're really one of the top goalscoring teams in ECAC hockey. But the issue I have with this team has been the consistency, or lack thereof, how they look so good against Cornell on Friday, beating them in line of rink three to two, and then come back against Colgate with things on the line with still a shot of first round by and really didn't play well and some puck management issues, gave up three breakaways in the game and the third one Colgate scored on and ended up being the game winning goal. I know Josh is a little concerned about this consistency, but what do you see of a union team that's really, I think, taking a little step here.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: With Josh Algae, I like union. When I saw them in December up at Bentley, Ethan Ley, the team captain for Bentley, scored a natural hat trick in the first two periods. And after that point, there were a lot of people at Bentley that were in attendance for that game who were kind of sitting around like, oh my God, this is going to be a runaway. And I remember in between the second and third period thinking, yeah, this isn't going to be a runaway game. Union scores one early. This is too talented of a team. And in terms of top lines, I know I've talked a lot about that where I talk about Brown being a top heavy team, Yale being a top heavy team Harvard being a bit of a top heavy team. The thing that I find about union is that the top scorers on this team and the top maybe one to two lines, this is a deep team. First of all, I think this is a team that could roll three lines out there easily and beat anybody with any of the three lines. But I think the top line at Union might be one of the best lines in the league, let alone the best line of the weekend. I just think it's smedger is so good and he's just a good hockey player. Brandon, good hockey player. These are guys that could score from anywhere in the ice. And when you've been fighting things the way Brown has with the injury bug, I think it's a bad matchup because you're going to have to play against a team that is good. It's just good and can score goals and is one of the top scoring units in the country. And heaven forbid they find that consistency then now you're up against it. I do think consistency, you look for more in the three game series. In a one game playoff, you're not necessarily as worried about. And I could be way off on this and Josh may hear this and be like, he has no idea what he's talking about. But from a media standpoint and watching a team, I don't know. I think one game, even if you can play poorly in one game and win, I also don't think that you can do that across multiple nights. So I know the inconsistency has been there, but it's not something that I'm terribly concerned about given the matchup and given everything else that kind of weights against this. Now, that said, it's still going to be a tough matchup because the playoff game and the hardest thing to do is end someone's season. But there's a reason why union kind of comes into this one a little higher touted than I think a lot of people should be higher touted than a lot of people are giving them credit for.
[00:42:41] Speaker B: And of course, union, led by sophomore defenseman John Procop with eight goals and 27 assists, I think he's one of the best defensemen in the conference.
[00:42:51] Speaker A: Yes, 100%. And the thing that makes it really fun for me to watch out of him is that he's a different type of defenseman. You want to have varied defensemen on your team. You want to have a couple of stay at home guys. You want to have guys that as soon as the puck goes below the crease or below the hash marks or below the dots, they're kind of shading back and you're playing three forwards up. You need that type of unit. But what he does, that's so fun. And yes, he is one of the team leaders in penalty minutes.
He's going to play hard. He's going to draw a couple of calls along the way. But what makes him so fun is that you have this interesting.
I wouldn't even call him a puck moving defenseman, per se, but just a guy who could jump in and give you four and five guys in the offensive zone who can help you out in so many different ways without being a traditional defenseman, that he's the type of guy that a lot of teams look for and look to recruit and look to develop as he goes. So that offense draws a lot from him.
[00:43:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And we'll wrap things up on Saturday night at 07:00 in Pottsdam, New York, as Clarkson hosts RPI. RPI finishing last for the first time. You have to go back to the 1981 80 season when they were last in the five team west region. They have never been in last place since the ECAC hockey. Hockey split back in 1984.
I don't see RPI competing that well against Clarkson. And I got to wonder, Dan, is Dave Smith in trouble?
[00:44:26] Speaker A: Well, the funny thing is I looked at the standings and I saw where RPI was. I said, what? RPI?
They're down.
[00:44:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:37] Speaker A: And that was like, because I always kind of recognized them as being one of the teams at the, like I expected them to be, you know, right in with union, right in with St. Lawrence, and the fact that the roof kind of fell in on them a bit. They now wind up having to go to Clarkson because Dartmouth did a really good job of not losing hockey games this year. I mean, there are so many games that they wound up taking a point from that they wind up passing Clarkson in the standings. And now you have to go to a rank to play a ticked off Clarkson team that is top four and everywhere but the standings. And that's problematic. And I think when you look at the pair wise and you look at where RPI finished, the fact that they were higher than Brown but finished behind Brown in the standings, right on Princeton and right on Harvard, but didn't post a better record in league, is a sign that, I don't know if Dave's going to be in trouble, but it's enough to raise an eyebrow and at least say, this can't happen.
Only because that's where I raise an eyebrow.
[00:45:45] Speaker B: Yeah. I say that only because they have a new athletic director, Boston College. So I got to wonder, to me also I think RPI has not recovered from the COVID year.
I think also the biggest mistake they made coming out of COVID and this was a school decision, not a hockey team decision, that they did not allow outside people to come to the athletic events. They just was just students and faculty and staff and that I think upset a lot of the players. There was several players went into the transfer portal after that 21 22 season and they haven't recovered. The fans aren't showing up except obviously for the freak out and the senior late. But I tell you it's not good over there.
They have a new school president too, so that maybe helps too a little bit. But I got to wonder. Dave's a good guy and they were, I think on the verge of winning the ECAC tournament in 2020 before COVID shut things down. And like I said, they haven't recovered since.
[00:46:55] Speaker A: No. I know from what coaches have told me that the COVID rebuilds. A lot of people like talking about the service academies because you only have to worry with the transfer pointer. You only have to re recruit them basically for a couple of years and then they sign up and then they're locked in. But you still have to re recruit them almost for two years at the service academies at Air Force and Army.
That's a tricky thing to keep going though. At the same time, guys who are going there are not guys who are likely to leave. I mean they understand what they're getting themselves into with the full year commitment.
The Ivy leagues are the other ones. The Ivy leagues ran into everything but nobody with COVID with rebuilds. And that's the opening of what happened to Harvard a bit with BC on the health, that's what happened to Yale getting blown to smithereens. Browns a bit of the same nil. Guys are transferring out. Problem with RPI is that nobody really acknowledges that they've really had to rebuild and losing all those guys. If you look at the roster, there's so many guys who are playing who are young and unfortunately there's also a couple of older guys and there's just not enough from the older guys to carry it. But if these guys can't stay together and build and the hope is that they do, the hope is that a guy like the goal, Carson Cherpak. I'm butchering his last name because I never remember how to pronounce it. But if Carson doesn't stay because he's a sophomore and he decides to see, now you're in trouble. Now you've lost your goalie. And if Max Malinsky, a guy who is a 13 point guy with a good amount of pins, if he goes, you're in trouble. And those are guys that you can't lose.
Sutter Mazati, same idea.
So McKee is going to be keeping all those guys together, but it's a balance beam and RPI has a very tough job because you're right. Losing the year to Covid, losing the fans, getting everybody back in the building for like two weeks, it feels great. And then afterwards you start to realize that eventually it comes for all of us. Unless you get all those fifth year guys, unless you can keep them together or you have the nil and the transfer portal back.
[00:49:22] Speaker B: Yeah. So what are your picks for the games?
[00:49:27] Speaker A: Oh, man. I said there's going to be one road team that goes into somebody's building and wins. I say that with every fiber that that's going to happen, but I think it's probably going to be Yale up at St. Lawrence. And other than that, I think you might have to stick around in the office for next week. We'll put it that way. Okay. Unless they're sending you on the road. But other than that, I think home teams plus Yale. You give me that moving into next round and we'll see what happens in the best of three. I can't stand that only one of the rounds is the best of three.
[00:50:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree.
[00:50:06] Speaker A: And I'm sure I wish they would have kept it. But you know what? It's going to be really interesting to see who goes forward from this round.
[00:50:15] Speaker B: Well, last year, when Princeton beat union at Mean Ron Froger, I had talked to him before, a couple days before the game. Then he didn't like the format. And he wins the game last year. And first question I asked him that now, do you like the format? He still said no. So, I mean, I know the coaches aren't happy with it, and I think in talking with Commissioner Doug Christensen a couple of times about it, he said, they'll look into it. It's not fair. It really isn't. As Ron pointed out last year, it really affects the Abbeys because they're playing already six less games and team, they get eliminated in the first round, they're only playing 30 games, and that just doesn't seem fair. They should at least get two games. I know it's a financial situation, but they got to find a way to make it work.
[00:51:03] Speaker A: Yeah, and look at a team like Cornell, that's sitting at 16 in the pairwise.
They have six losses on the season. The only team with less losses going into postseason play is Boston College, who has five. But Cornell can't get into the national tournament picture. He won't play enough games. You only have 17 wins. So I think it's unfair to the ivies and I think it's unfair to the student athletes I know in Atlanta hockey, where we don't really have to worry about the pair wise as much because you only get one team in usually anyway. They went single elimination first round just to try and pare down the bottom teams. But then it is best of three and then the semifinals are best of three. But that's because we're on campus and not neutral site. I think in the interest of number of games, it should usually always be a component, and that leads into a larger discussion of where you would put it. I just think the best of three format helps the best teams move forward, and single elimination, I believe, is too much of if you get hot and you get on a three game winning streak, you can win a conference championship. And I think it's unfair to teams that need those extra games and maybe need that game to get in difference if they be playing for a national championship or not.
[00:52:18] Speaker B: Well, Dan, where can people find you on social media?
[00:52:22] Speaker A: Social media at Danrubin twelve. And of
[email protected], we got on the weekly column and throughout it all, my Atlantic hockey season is over. So I broke up the golf balls this week, but not too much because I got to stay in for what I hope is a very long run with ECAC through to Minnesota.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: Yep, maybe Quinnipiac gets back there. Dan, we'll do this again next week. We'll preview the quarterfinal rounds. We obviously Quinnipiac, Colgate, Cornell and Dartmouth sitting, watching, and they're interested to see who their opponents are.
[00:52:58] Speaker A: Hey, let's enjoy the hockey this weekend. If nothing else, let's hope that brown union stays under two overtimes.
[00:53:04] Speaker B: Kevin, thank you. Yes, please. Well, thankfully 04:00 start, although we have earlier deadlines now, so two overtimes might be pushing it at that point. So we'll see what happens.
Thanks, Dan. Appreciate a few minutes. We'll talk again next week.
[00:53:18] Speaker A: Sounds good.
[00:53:19] Speaker B: All right. That's Dan Rubin from uscho.com. Coming up, we're going to look back at a Union brown game from 1994 that set the stage for the first ever ECC hockey tournament playoff appearance for the Union college men's hockey team. You're listening to the parting shots podcast.
[00:54:11] Speaker A: Skill, physicality home to college hockey's elite teams, coaches and student athletes. ECAC hockey twelve programs competing at the highest level. A league where champions are born and world class professionals are trained, where history is abundant and a commitment to the cutting edge is unrivaled. The best facilities, the fiercest competition ECAC hockey there's no experience like it hi, this is Princeton's Menta hockey head coach, Ron Fogerty. You're listening to parting shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken shot.
[00:54:48] Speaker B: Welcome back to the podcast. 30 years ago, union was in its third season at the division one level. The first two seasons they won just six games. It wasn't a great start for the at that time Dutchman program, but things started to turn in that 1993 94 season. Union got on a roll in February and they really started playing well, started winning games and started making some noise in ECAC hockey. And then February 25, 1994 is a very significant day in Union College Division one hockey history. And maybe a lot of people have forgotten about that, but that was the night the Dutchmen clinched their first ever ECAC hockey tournament playoff berth. Back then, the tournament just took ten of the twelve teams. The teams that were seated seven, eight, nine and ten played a Tuesday night game playing game to see who would advance to the quarterfinals later that week, and Union ended up finishing 6th that season. Played RPI in the quarterfinals, actually won a game at Houston Field House game one, but then lost the next two games. But the night of February 25, 1994, they were down at Brown to play and this was the night that if they won, they clinched their tournament berth and it was a wild game. Union was outshot 54 32 in that game. Goaltender Michael Galan stood on his head and made 52 saves, breaking it down 20 in the first, 17 in the second, 17 in the third period. The game was tied at two and it appeared to over going to head to overtime. But the late Chris Albert scored with 141 left in the third period to give Union that three two lead. And the Dutchman held on and wild celebration ensued inside the Union locker room. So I had a chance to, earlier this week chat with two members of that team, Michael Gallant and Jeff G. And Petty, as we went down memory lane. Let's hear first from Jeff G. And Petty, followed by Michael Gallant.
[00:57:00] Speaker C: Jeff, what do you remember about that game against Brown?
[00:57:05] Speaker B: You guys were on a roll.
[00:57:06] Speaker C: This was the third year, division one. The first two years was a struggle.
[00:57:10] Speaker B: And it was a struggle early on.
[00:57:12] Speaker C: In this season, but you guys were on a roll in this point. And what was that attitude like? What was the mood like going into this game.
[00:57:19] Speaker B: Knowing that a win would give you.
[00:57:20] Speaker C: Guys plow spot for the first time in division one?
[00:57:26] Speaker I: Yeah, Ken, I mean, thinking back on it, I recall we had some really good energy as a team.
I think there was a lot of growth in the years prior.
But just over the course of that season, right when we came back from winter break, I want to say we went on about a twelve game win streak. And going into that weekend, we just had a lot of confidence as a group.
We were playing well, I'll say, on both ends of the ice. And the team was really, I think, at that point, clicking. I know the night before, I want to say I believe it was the night before against Harvard all the way.
[00:58:09] Speaker C: Around you guys, this was the Friday game.
[00:58:12] Speaker I: This was the Friday game. Okay, sorry. So, yeah, I mean, that night against mean, we fought hard. And we're able to pull that out at the end of the believe, you know, Chris Albert scored the game winner. With under two minutes left in regulation. And it was just one of those games where we just continued to be resilient. And in the end, we were able to pull it out.
[00:58:37] Speaker C: This was a game with a lot of penalties. I mean, the teams combined for 15 power plays. You scored a two man advantage goal there midway through the second period to give you guys a two one lead. But then Marty Clapton scored in the third.
It looks like the game is going to maybe overtime. And then do you remember?
I think Chris had a shot from the right circle. That beat their goaltender Jeff Finch to do it. But you assisted the goal. I think you sent the puck to Shane Halunga. Do you remember the whole circumstance about that?
[00:59:14] Speaker I: God, I wish I did.
Many years have.
You know, I don't recall the specifics of it.
I just recall that weekend. And just the culmination of a lot of work that we put in as a group is obviously, I think it's well recorded. Our history as an organization. And the move to the division one level. And the growing pains that we experienced for the guys that played before me and for the guys that I played with. It was really a culmination of a lot of work. And that was the game in which we clinched our first playoff berth.
[00:59:57] Speaker C: Mike Galant was spectacular in goal that night. Bruce was alternating goaltenders during that run. Mike would start the Friday games. Luigi Vila would start the Saturday games. But Mike had 52 saves in that game.
You guys were outshot 54 32 in that game. It was 20 to six in the first period, Brown had the shot advantage. I mean, there was 1716 in the second and 1710 in the third period. But what about the performance Mike had that night?
[01:00:29] Speaker I: Mike was outstanding and Mike was consistent throughout the season.
I recall having conversations with the coaches and just with teammates.
Mike was a big reason why we were in the position that we were in to make the playoffs, and he was outstanding. And that Brown game. Yes. He stood on his head and he put us in a position to close it out at the end.
[01:00:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:58] Speaker C: What was the mood like in the locker room after you guys won the game? Was there much excitement that knowing what you accomplished?
[01:01:06] Speaker I: Yeah.
Yes. I think probably for me, it was a little more personal than maybe some of the.
We were a young team, so we didn't have a lot of upperclassmen on that team.
And I think that everybody just kind of expected that we were going to be there and the team was looking forward. Obviously, they knew that they had a lot more games in their future, but for myself, personally, it meant the world. And it was an opportunity to play in the playoffs, which I hadn't had the opportunity to experience prior to that.
[01:01:44] Speaker C: Was a freshman dominated lineup. Recall me, Russ Monchford, Troy Stevens there, John Zacinski, who scored a goal in that game. Jay Prentice, andrew will back on defense. This team was loaded with freshmen, and it's amazing considering that no scholarships at that time and really no help from the school that you had this talent and you guys went on that run with that talent.
[01:02:14] Speaker I: Yeah, I agree.
And that's where I think that season, as it progressed, you saw the shift from the beginning of the season to the second half of the season where that team just matured and came together and started to believe in one another, and it showed in the results.
Yeah, it was a great team to be a part of. It was certainly an honor for me to play with those guys, as everyone mean. We lost Chris Albert a year or so ago, and that was tragic, but he's still well thought of and remembered. And it was just stayed in touch with several of those guys over the.
[01:02:56] Speaker C: You know, next night you tied at Harvard and then won against Cole and Cornell to wrap up the regular season, end up facing RPI in the quarterfinals, win game one. But then, unfortunately, RPI maybe had just a little too much firepower there and won those. But the way that season ended probably wasn't the best. But just to have that kind of season when nobody expected everybody pricked you guys to finish last, to be able to accomplish what you guys did, finishing 6th.
Are you proud of what the team accomplished that season?
[01:03:33] Speaker I: Very much so.
For me, personally, the Cornell Colgate weekend at home was a great way to end my college career at Mesa. But then to go into RPI on three game series, we took game one, and game two was a tough loss for us. And unfortunately, we gave RPI room and they took advantage of it. So got to give them all the credit in the world. They were a good squad, and that was a good rivalry in the making.
So there's been fun watching them over the years.
[01:04:16] Speaker C: Hey, great catch, though, with you, Jeff.
What do you remember about that night, February 25, 1994?
[01:04:23] Speaker B: You guys were on a roll heading.
[01:04:24] Speaker C: Into this game at Brown. Did you guys know what the meaning of that game was going into that you guys win, you clinch a playoff spot.
[01:04:32] Speaker F: Well, we knew that weekend we had a shot, because, I don't know if you remember, we were actually in dead last going to the Christmas holidays, and we finished that season on a ten game on beaten streak to finish six.
And we knew that we were close that weekend. We knew we needed a little bit of help if we could get the win. We needed a little bit of help from one of the games. And so when we got the win, I remember us all going back into the dressing room. Well, we didn't leave right away. We were all getting undressed, waiting, because I think the other game might have been going into overtime or when someone scored late and we had to wait for the result. And we got the right result, and obviously everybody celebrated. And then we continued to even on till the next night to tie harbor. Three three. And it was an amazing weekend.
[01:05:17] Speaker C: Yeah, that was a wild game.
[01:05:19] Speaker B: Brown.
[01:05:19] Speaker C: You guys were outshot 54 32. You made 52 saves in the game, 19 in the first, 17 in the second, 16 in the third.
What do you remember about. That was a shooting gallery that night.
[01:05:33] Speaker F: It was crazy. They were all over us for a lot of the game, just trying to hang in there and fight off pucks as much as we could to keep it close. We always seem to play around those close little three, two games. I think we had had one earlier with them in the same season with the same score. And when there was that mad scramble with, like, probably about a minute and a half left, minute 15 left, it was literally bodies all over the front of their net. I could see from the far end. I couldn't even see the goal late. There were so many bodies laying around. And Chris Albert just poked one through and slid one underneath everybody. And immediate jubilation, obviously was like a relief. And thinking, okay, now you only got to fight off the big surge in the last minute. 15. But even better, about 2 seconds later, I seen the ref's arm go up, and Brown took a penalty after the goal, unfortunately, I believe, obviously. And to me, I was like, okay, maybe we're going to hold on to this one.
[01:06:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
Like I said, it was a wild game. And I think you mentioned something about the one particular fan was getting on your case.
[01:06:41] Speaker F: I had a guy that literally was following me from end to end, and he didn't stop talking to me. Like, I mean, the entire time while the play was going on, every time there was a face off.
And I love that fans that do that to me at union, I was always a better road goalie than I was a home goalie. I love playing on the road. I love the other fans getting on you and screaming, you suck, and sip, and the whole nine yards I could do. And so guys like that would fuel me, because I just want to make him look bad. So he was just talking to me, like, nonstop talking. And I kept just, every time, every time I face, I flip my mask off, I give him a little smile. He smiled back, and he kept going till about. There was about a minute left, I think, in the second period. And Brown got a two on all breakaway, and they were just passing it back and forth all the way in tight. And the guy made the late pass, and I just stretched as far as I could and basically caught the puck in my glove behind me, almost on the goal line. And all I heard from him was, okay, man, that was a good save. I'm going to leave you alone now. And he just left. We smiled at each other and he left.
[01:07:50] Speaker C: It was a tight game. They tied it up.
Marty Clapton's tied it up with 825 left there in the third period.
Talk about. I don't know if you remember the goal. I think Chris took a shot from the right circle that beat their goaltender. Do you remember that shot at all?
[01:08:09] Speaker F: Or the winning goal? Or the tying goal?
[01:08:12] Speaker C: The winning goal, yeah.
[01:08:13] Speaker F: Like I said, it was a mad scramble in front of the net. Like I said, from my end, I literally couldn't even see the goal. There were so many bodies laying and sprawling in front of the net from both teams. And he took a low shot, and somehow it made its way, like, lucky puck right through everybody. And then all of a sudden, I seen the lake go on. And that's the only reason why I even knew it was in the net, because I could not see the bowling.
[01:08:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:08:36] Speaker C: What was the celebration like in the locker room because nobody expected this team to be in the playoffs the third year, division one and the team I think didn't win less than ten games the year before.
[01:08:52] Speaker F: We were dead last at Christmas.
[01:08:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:08:54] Speaker F: And we finished that season on a ten game unbeaten streak and then went into RPI and scared the crap out of them by winning game one.
So we ended up with. That was eleven game winning streak at that point.
[01:09:07] Speaker C: Yeah, this was a young team too because it was like a boatload of freshmen on this team.
[01:09:12] Speaker B: So that's why I think.
[01:09:14] Speaker C: How much did they help get you guys over the top?
[01:09:17] Speaker F: Oh, it was great. It was a great surge.
That was our third year of recruiting but we didn't have a ton the first year and transitioning in it was just like we started getting a little better and gelling each year and then I think a lot of young talent came in that first year and all of us got an extra year of development and we just for some reason just gelled at Christmas time. Everybody came together and almost like we were just sick of being that team that know when are we going to start putting union on the map? And we won a couple of games and then all of a sudden just kind of steamrolled from there.
[01:09:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:09:53] Speaker C: Because you guys won that Christmas tournament up in Montreal at Concordia.
[01:09:56] Speaker F: Yeah, we crushed Concordia like 72 or something like that.
[01:09:59] Speaker C: Yeah, I think maybe it was right after that you guys started rolling.
[01:10:03] Speaker F: Yeah. Maybe that was a bit of a bonding thing with other guys being away because the schedules were a little different back then. It's not like now.
We didn't go to Belfast, Ireland and we didn't go on a plane.
It was get on the plane Friday morning at 06:00 a.m.
Either drive 4 hours east or 4 hours west, get off the bus, get on the ice right away, no break, get a skate in and then head to the hotel. There was no flying the night before. There was no flying anywhere.
[01:10:34] Speaker C: No, I drive the day of the game to get there. Hopefully there was no snow.
[01:10:40] Speaker F: You were basically on the same schedule we were. We just left at 06:00 a.m.
[01:10:47] Speaker B: We.
[01:10:47] Speaker F: Thought we were big, important guys because we had our own director's chair in the dresser.
[01:10:53] Speaker C: Just how big was that year for the team? I know it ended up the RPI losing the RPI there in the quarter finals, but to be able to be the first team in that day when they only took ten of the twelve teams, to be able to be that first team at union to say we made the postseason. What did that mean? I mean, looking back 30 years later.
[01:11:14] Speaker F: Oh, it meant everything because we knew we finally put a stamp on the program, kind of put us on the map for the first time. We weren't the joke expansion from division three, division one team anymore. And we were actually looked at seriously. We went in there and knocked out Neil Little, the best boys in the country in game one RPI series, and hung on as best we could to hold on to that four one league to win four three because they were coming for us in the third period.
I think that playoff one game was even bigger than making the playoffs. It was like people stood up and said, okay, this team might have a good grounds now and a good pace that going forward they're going to compete.
When they won it all in 2014.
I sat on the edge of my couch. Here we go.
I sat on the edge of my couch watching the game on TSN, and I was falling.
[01:12:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:12:25] Speaker C: They did a slideshow where they had the ten year did that. Some of the players back a couple of weeks ago and you were in it.
[01:12:31] Speaker F: Oh, really?
[01:12:32] Speaker C: Yeah, I think sitting at the regionals.
[01:12:35] Speaker F: Yeah.
I actually hadn't even been back to the school and my wife wanted to go. And so we made the ten plus hour drive to Connecticut and we stopped. We actually got a chance to stop by union on the way. She likes to go skating and stuff, so I surprised her.
I threw our skates in the trunk. I didn't tell her, and I didn't know if Levin had just retired the year before from the arena. So I was like, we're going to go there. I'm going to surprise him because we were always pretty close when I was there.
And I'm like, he'll let us go in the rink. And we got there and they're like, no, he left, like last year. I'm like, oh, man. But the new grink guy took us around and showed us the facilities and we're like, wow, this is a lot different than what we had back then. We didn't have a player's lounge.
Well, we didn't have a women's team back then, so we didn't have the gym in the back of our change room, but nothing like they have now.
[01:13:30] Speaker B: Yeah. And of course, it could be a.
[01:13:31] Speaker C: Lot better with the new rink coming a couple of years, so it'd be interesting to see how that turns out.
[01:13:36] Speaker F: So we drove down there and I was always telling her how college sports are way better than pro sports, the atmosphere, and she's like, really? And then by the time we got to game two, she had a union jersey, pom pom stickers on her face, the whole nine errors, right?
[01:13:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:13:51] Speaker C: You were wearing your jersey.
[01:13:52] Speaker B: I know that.
[01:13:53] Speaker F: Yeah, I was wearing my jersey. You know, it was really cool and was so cool that I hadn't been back to the school since then, and I had my jersey on, I was in the stands, and more than one person came up to me. Like, older fans that would have been around at that time, two different times, fans came up to me and said, thank you for 93.
That's all they said. They're like, Mike, is that really you? And I'm like, yeah, that's me. Thank you for 93. Because they remembered the RPI game.
That was like their crowning moment, I guess, to them, as an older fan for union, hockey was feeding our rivals and game one of the playoffs, and I was like, that is the coolest feeling of all the sports I played and any accolades I had that actually made me feel better than anything my wife thought was really cool, too.
[01:14:44] Speaker B: Really great to catch up with Jeff and Michael. And it was a wild time, a fun time covering that team back there because there was no help from the school at that time, athletically, no scholarships. The financial aid basically treated the hockey team like it was a division three program back then. But union really did a good job that year. And like I said, they almost pulled off the upset against RPI in that quarterfinal round. It would have been interesting to see if they could have done that, but that was fun. Like I said, I appreciate Jeff and Michael taking some time out of their busy schedules to chat. Coming up, I'll wrap up the podcast and have the latest winner in the Daily Gazette auto racing contest. In just a moment, you're listening to the parting shots podcast.
[01:15:49] Speaker D: NFHS that stands for the National Federation of State High School Associations.
But really what we stand for, together with NIFA are the 369,000 high school sports students in New York.
And so we stand. We stand for the runners, soccer and basketball players. We stand for their coaches, administrators and officials. We stand for the swimmers, football players and wrestlers. We stand for the golfers, softball and volleyball players. We stand as the national leader and advocate for high school athletics and all who participate in them and make them possible because it is our purpose to ensure that high school students get to play, perform and compete together.
To learn more about who we are and what we stand for, visit nfhs.org.
[01:16:48] Speaker C: This is Union college baseball head coach John Mueller. You're listening to the parting shots podcast with Daily Gazette sports editor Ken shot.
[01:16:56] Speaker B: Back to wrap up the podcast. The week three winner in the Daily Gazette's auto racing contest was Richard Bellinger of Johnstown with 50 points. Richard wins a $50 gift card for the second time in three weeks. Congratulations, Richard. The vip winner for the second straight week was Dwayne Leach of all seasons equipment with 20 points. I'll announce the auto racing contest winner's name and that winner's name will appear in Saturday's Daily Gazette. To play, go to dailyGazette.com and click on the auto racing contest banner.
Just because Covid-19 mandates are easing, that does not mean you should relax. Be vigilant. If you have not gotten vaccinated or received a booster shot, please do so. Do it for yourself, do it for your family, and do it for your friends.
That wraps up another edition of the parting shots podcast. I want to thank Ben Tupker, Kyle Chauvette, Liam Robertson, John Procop, Brendan Whittett, Dan Rubin, Jeff Giampetti, and Michael Gallant for being on the show. If you have questions or comments about the podcast, email them to me at shot. That's
[email protected]. Follow me on x and threads at slapshots.
The views expressed on the parting shots podcast are not necessarily those of the Delegazette company. The Parting Shots podcast is a production of the Delegazette Company. I am Delegazette sports editor, Ken Shots. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time. We're on the parting shots podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. Good day. Good hockey.
