[00:00:03] Speaker A: The following program is brought to you in living color on dailygazette.com or wherever you get your podcast.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: The Daily Gazette Company presents the parting Shots podcast. Now here's your host, Daily Gazette sports editor Ken shot.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Thank you, Scott.
[00:00:25] Speaker C: Easy.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: And welcome to the Parting Shots podcast, available wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe today. Thanks for joining me from the parting Shots podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. And we're talking Union College men's hockey with head coach Josh Halgy. Josh, welcome back. It's probably a good thing we're still talking college hockey here.
[00:00:41] Speaker C: It's a great thing.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Well, the six seed union had a dominating six nothing victory over Brown in last Saturday's first round game in the ECAC hockey tournament. The Garda Chargers advanced to the best of three quarterfinals against fourth seeded Dartmouth. The start times for the games at Thompson arena are 07:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday and if necessary, 04:00 p.m.. Sunday. And we'll talk about that matchup in a little bit. But first, let's look back at last Saturday's game against Brown. Then, Josh, what are your initial thoughts from that game?
[00:01:09] Speaker C: For the most part, I was really pleased. I thought we got off to a little bit of a slow start. I thought our energy and effort was good, but just didn't take care of pucks. And once we kind of settled into the, you know, we kind of just kind of leaned on them and eventually kind of broke the game wide open. I thought it was a pretty complete effort up and down the lineup.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Well, let's break down the game. It started out, as you said, it was a pretty even first ten and a half minutes of that game. And just a little bit past that ten minute mark of the first period, the media timeout happened. And after that union, which I thought was playing okay at the time, kicked into another gear. The Garner Chargers started to dominate the Bears. It resulted in a goal by Kaden Viegas late in the first period. That had to feel good to see the hard work pay off in that.
[00:01:52] Speaker C: Know, just, just kind of getting pucks and bodies to the net and know Josh Nixon makes a great pass and Vegas does a great job burying that one. And I think he kind of mentioned it. After that media timeout, I thought we kind of started playing a little bit better, a little bit, just more poised with the puck, and luckily for us, we were able to go up one nothing.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And then Josh Nixon had played a major role in that goal, dancing around the defense, getting an initial shot off on goal, he gets the rebound and slides it down to Viegas, who was to the right of goalie Lawton Zacher. And after the game, you said that Nixon was outstanding, and I agree. He just was very noticeable over the ICE, the way he was moving, getting by defense and making some nice moves. He seemed to be on another level in that game.
[00:02:34] Speaker C: Yeah, you eel we'd kind of talked to him about bringing the energy and just talking about bringing the juice a little bit, and he definitely did that. I thought he played outstanding. He's got speed to burn and really can take defenseman wide, and just when he takes care of the puck, he's extremely dangerous. And that's what you saw from him.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Yeah. The second period is when union really put even more distance between itself and Brown by scoring twice in less than three minutes in the period. It started with freshman defenseman DJ Hart scoring a shorthand to goal his first career tally. I mean, how happy were you for him to score his first goal in a big spot?
[00:03:09] Speaker C: Yeah, it was a big one. And he was so excited. So it was pretty cool to see, and I think that's kind of what we needed as our kill gave us a little momentum there. And great pass by Billy Eamonn, who found him. And DJ made no mistake about it.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: Yeah, you mentioned Billy. He was a spark on that goal. I mean, he was stopped on a breakaway by Zacher, but Iman stays with the play. He got behind the net and Hart made the right move to skate to the net. And you have a two nothing lead.
[00:03:33] Speaker C: Yep. And just anytime you can not only kill one off, but then get one, it's just such a big momentum boost.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Shortly after that, Chaz Spedruz leads a two on rush up the left wing. He had Tyler Watkins on the right side, but as Chaz got to the top of the left circle, he fired a hard wrist shot past Zacher's right shoulder to make it three nothing. And to me, that was the right play for spen to take. That mean, there have been too many times. And really, this is not a criticism of union, but just overall in hockey, you just see know players give up that shot and look for maybe the pass there and maybe the player is not ready. If he gets a shot, try to get a rebound in that way. But how pleased with you the Chaz took that shot and ended up scoring.
[00:04:11] Speaker C: Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that. We talk about it all the time in practice. Everybody's trying to be unselfish and pass the puck, but so many times you just make an extra pass and you don't even get a shot off. So he had that shooting mindset. He saw an opening. He used the defenseman as a screen, and it was a big time shot.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Well, Chaz is on a roll. He's on a five game goal scoring streak and leaves the team with 14 goals. How would you assess his play lately?
[00:04:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I actually didn't know that he was on that big of a streak. I know he's been playing well and, yeah, he's been a dangerous threat for us all season. And not surprising at the biggest time of the year that he's coming up clutch for us.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Yeah, well, union puts the game away in the third period. Ben Tupkert scored twice, including a shorthanded empty netter. But the goal to me that stood out was Viegas's second of the game. Eamonn wins a face off in the brown right circle. Draws it back to Viegas behind him. And Kaden rips it into the net. I mean, after the game, you said you didn't see it because you were talking to someone at the time. Did you get a chance to watch it on tape? And what did you think?
[00:05:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely kind of something that coach Ronan talks about for our forwards to have a line of scrimmage mentality and them beat their defenseman to the spot and then made no mistake about it. But it all starts with Villey winning that face off and putting it in a spot where we could get it. And then Kaden berries.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Just that overall, the way they played, we've seen glimpses of it during the season where you just dominate like that and to be able. Brown was coming in as an injured team. So how important was it to be aggressive, take the game to Brown and just basically put them away?
[00:05:48] Speaker C: Yeah, I think you look the weekend before, obviously, Brown plays Harvard and they just hung around, hung around and found a way to win. So it was important for us to put some distance between ourselves and them and when we have an opportunity to finish. And really, it couldn't have written it up much better for us because again, we kind of get through the weekend with everybody being healthy as well.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: How about the crowd? Especially the football team there? It was over 2000 fans there and it was noisy and loud and also a lot of fans singing take me home, country roads.
[00:06:20] Speaker C: That's what it's all about. And to have probably arguably our best crowd of the season in the last home game, it was pretty special and a pretty meaningful win for our guys that won't be playing there ever again. And hopefully we have some more games where people can keep getting out to. But it was an unbelievable atmosphere and there's a lot of student athletes that were there, so thankful for them coming out and supporting us and just a lot of people from the community. So it was a great game all around.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: Anyway, you can get some of those student athletes to go up to over this weekend.
[00:06:53] Speaker C: Yeah, we were talking to see if we could bust them up there.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: But of course, a lot more important things going on this weekend. We'll talk about that in just a moment. Of course, the wind sets up a quarterfinal round matchup with Darth, and we'll talk about the best of three series in just a moment. You're listening to the parting shots podcast.
[00:07:16] Speaker D: It's the most historic conference in college hockey. It's a battle night in and night out. Ecac hockey, an iconic conference, home to twelve of the most prestigious universities and programs in the world and showcasing the best student athletes in the sport. Top notch facilities and arenas, incomparable traditions, passionate fans, alumni who go on to become elite professionals, leaders and champions. Ecac hockey, there's no experience like it.
[00:07:48] Speaker E: Man, I loved playing high school sports growing up, and it's fun being a fan. Now, don't get me wrong, but sitting in the stands feels like I'm missing out on all the action, you know? I wanted to get back in the game, so I signed up to be a high school official. It takes me back to my playing days. I'm supporting students and I get paid to make the big calls. Do you want to see the game up close? Sign up to become an official in new
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[00:08:18] Speaker F: Hi, I'm Daily Gazette news columnist Andrew Waite and host of the Weighing in podcast, which takes you inside my award winning featured news column by offering the backstory, thought process and interviews that inform my work. Plus, readers have their chance to respond. The weighing in podcast is
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[00:08:57] Speaker G: Hi, this is Mark Kestasher, the voice of the NBA on ESPN radio and college football on ESPN Radio. I grew up in Gilderland. I'm a proud member of the five one eight. And I go back over 30 years with Ken shot. And when I'm not listening to his Shotsky radio, I'm listening to the parting shots podcast with Daily gazette sports editor Ken Shot. Here's Ken.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: Welcome back to the podcast. Josh Halgey, Union men's head hockey coach, joining me now as we go on segment two of this podcast as we get Union set to play Dartmouth in the quarterfinals of the EECC Hockey tournament Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Hanover, New Hampshire. Third quarterfinal round meeting between these two schools. Josh Unions swept Dartmouth in 2013 and 2014. First of all, it was assumed that unions would take on third seat at Colgate, but twelveth seated RPI's three two upset at win at fifth seat at Clarkson changed that. Did that catch you by surprise?
[00:09:55] Speaker C: Yeah, to be honest, it did. I mean, you obviously spend the majority of your week getting ready for Brown, but yeah, you get kind of done on Wednesday as far as the majority of your preparation. So you spend some time, hey, let's start getting some stuff done for Colgate.
Luckily enough for us, we decided that we were going to do a little bit on Dartmouth just to try to get ahead in case something crazy did happen. And sure enough, it did.
It definitely caught us off guard.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, Dartmouth has been a surprise team this season. The big Green won just five games last season and they finished in last place in ecac hockey. The ecac hockey coaches picked them to finish 11th this season, but they have been a pesky, resilient team this season and earned their first round buy since 2011. Reed Cashman is their head coach. He took over for Bob Gaudette after Gaudette retired in 2020.
How would you assess the job Cashman has done?
[00:10:51] Speaker C: I think you've been able to see just steady improvement from them. And even though last year they finished in twelveth, they were in so many games and they were a very difficult opponent. And he's got a team that's bought into the way he wants to play and they play a really structured, hard game and they're defensively really sound. And you've seen some of their younger players really take off offensively. So it's a tough matchup and they're playing at a high level.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: What Dartmouth players concern you, I think.
[00:11:20] Speaker C: You got to look at. They have two players with, I think it's Luke Hames has 17 goals and then Cooper Flinton has 15 goals. So those two guys really are dangerous for them offensively, and they got a bunch of young D that are playing at a high level. And I think one might have got all rookie team, and it's Foley and carpenter. They're pretty talented back there. And then obviously Cooper Blacks is six eight goaltender, that if you score the puck on him, you got to keep it because it's tough to get it by him.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Well, let's look at the season series. The team split the two games, with each winning in the other team's building. You took a five one win at Thompson arena on January 19. Josh Nixon had two goals in the game. Each team was missing a key player in that contest. Union defenseman John Prokhop was serving, and the ECAC hockey mandated one game suspension. And Cooper Black, the goaltenders you just mentioned, was ill. What did you take away from that?
[00:12:18] Speaker C: Just. I thought we played really well. Their rink, it seems to have a little bit more space in the neutral zone, and we were kind of trying to get through them with possession, and that was really key for us. And I think that we played physical, we played hard, and I was really pleased with just the way we attacked off the rush. And anytime you can go on the road and get that win, it's mean to me.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: Thompson arena is one of the probably more underrated buildings in Ecacio. When I was traveling with union, I always enjoyed great sight lines, and if they get a good crowd in there, that could be a noisy atmosphere, and they're maybe expecting almost to a full house this weekend. So how do you combat that?
[00:13:04] Speaker C: Yeah, I think just kind of focusing on us and banding together. Obviously, we played in a pretty tough environment a couple of weeks ago in Cornell, and the guys had a lot of fun with that. So hopefully it'll be a great atmosphere. And again, we just kind of have to worry about ourselves.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: In the rematch at Messa, you were coming off a dominating six two win over Harvard the day before, and you trailed Dartmouth three one before tying it. But a miscommunication led to a CJ Foley shorthanded goal that snapped the tie and led Dartmouth to the win. What was the lesson there?
[00:13:38] Speaker C: Yeah, I didn't love our energy that night. I thought Dartmouth was dictating the pace of play, and I didn't think we were very connected, just the way we were exiting the zone. And for us, I just thought they kind of bottled us up, and we have to be better than that. We have to take care of Hucks and not give up easy opportunities and make them earn everything they get.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: What do you think the key factor for union will be to win this series and head to Lake Placid for the first time since 2017.
[00:14:06] Speaker C: Well, I think special teams are always really important in playoffs. Your goaltending. And then again for us, just the way we take care of the puck. I mean, if we're not respecting the game and throwing pucks through the middle of the ICE and giving them transition, they're pretty dangerous. If we can get pucks in behind their D and just be physical and be hard and play a half court game, I like our chances.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: You were plus two special teams in that game against Brown, both of those shorthanded goals. That's not too bad.
[00:14:34] Speaker C: Yeah. Like I said, in the playoffs, special teams are so key and we'll have to be dialed in there.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: Well, the players are not only preparing for Dartmouth, they are getting ready for their final exams for the second trimester, and the exams start Thursday. How have you balanced practice with the exams?
[00:14:50] Speaker C: I think at this time of the year we're trying to be short with duration and not keep the guys at the rink too long if we don't need to. So getting them to come in, have a little fun and get a break from their studying, and then as soon as they're done, get them out of there so they don't have to spend too much time listening to us go over everything.
We're not going to change a bunch of things right now. We make little subtle adjustments based on who we're playing, but for the most part, we are who we are and we want to play with pace. We want to get up and down the sheet. We want to be hard, and I think it'll be a good to just get away and get off campus and just focus on hockey. So I know some guys have some exams tomorrow and then we'll be on the road after that. And then Friday they can just worry about the game.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: Yeah, exams run through Tuesday, so maybe you have to worry about that next week if you win that game. So we'll see. Is there any concern about the players focus?
[00:15:43] Speaker C: We've been pretty dialed in here this week, and I like how we practice, so you can only worry so much as a coach. And I think the guys have done a great job as far as just taking their preparation seriously. And when we're showing video right now, they can tell how they're dialed in. They're asking good questions, and I think they're ready to go.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: Before we started this podcast, you were asking me how my Eagles were doing with the free agency assigning. So far, so great. But what about your Minnesota Vikings, who's going to quarterback without Kirk Cousins there?
[00:16:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I think hopefully there's a draft pick in the future here that maybe they get, but we'll see what happens with that. But it's funny, I've always stick up for cousins and not so much anymore.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: Well, also they signed the running back from bay.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: Yeah. So it's weird how these guys are jumping ship and going to different your rival programs. I think that it's different, yeah.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Well, Josh, good luck this weekend. We'll talk after the games and see what happens. It's going to be an interesting weekend up there.
[00:16:44] Speaker C: Should be a lot of fun.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: Appreciate it. Thank you, Josh. I'll have another edition of the Parting Shots podcast on Thursday. The majority of that podcast will preview the union Dartmouth matchup. I'll have interviews with union players Ben Tupper, Kyle Chauvette, and Josh Nixon. I'll also speak with Dartmouth head coach Reed Cashman and Uscho Com's Dan Rubin. Joining me to preview the four quarterfinals series.
The views expressed on the parting shots podcast are not necessarily those of the Daily Gazette Company. The parting Shots podcast is a production of the Daily Gazette Company. I'm Daily Gazette sports editor Ken Shots. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time from the parting shots podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. Good day. Good hockey.
