[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign
[00:00:03] Speaker B: the following program is brought to you in living color on elliot gazette.com or wherever you get your podcast.
The Gazette News Group presents the Parting Shots Podcast. Now here's your host and shot. Thank you Scott Geezy 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. It's our weekly visit with Union men's head hot coach Josh Algae. Josh. Josh, welcome back. How are things going?
[00:00:33] Speaker A: Good. Good to be working.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Yeah, it's true. And big series coming up this weekend. We'll talk about that a little bit, but let's look back. Fifth Seed Union started its quest for an ECAC hockey tournament title last Saturday by hosting 12th seed at Brown in the single elimination opening round game. Union had won the two game season series by a combined seven nothing and closed the regular season with a three nothing win at Brown. Of course it would have been easy for the Garner Chargers to overlook the Bears. The what was the message heading into Saturday's matchup?
[00:01:02] Speaker A: You know, I think just that we are going to get a team that, you know, we had just beaten and we could put doubt, you know, in their mind if we, you know, started fast and that was kind of the goal is just to maybe, you know, get that first one and really put the pressure on them.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it was important for Union to take control of the game and it started out well. Lucas Buziol takes a shot from the slot. The puck hits a Brown defender and slides by an over committed goalie Tyler Shea to give union a one nothing lead. 819 into the game.
[00:01:31] Speaker C: They've really had the puck pinned for about three minutes. Another big hit is go.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: Is hit.
[00:01:35] Speaker C: Union could have a two on one in the zone shot from the slot. It's in.
Shay gets a piece and it trickles over the line. Union go. He went far side on Shea who committed to the near side post. He got a piece of it but not enough and it trickled in.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: That was a call from Matt Dubray and Andrew Santillo on espn. You're going to hear a lot from them in this podcast. A little puck luck for Buzio, but a good start for Union.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought, you know, I thought their goalie in the first period was really good. I think he would probably wish he could have that one back as he was just off a little bit and you know, Lucas made a really nice shot and he was able to trickle in.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Yeah, just got over the goal line there. The officials Checked to make sure it was over. Completely over. And it was. So before we go on to the game, how good was it to have Matt back on the call of the game after he missed the final two home games because of a setback in his cancer recovery?
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Yeah, pretty special to, you know, have him back and call the first playoff game at the New Barn. So pretty cool. And obviously for us, he's, he's a big part of our team.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Well, the period ends 1 nothing. The Garda Chargers dominate the period out shooting the Bears 23 to 7.
But is there any concern that this core is only one nothing?
[00:02:47] Speaker A: I mean, I, I was pleased with how we were playing, but anytime it's a one nothing game when you feel like you should be up a little bit more, there's a, there's a little bit of cost for concern.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Well, the second period gets going and with 11:34 left, Parker Lindauer leads a two on one rush down the right wing. In the season finale at Brown, Lindauer had a breakaway on Shea, but got too tight on the goalie and never got a shot off. But on Saturday, Lindauer made up for
[00:03:11] Speaker C: that with another turnover. Here they come. Could be a two on one. Lindauer fire scars.
What a snipe. Parker Lindauer faked it with his eyes. Shay bit and basically made it look like I'm gonna pass this puck. And then was able to beat Shea on the short side here as we get another look at it. What a great fake.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: That was a great shot by Lindauer. I mean, how big was that goal?
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Yeah, it was huge because, you know, as you mentioned after the first year, a little bit worried and then, you know, it went, went some time there in the second before we were able to get that, that second goal. And a great shot by Parker.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Well, the floodgates slowly begin to open. Union gets a power play when Ivan Zador Nook is called for interference at 1244. And Colby MacArthur makes him pay team
[00:03:57] Speaker C: shoot and hoping to keep it out with bodies. That one sneaks five ball. It's Colby MacArthur on the power play. Three nothing union.
Colby MacArthur, the senior gets his 11th of the year as he got that one five hole on Tyler Shea.
And it's three nothing union.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: Are you starting to feel comfortable at this point?
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought that like we were playing, you know, some good hockey and, you know, starting to get rewarded for it. So, yeah, I think we felt like we were at a good spot after the third.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: Well, 3:14 left. Brandon Burr makes it a four goal lead with a shot from the right circle that beat Shea past his right shoulder.
[00:04:43] Speaker C: MacArthur to Bureau. Bureau gets around a man. Bureau score.
That was pretty.
[00:04:51] Speaker B: All three goals in that period were scored from the right circle. Did you see something there?
[00:04:56] Speaker A: You know, it was just kind of part of the scouting report there that, you know, Brian McDonald does. Our goaltending coach was just. That felt like he left that post a little early and, you know, that just underneath his glove was a spot where we could maybe take advantage of him.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Well, it's four nothing after two. You have to be feeling good. You're 20 minutes away from a best of three quarterfinal matchup with Princeton. What is the message to the team prior to the third period?
[00:05:21] Speaker A: You're just, you know, staying on the hunt, keep attacking.
You know, we were in a spot that we didn't want to, like, let our foot off the gas. I thought really focusing on just our habits was really important there in the third.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Well, for all intents and purposes, the game is over. 38 seconds into the third when MacArthur gets his second of the game. And I officially declare on social media, hashtag theroute is on.
[00:05:45] Speaker C: Union over the blue line.
Rulersbah sending it towards the net. Puck is loose, it's in.
And just like that, Union makes it 5 nothing. Luther's ball with the shot. A juicy rebound burger with cheese to Colby. MacArthur, who gets his second of the game as Shea had to lay himself out to make the initial save. And it is five nothing.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: Now it's five nothing. Did you feel at that point the game was over?
[00:06:13] Speaker A: I mean, you never feel, you know, feel like it's over until it's over, but I guess felt comfortable about where we're at and just wanted this, you know, again, just make sure we played really good hockey.
[00:06:23] Speaker B: Well, Union was not done scoring, and Brown started getting frustrated and taking undisciplined penalties. It led to three straight power play goals. Ben Ruth as well, got things going with 8:42 left.
[00:06:35] Speaker C: Handling controls.
Dunbar
[00:06:42] Speaker B: out of the box.
[00:06:43] Speaker C: Five on four. Now the score squeezes inside the pad and Ben movers ball finally adds his name.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: 205 later, Buziel, who had a potential goal waved off because of a high stick, made it 7 nothing on the power play.
[00:07:00] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh. Buziel on the back door bangs it home from MacArthur.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: The fourth line got a chance to play on the power play. And Ethan Benz scored his first goal of the season with 5:10 left.
Then with 3:30 left, Riley Bruick became the sixth Garnet Chargers player to hit the double digits in Goals with this even strength tally crazy.
[00:07:30] Speaker D: Didn't Brown have, I think, 20 shots coming into this second period?
[00:07:34] Speaker C: So Union, there's another goal right off the draw
[00:07:39] Speaker B: that wrapped up the 9 nothing route of Brown. That was an incredible third period.
Josh Brown had 22 shots on goal in the game. Union had 26 shots on goal in the third period. 59 shots for the game. For Union. How pleased were you to see the team not let up in that third period and taking the life out of the Bears?
[00:07:59] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a delicate situation there. You want us to continue to play the right way and play hard.
You know, you don't want to make sure everybody gets through the game healthy. And I thought there were some, you know, penalties taken that, you know, I thought the refs did a nice job calling so, you know, try to keep our guys safe and protected and, you know, then at the same point you also want to be respectful to the other team and not try to run it up. But at the same point, you got to play to win. So it's, you know, hey, playoff hockey.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: I mean, you want, you want to put the team away. I mean, I don't want, you don't want to give. I don't, I mean, I don't care if you get nine goals, that's your team has to stop. And but one, the one thing I didn't understand, why would Tyler Shea made 50 saves that game, but he should have been pulled, I mean, just for his sanity, because, I mean, I, I, at that point, you're down five, six, nothing. What's the point of keeping him in and, you know, have him be facing a shooting gallery.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Yeah, and I think you look at it this season, he played, you know, a lot of minutes against us and, you know, he didn't get any support as far as, you know, offensive support. So I think just kind of, you know, giving him his moment and getting him out of there. And, you know, he kept him in it as long as he could, but at the end there it just, you know, I thought we kind of broke their spirit.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: Well, getting back to Buziel's disallowed goal, the call on the ice was no goal. When the replay of the play was shown on the video board, the standing room only, crowded 24.99 and the bench said, wait a minute. That looked like a good goal. You challenged it, but lost the challenge. Did you think it was the right call?
[00:09:30] Speaker A: The one thing I know about high sticks is just from like our, our start of the season meetings with referees is that they said it is one of the hardest things to overturn. So we knew that it was, you know, going to be tough for them to overturn it, but felt like just, you know, seeing the video we did that it was worth the chance.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: It was almost like the MacArthur disallowed goal in the Yale game. But at that point you had lost your challenge, first challenge already. And if you take a second challenge and lose that, you get a delay game penalty. So but like you said, I mean at that point you're well ahead and just like, why not give it a shot?
[00:10:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think, you know, we're looking at, you know, to end it and I think another goal just we felt at that point would have done it, but you know, again I knew that it was a, it was a going to be a different difficult one for them to overturn.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Well, I have a post game sound. Here's our Brandon Beer, Lucas Buziol, Colby MacArthur and Parker Lindauer.
You want to switch?
Okay, let's start with Brandon first. How important was it to come in here and take control of a 12 seater brown? You obviously beat them last week, but.
To come out and just take it.
[00:10:41] Speaker E: Yeah, it was important, like just show them that they can't really compete with us. And I think we did that pretty well today.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: You get the first goal there, we come by one nothing. Actually you get 23 shots in the first period, but it's only one nothing. So what's, what's the move like? I'm sorry, just talk about that.
[00:11:02] Speaker E: Yeah, we just wanted to have a good start.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: We talked about that all week and
[00:11:05] Speaker E: I thought we accomplished that. Obviously more and more goals kept coming to follow.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Colby at that second period, how big was that to get to three?
[00:11:14] Speaker F: Yeah, it's obviously important to go out second period after a one, not the first period and we needed the next goal. We knew that and obviously we did it.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Parker, you got that goal, making two nothing and going to the 201. What is you feeling there?
[00:11:28] Speaker G: It was kind of just our pre scout throughout the week that we're going to shoot low glove on this kid and I just shot it there and it went in.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Last week you had a breakaway against Jay and I think you got a little too tight and weren't able to get a shot off. So how good was it to get that shot off tonight?
[00:11:44] Speaker G: Yeah, I forgot to read the Prescott before that game.
Maybe that's why I missed that one. But I'm happy it went in and happy our team played really well tonight.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: Yeah, Brandon, all three goals in that second period came from the right circle. Was there something you guys in the Prescott saw that you went, you went high, high side, over his six side. So what, what did you see on yours?
[00:12:07] Speaker E: I mean. Yeah, Benny was yelling for the puck and I think the goalie heard that, so he kind of cheated over and I was able to shoot a short side there.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Yeah, we talk about that third, the way you guys put that game away there. I mean, how big was that to just give Brown no hope whatsoever?
[00:12:23] Speaker F: Yeah, obviously we knew that going to the third, like we still needed to play our game and we do five minute segments so we can't take any period lightly, even with a lead.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Lucas, you think you got robbed for that? No. Go.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:12:37] Speaker E: I didn't really do myself any favor by selling it. But
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Brand, how important will it be to take this effort down to Princeton? Best of three. A team that you split the season series with?
[00:12:51] Speaker E: I mean it's super important. I mean we gotta get by this next round here and make our first trip to Placid as a, as a group. So it's gonna be pretty important.
[00:12:59] Speaker B: Well, the atmosphere here tonight, how much fun was it?
[00:13:02] Speaker F: Yeah, that was probably one of the most fun games I've had in my union career. The fans were unbelievable and even like the me and him are next to each other and the starting lineups and we were just looking at each other like this is, this is unreal. So we had to put on the performance for sure.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: And the score of the five goals, you guys had 26 shots to go in that third period. Brown had 22 for the game to put the game away.
What you guys did, how crucial is that especially to do it in the postseason when you really need to put the teams away like that and not give them any chance of comeback.
[00:13:34] Speaker F: Yeah, you know, fans love goals and, and I, I think we gave them a lot of goals tonight and they were obviously happening. So were we.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Parker. Basically it's very rare for a team to shut out opposing team three times during the season. Yacht scored of 16 to nothing this year. The other guys have a shutout streak that carried it over from last season. 189 minutes now against ground.
What, what made it so difficult for ground to score against you guys?
[00:14:00] Speaker G: I think it was just our pre scout going into the, the weeks. Like we looked at them detailed, offensive zone, defensive zone, how we want to play against them. And the plan worked and obviously our goaltending is huge throughout the week. And I was saying it earlier. Like, I'm really glad that we got to play a game this weekend, even though we didn't get a buy, because sometimes sin at home when you have a buy can hurt you the next weekend. So I'm really happy we played really well tonight and try to carry. Carry it over to Princeton.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Because last. Last year, guys had to buy and lost it. Got swept by Garmin. So. So it's, it's, it's, it's good. It's better this way. Maybe put some fear in Prince a little bit.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: That's the goal. Yeah.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Just general thoughts to me. What are you going to have to do against Princeton next week?
[00:14:46] Speaker E: Same thing we did today. Score nine goals.
[00:14:50] Speaker B: That's, of course, you got to do that. Two games at ten and one.
[00:14:52] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah, true.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: Colby, as one of the seniors in the locker room, is there something that you and that group talked about, you know, bringing this squad to a class, something you haven't done before? What's the message in that regard, heading into Princeton?
[00:15:08] Speaker F: Yeah, you know, our goal is to play our best hockey in this time of the year, and I think we've done that in the month of February and obviously tonight. And we're going to continue getting better every day. And yeah, we're not, we're not stopping after plaza. We're going to go all the way this year. That's our goal.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Well, Josh, how about the crowd? As I mentioned, there were 2499 fans in MT Bank Center. Maybe a few more, but I guess the only thing the fire Marshall likes, 2500 or so. But I mean, how exciting was it to have that crowd so fired up? I mean, just really. It was very noisy in there.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: Yeah, they were outstanding all night.
It was pretty special, just from the opening introduction to the last minute of the game until, you know, the salute there at the end.
A lot of fun. A great way to kind of end our home schedule. And, you know, for us now, it's just really thankful for everything the fans did this season.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: And it was mentioned in a previous podcast, the question about the players going around tapping their sticks on the glass. And they did that at the end of the game after the. The center ice salute.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought that was a classy move by Parker Lindauer and something we had, you know, talked about.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: Maybe he listens to the podcast.
Yeah. Well, we'll take a break here. When we return, we'll preview the quarterfinal matchup between Union and Princeton at historically frigid Hobie Baker, Inc. And we'll answer questions from Our listeners. You're listening to the Parting Shots podcast.
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[00:18:40] Speaker B: Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Gazette Union hockey beat writer Ken Shine and I'm joined by Union men's head hockey coach Josh Howgi. So after the big victory over Brown, Union gets to head to Princeton, New Jersey to face the four seeded Tigers in the best of three quarterfinals. Union game one is Friday and game two is Saturday, both starting at 7:00pm if necessary. Game three will be Sunday at 4:00pm Princeton finished one point ahead of Union for fourth place in that final first round. Bye. It's the seventh postseason meeting between the two schools. Princeton has eliminated Union four times, including in the 2023 first round game. Your first season as Union head coach, Josh, and the first year of the single elimination opening round game.
Do you like this matchup?
[00:19:23] Speaker A: I mean it's. I think it's two really good hockey teams. You know, you get that, that four or five Matchup and you know, I, you kind of saw it came down to the last day for who was going to finish in fourth and you know, I know they're a good, good opponent.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: Well, I remember you had, I mean it's sort of similar to what happened with Brown the end of that season, your first season you beat Princeton at home to, to get that eighth seed and then Frenzy comes in and you know, takes scores a late third period goal to win that game. What do you remember about that that day?
[00:19:54] Speaker A: That was a crazy game. You know, one where.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Yeah, you're down 4:1 in the ball game.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, I thought that, you know, we made a really strong push. I thought at times we were the better team but just, you know, they made one more play than us. So it was a tough one and a really hard one to swallow.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: Well, this season the team split their two games which with each squad winning in the other's rink. Princeton took a 51 win at MNT Bank center on December 5th. The Garner Chargers got revenge on January 12th at Hobey Baker Rink with a 42 victory. Let's start with the. Actually it was January 10th, not the 12th. I don't know why I 12th there.
Let's start with that 51 game. The Tigers jumped out to a 2 nothing lead in the first period. Colby MacArthur scored a power play goal with 627 left in the first. First Union had four more power plays against one of the worst penalty kills in the country, but only had four shots and goal the rest of the way. I mean, how costly was that?
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a tough one for us.
I thought they were clearly the better team that night. I did not like the way we played, you know, and I really liked the way they played. Like they outworked us, they stayed above us, they frustrated us and you know, I'm sure that's going to be their game plan, you know, going forward.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: Well, in the January rematch, Union is down two, one after two, but Brandon Burr and Tyler Dunbar score 129 apart early in the third period to give Union the lead. Nate Hanley seals it on an empty netter and it's a 42 victory. I mean how important was that win, especially coming off a rough 72 loss at Quinnipiac the night before?
[00:21:26] Speaker A: Yeah, the night before was a long night.
You know, we, we didn't play well. We lost Dunbar early in the game and Will Felicio was out for some time there. So I thought it was a really big bounce back win for us and I Thought, you know, again, a lot of what we did that night we'll have to do this weekend.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: What Princeton players concern you.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: I mean, I definitely think that when you look at it, you look at, you know, Daniels as someone who can score. Gorman really stirs a drink for him. Tyler Rubin's a very talented defenseman.
Esmond and Manfree up front are guys that produce for him. So. And then obviously Arthur Smith and that.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to say he's capable of stealing some games if he's on his game.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a talented goalie and he's been really good for him.
[00:22:18] Speaker B: How do you eliminate Prince's home ice edge? What would be the key in the home in that series to winning it?
[00:22:23] Speaker A: Well, I mean I think it's the biggest advantage they have there is last change. So I think, you know, we're going to have to really possess the puck and you know, making sure that like on icings we get the matchups we want. And again, I think it's just we've won there before. So I think, you know, we know that it's, it's a tough place to play. Things happen really fast and I think we're prepared for it.
[00:22:45] Speaker B: It was, we heard from Parker Lindauer after Saturday's game. He said he's, he's happy. The fact that they actually played Union actually played the, that opening round game Saturday after having the buy. You guys had the buy last year and unfortunately for you guys, Dartmouth swept that series.
Now you've scored nine goals against Brown. How important will it be to bring that momentum? I mean we're not going to say any 9 nothing games in this series, but how important will it be to bring that momentum down to Princeton?
[00:23:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I think, you know, our guys should have a lot of confidence in just being the team we are right now. We've been playing some good hockey for a while now and I think it's just all about us continuing that we can't get frustrated. We gotta, you know, just focus in on the way we play and continue doing what we've been doing.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: Well, I got a couple of news items to talk about. Let's start with Brandon Burr.
On Wednesday afternoon. After he made the EC All ECC Hockey third team last season, he was named the All ECAC Hockey second team on Wednesday. He had. Burr had five goals and 11 assists in 20 conference games this season, had four multi point performances in conference games and had a pair of game winners against St. Lawrence and Yale.
He was the forward of the week on October 13th and also was forward of the month for November. After he had 10 points in five games, he was a runner up for the 2026 EC Hockey Men's Scholar Athlete of the Year award. Overall this season, Brandon's had 19 goals and 16 assists. He's tied with sophomore Ben Muthersborg for the team leading goals, and there's a point behind Ruthersborg for. For the team scoring lead. Just talk about Brandon. The season he's had. You recruited him to go to Clarkson, didn't work out there, and you got the job here at Union. You recruited him again, and he's really turned out to be a solid player for you.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Yeah, he's, you know, kind of been, you know, the guy that really gets us going here for a couple years now.
Can do a lot of different things as far as creating offensively. Plays a really honest, hard game.
You know, I think when he's done here, he'll have a chance to sign an NHL contract at least. I think he deserves that.
You know, really indebted to him for, you know, not only taking a chance on me once, but then when I left, not being too mad at me and giving me a second chance and coming here and being a great person for us.
[00:25:05] Speaker B: He always seems to be smiling.
[00:25:06] Speaker A: Yeah, he's. He's a, you know, just a good person. He's so much fun to be around and, you know, we'll really miss him.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: The other news item before we start our taping here, New England Hockey Journal writer Mark Diver posted on X on Wednesday afternoon that Providence head coach and former Union head coach Nate Lehman said on his radio show that the Friars will be visiting Union next season. Can you confirm that? And what's the date?
[00:25:31] Speaker A: You know, we don't have the contract done, but that it is. It is in place and it is looking at. It'll be the either 16th or 17th of October. It will just be for one game.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: Okay. Then you'll go back there in the following season, correct? Yeah. Okay. That'll be fun. You know, Nate came back that exhibition game, his first appearance at Mesa Rink there since he left after the 29, 22,009, 2010 season to go to Providence.
I mean, has. Has he talked to. Have you talked about the new rink as he seemed to be excited about coming to the new facility?
[00:26:06] Speaker A: Yeah, they reached out about wanting to play and, you know, obviously he speaks really fondly of his time here and I think he likes to get back, so it'll be good for him to come in for, you know, the One game. And I, you know, as we've tried to, you know, continue to build the program, we've wanted to add some, you know, difficult games. And I think this one is another one of just, you know, what we're trying to do here.
[00:26:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. Well, we always like to take questions from our listeners. Kelly Houbicki writes, is there any difference in preparing for a playoff hockey matchup versus a regular season game?
How do you help the players keep focus and not let the playoff scenario affect them mentally?
[00:26:42] Speaker A: Well, we just talk a lot about just being who they are and playing the way we can.
You know, there is more pressure in playoffs, but at the same point, the game doesn't change.
We probably spend a little bit more time making subtle changes just on things we'll do for, you know, for each team because it is a series here now and you can do some different things. So that does change the game planning a little bit.
[00:27:07] Speaker B: Andrew Jarrett has a couple of questions, and he's always firing questions to me. Buziol blocked a shot against Brown and became immobilized as a result. He then threw himself at another shot, which fortunately missed him. Bruik quietly leads the team with a plus 18, plus minus rating and a 20% shooting percentage. These Killer Bees are Union's top shot blocking duo among forwards with 23 and 21 block shots apiece. Does Buziel have a big welt somewhere? And what accounts for Bruix plus 18?
[00:27:37] Speaker A: You know, I. Yeah, those two take a beating as far as how much they sacrifice for, for the team. They block a ton of shots, they play the right way and, you know, like, we play them a lot of times against other teams, top line. So it's, it's, it's a challenge for them every night, but they're up to it. And I've been really proud of just what kind of steps they've taken for us offensively.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: Union coaches, he's say, he says, are very sharp when it comes to real time assessments of the game on the ice, but they can't always see everything. He wants to know, who is Sean Speck, your eye in the sky? Will he be monitoring from above during the Princess Series? I can answer that question, yes. But talk about Sean.
[00:28:17] Speaker A: Yeah, so Sean's a Union alum who grew up playing just youth hockey in the area, came to Union and was actually a soccer player on the soccer team, but was really involved with the hockey program throughout his time. And then when he graduated, we offered him the position to be our director of hockey operations.
You know, he does so much for us. He's such a welcome addition and he's a really bright hockey mind.
[00:28:43] Speaker B: His dad used to be the women's soccer coach and he also ran the spirit shop there at the Mesarinka, selling the items.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: Yeah, he's around from time to time and always a lot of fun.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: Professor Brian Cohen asks, were there lessons that came out of the loss to Princeton in the fall that you applied to help the team beat Princeton later in the season, and how do you think you can apply them to this weekend?
[00:29:09] Speaker A: Well, I give Princeton credit for us, like, learning how hard it is to win. They really frustrated us that first game and stayed above us and, you know, we've learned to try to fight through some of that stuff and, you know, do some different things to try to create more offensively because of it. So, yeah, that game was a. That was a long night for us
[00:29:29] Speaker B: that, of course, you bounced back the next day and shut out Quinnipiac, so that was a good turnaround there. Jared Lacourt is wondering, how is the approach different when you prepare for a best of three playoff versus a typical ECAC road weekend?
[00:29:44] Speaker A: Yeah, so there's just a lot more time spent on, on the opposition. So we've watched a ton of video on Princeton.
You know, luckily for us, we were able to, you know, get some stuff clipped last week as we finished up with Brown, having had just played Brown the weekend before, so we didn't have to do as much prep.
You know, we're able to spend more time and there'll be changes that are made from game one to game two.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: Ryan Fay writes, Nate Hanley is three points away from 100 for his career, so a good weekend could get him there. Could Josh talk about the impact Hanley has had on the program and what his legacy with the program will be? Was Hanley one of his first recruits at Union or one of Bennett's last? And if Nate does hit the 100 point mark, will be the first players to do it since Sebastian Vidmar and Brett Szpinsky in 2019.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: Yeah, Nate was, you know, our second, second or third player we committed.
The first three were Carter Korpi, John Prokop and Nate Hanley. And in some sort of order, I know Carter was the first to commit.
So, you know, I think when you, you look at it, Nate's.
He's been, you know, our best offensive player here through four years as far as just how much he's created for us. His creativity, the way he plays is just it's so much fun to watch. He does things that are pretty special.
He's a character. He's somebody that, you know, really is himself all the time. And I think the team really enjoys having, you know, someone like Nate in the locker room.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: Yeah, but he's tough to talk to after games. He doesn't give you a lot.
[00:31:15] Speaker A: He's not one from, you know, media. He wants to. I think he's pretty selfless and doesn't want the attention for himself, but. But, you know, he's one that if I have a, you know, if I got a long car ride, he'd make it interesting. So.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: Well, you did have to sit him down for one game because he was not playing well, and I think that woke him up.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: I think that, you know, Nate responds to that.
He's got a lot of pride in his game and wants to play the right way, and, you know, from time to time you have to do that.
[00:31:44] Speaker B: Well, thanks, everybody, for the questions. If you have a question for Josh, you can email them to Shot. That's S C H O t
[email protected] or you can post them on Facebook on my personal page and the Parting Shots podcast page. You can also send them via bluesky X&threads at Slapshots. Well, Josh, good luck this weekend and we'll talk after the games this weekend.
Hopefully for the unions, a chance to talk, get to Lake Placid.
[00:32:10] Speaker A: Yeah, it's exciting. So thank you for everything.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: All right, that's Josh Algae. Coming up on Thursday's podcast, I'll talk more about the Union press matchup. On the Union side, we'll have interviews with Brandon Byrd, Nick Young, Tyler Dunbar, and Parker Lindauer. I'll also speak with Princeton head coach Ben Sire. And Dan Rubin, who covers the ECAC for the USCHO.com will join me to review the opening round games and preview the four quarterfinal matchups. I hope you tune in.
The views expressed on the Pawning Shots podcast are not necessarily those of the Gazette News Group. The Pawning Shots podcast is a production of the Gazette News Group. I'm Daily Gazette Union hockey beat writer Ken Schott. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you next time from the Parting Shots podcast studio in Schenectady, New York. Good day, good hockey.
