Date: Sat., Jan. 14, 2012
Site: High Point Solutions Arena at the TD Bank Sports Center
Score: Quinnipiac 7 Colgate 1
Records: Colgate 12-8-2 (6-4-0 ECAC), Quinnipiac 13-8-5 (5-5-4 ECAC)
Colgate Game Story
Quinnipiac Game Story
New Haven Register
Box Score
Quick Analysis
Unfortunately when it rains, it pours. The Raiders were outstanding in the first period however the next 40 minutes did not go as planned with Quinnipiac striking early and often in the second period to take control of the game. Colgate played hard in the second though the bad bounces, bad mistakes and troubles from last season were present and on-display.
The Good
*The first period. A tough loss on Friday night, a late-night bus ride from New Jersey to Connecticut and an afternoon game all came together as the perfect recipe for a possible slow start. However, the possible slow start never materialized and the Raiders came storming out of the locker room. The first period may have been Colgate’s best 20 minutes of road hockey since a 4-1 win over Vermont on Nov. 25 at Gutterson Field House.
*The power play in the first period against one of the nation’s best penalty-killing teams was outstanding. Quinnipiac entered the game fourth nationally in the PK (88.8%). The Raiders, against a lackadaisical box formation, moved the puck strongly around the perimeter, generated good chances and eventually generated a power play score on the re-direction of a blue-line shot. Now although Colgate finished 1-for-6 and didn’t fair as well against a more aggressive kill later in the game, the success of the power play in the first period was duly noted.
*Sure, the Raiders did score only one goal but the offensive chances were there. Granted, one goal, isn’t going to do much but there were chances had – namely by the Smith, Wilson and Wagner combination. These chances included several odd-man rushes. As long as the team can generate chances, eventually the puck is going to go into the net.
*Three of the next four games are inside the friendly confines of Starr Rink. The Raiders have swept three-straight league home weekends and have not lost an ECAC game at Starr Rink since Feb. 4.
*As we said after the Princeton game, there is still a lot of hockey left to be played. No team in the league outside of possibly Cornell and Union appears immune to a bad weekend in general. The Raiders still have four games at hand on Princeton/Quinnipiac and one weekend sweep or at worst 3-point weekend will vault them right back towards the top of the table.
The Bad
*Quinnipiac ended up with unofficially four or five breakaways. Several of the breakaways came when Colgate was pressuring on the power play and was caught with too many men down low. Other breakaways came on simple giveaways at the blue line against aggressive pressure up top. The Raiders allowed a hand full of breakaways in the first half of the season. That many breakaways regardless of how good your goaltending is cannot simply be tolerated.
*Offensively trying to do too much. We haven’t written about this however it has become evident over the last few games that some of the Raiders are simply pushing too hard offensively and trying to force plays that simply aren’t there. This has been evidenced by trying to skate through a double team or into traffic with the puck. Other times it’s trying to make the extra, extra pass in an attempt to set up a pretty good or firing the puck ahead with a saucer pass through too many sticks in the neutral zone. And from this sloppiness and turnovers have resulted. Offensively speaking, Colgate wasn’t doing anything fancy in the first half of the season to score goals, the team needs to get back to that.
*Another so-so night for the penalty kill. On the good side of things, CU killed off the first four Quinnipiac power plays of the game and generally looked better than it did on Friday night against Princeton. However some frustration penalties late in the game with Quinnipiac already ahead by four led to extra power play time and two Quinnipiac power play goals. All of the sudden, the Raiders have yielded 20 power play goals in 22 games and the penalty kill conversion rate has dropped below 80.0% for the first time since mid-November. The team has had a good number of short-handed chances but the high risk-high reward of short-handed rushes hasn’t paid off lately.
*It was a tough goaltending and team defense weekend in general with 13 goals allowed in two games. Not all of the blame can be laid on the goaltenders or on the defensive coverage though the team (everyone) defensive effort in general was poor. Included in some of the woes were gaffes in defensive zone coverage leading to wide open Quinnipiac shooting alleys, bad decisions on clearing attempts and first passes, giveaways and losing battles along the wall and in front of the net. Some of the same problems were present in last weekend’s series at Ferris State.
*Above we spoke about increased offensive chances, though other times the Raiders seemed vanilla in the offensive game. Vanilla meaning that Colgate would hammer the puck into the attack zone, Quinnipiac defenders would win the race to the puck first and then pound it out the other end of the rink. Granted, some of this had to do with the fast boards at the TD Bank Sports Center but when the Raiders have been most successful (that we’ve seen) is by entering into the zone with the puck i.e. skating it in and then trying to set the play up that way as opposed to dump-and-chase hockey.
*Bad penalties. Frustration mounted of course as the game went on and the Raiders left themselves open to taking some dumb penalties in the third period. Not really much more to say on that, it's fairly obvious.
The Turning Point
*Sixteen seconds…..sixteen seconds into the second period, Quinnipiac erased a 1-0 Colgate advantage with a sharp-angle shot goal from the left-wing boards on an innocuous-looking play. While ‘Gate played a strong first period, the Q-Cats were able to tie the game in the middle stanza before the fans had a chance to get settled back into their seats. Sixteen seconds…there were 16 seconds left in the second when Jeremy Langlois scored on a short-handed breakaway to balloon Quinnipiac’s lead from 3-1 to 4-1.
This and That…
*The game did not start until 4:15 p.m. because of a delay in the arrival of one of the referees and one of the linsemen. Just two officials skated during warm-ups and the full officiating crew was not on the ice all together until the National Anthem. The delay in the start time marked the second-straight year that Colgate and Quinnipiac have had to delay their face-off at the Bank. Last year’s game was delayed due to a massive snowstorm that kept the Raiders from arriving at the rink until 6:00 p.m.
*In other referee news, the third period and the end of the second period were played with just one referee and two linesmen. Referee Jack Millea appeared to injure his shoulder in the second period. He skated off to the locker room and did not return. Chip Malafronte of the New Haven Register reported on his Twitter account that Millea suffered a shoulder injury.
*Freshman Steve Estep, a walk-on from the rowing team, made his debut in goal on Saturday during the third period. The Afton, Minn., native stopped four of the six shots he faced in just about 11 minutes of action.
*”Mr. Hockey” Gordie Howe, the 1984 Colgate Silver Puck Club Gold Puck recipient, was present at the game. According to the New Haven Register, Howe watched the game from the Presidents’ Box.
*Colgate concluded its’ afternoon game portion of the schedule with a 2-2-0 record. Colgate registered wins over Robert Morris and Princeton and losses were to Ferris State and Quinnipiac.
*Hobey Baker Memorial Award candidate Austin Smith was held without a single point for just the second time this season. The last time that Smith was held pointless was on Nov. 5 at Yale. Smith’s scoreless Saturday snapped a string of 12-straight games with at least one point. The longest current point streak belongs to Chris Wagner with at least one point in three-straight games.
*A large Colgate contingent took in Saturday’s game at the TD Bank Sports Center. Raider Maroon and White were most prevalent in the end-zone and corner sections of the seating bowl below the window looking out to the parking lot.
*For the first time in the history of the Colgate-Quinnipiac series, the two teams split their regular season series with each side winning once. In previous years, there was either a sweep or at least one of the games was a tie. Quinnipiac has taken the lead in the overall series 10-9-2.
*Robbie Bourdon’s assist on Chris Wagner’s power play goal was his 64th career point. On Colgate’s all-time scoring list, Bourdon has moved into a tie for 106th place with Bill McCreary ’80. The junior from Montreal needs just three more points to move into Colgate’s top 100 all-time.
0 comments:
Post a Comment