After a disappointing opening weekend that saw the men's hockey team earn a tie and a loss against the University of Illinois-Chicago Flames, the squad is looking for its first win of the young season as regular season conference play begins in earnest this weekend.
The Big Green will play ECAC road games tonight against the Union Skating Dutchmen in Schenectady, N.Y., and tomorrow night against the RPI Engineers at Troy, N.Y.
Coach Roger Demment and the players said a strong commitment to defense will be necessary for the team to be successful this weekend.
The squad's newly installed defensive-minded system was quite effective last Friday night, holding UIC to only three goals, but the defense came unraveled during the Saturday nightcap, resulting in eight goals allowed.
"It is going to take nearly flawless defense to beat RPI and Union," goalie Ben Heller '97 said. "The two rinks are pretty difficult to play in, and offense will take care of itself if we take the crowd out of the game ... and keep their scoring chances to a minimum."
A concern of the squad going into the season was whether or not the offensive production of three prolific scorers who graduated last year could be replaced.
But based on the nine total goals amassed by the Big Green last weekend, most of the players were confident the team's success will hinge upon continued offensive production and a greater commitment to defense.
Defenseman Shane Ness '98, one of the squad's better defenders, said, "We are putting the puck in the net, so all we have to do is play better defense all over the ice to win this weekend."
Brent Retter '97, who scored twice last weekend, agreed.
"People were worried that we wouldn't be able to put the puck in the net this season," he said. "We proved them wrong this past weekend. Now we just have to concentrate on our defense and we've been working on that all week, so I'm predicting good things for this weekend."
In addition, Demment said this weekend the team must not give in to physical fatigue, which he cited as a problem from last weekend's games at UIC.
The Big Green looked strong in a 3-3 tie against UIC last Friday night, but were outhustled on Saturday night in an 8-6 loss to the Flames.
"We got physically tired as the game went on, and when that happened we started to get mentally tired too," Demment said. "We were not as sharp mentally on Saturday night as we had been on Friday."
One player who may have been affected by the physical fatigue last weekend was starting goalie Scott Baker '97, who played every minute of both games against UIC. Demment said Baker looked tired during the third period of Saturday night's game.
Demment said Baker would probably start in goal tonight against Union, but also said there was "a good possibility" that Heller could see some action in net this weekend as well.
According to Demment, Heller has "worked very hard" and "looked extremely sharp in practice."
The freshmen on the squad also figure to see more action this weekend, since six of the seven '99s on the roster saw action against UIC last weekend and Demment said he was "pleased" with the overall performance of all of them.
Bob Cancelli '98 and Shaun Peet '98, both conspicuously absent from the lineup last weekend, could see their first action of the season either tonight or tomorrow, Demment said.
Offensively, Demment said he is prepared to stick with at least two forward lines from last weekend, including a line centered by Jon Sturgis '98, with Bill Kelleher '96 and Retter on the wings. This line played very well last weekend, with Kelleher especially effective on the offensive end of the ice.
The other line Demment said has been playing well is centered by Brian Fleming '98, with Dan Bloom '96 and Jeremiah Buckley '98 on the wings.
Besides the defensive pairing of Dax Burkhart '96 and Scott Dolesh '96, Demment said he has not made any decisions the rest of the defense for this weekend.
The Big Green will face a strong test tonight from Union goalie Trevor Koenig, who was one of the stars of the ECAC last year despite being just a freshman. Defenseman Reid Simonton is also a player to watch.
Players to watch on RPI include senior forward Bryan Richardson and senior goalie Mike Tamburro, one of the finest goalies in the ECAC.
