Game Notes
POTSDAM, NY – After a pair of home games for the first time in over a month, the Union College men's ice hockey team (12-9-1, 5-5-0) is back on the bus and traveling to the North Country. The team takes on Clarkson (5-13-4, 3-6-1) on Friday, Jan. 23 and St. Lawrence (11-9-2, 3-5-2) on Saturday, Jan. 24. Both games begin at 7 p.m. with playoff implications. Entering the weekend, Union has 10 league points, while Clarkson carries seven and St. Lawrence has eight. All three teams have played 10 conference games.
Both contests can be caught live on WRUC FM 89.7 and
TEAMLINE.cc with Matt Dubrey and Union College's own Brian Unger with the call. Live stats for both contests can be accessed through the
ECAC Hockey website.
The Dutchmen registered their 12th victory of the season against Colgate, marking the 11th time in program history and the ninth straight time the team has hit the plateau. It also marks the quickest to 12 victories by Union, taking 22 games – during the 1996-97 season, Union got there in 23 outings.
Junior
Mario Valery-Trabucco and sophomore
Adam Presizniuk are riding a five-game scoring streak, leading Union to a 4-1 record. Valery-Trabucco, who is coming off a three-point game against Colgate, has produced seven points during the span with four goals, including two on the power play, and three assists. Presizniuk has also tallied eight points, including two goals and six assists. He had a three point nights in the 4-2 win at Quinnipiac.
Last weekend, Union faced its third top-five opponent in five games when No. 5 Cornell came to Messa Rink on Friday, Jan. 16. The game, which was televised nationally on the NHL Network, went to the Big Red, 4-1. The Dutchmen rebounded for a 6-3 victory against Colgate on Saturday, Jan. 16, pulling them to 5-5-0 in league play.
Presizniuk scored his team-leading 10th goal of the season during the Cornell game. Against Colgate, six Dutchmen produced multi-point games with Valery-Trabucco leading the way with a season-high two goals and an assist.
The Golden Knights are coming off two 4-3, come-for-behind victories last weekend. On Friday, they erased a 3-1 deficit in with three unanswered goals in the third period at Yale. The following night, they scored two goals in the third to force overtime, where they eventually sealed the victory at Brown. This season, sophomore forward Scott Freeman leads the team with 20 points behind two goals and a team-best 18 assists. Sophomore Lauri Tuohimaa leads the team with eight goals and is second with 14 points, while sophomore Brandon DeFazio is third with 13 points and second with nine assists. In goal, freshman Paul Karpowich, a St. Louis Blues prospect, has played 19 games, posting a 4-11-3 record with a 3.01 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage.
THE SERIES
These two teams first met on Jan. 23, 1923 and Union skated away with a 5-1 win. However, Clarkson owns a 26-10-5 overall record and a 25-9-5 Division I mark. Five out of the last nine outings have gone into overtime, including three straight during the first round of the 2004-05 playoffs. The Dutchmen last won at Clarkson on Jan. 31, 2003 (5-3). Union has only one three games at Clarkson all-time.
LAST MEETING
On Feb. 22, defenseman
Lane Caffaro netted the game-tying goal and recorded assists on the Dutchmen's two other tallies as Union rallied to tie 11th-ranked Clarkson, 3-3, in overtime, clinching home ice for the league playoffs. With the Dutchmen down, 3-1, after an early Clarkson onslaught in the second, Presizniuk brought the Dutchmen back within one at 13:48, and Caffaro capped the scoring less than two minutes later.
Corey Milan turned away 24 shots, including 12 in the second period. Union's power play ended a 0-20 drought and went 2-for-6.
SCOUTING ST. LAWRENCE St. Lawrence has only lost one of its last seven games, going 5-1-1 during that span. After defeating Brown 6-1 on Friday, they played to a 2-2 tie at Yale on Saturday. Junior forward Mike McKenzie leads the team with 19 points and 11 assists and is time with senior forward Casey Parenteau for the team lead with eight goals.
Parenteau is second on the team with 17 points and third with nine assists. Next in line is senior forward Brock McBride, who has 16 points with seven goals and nine assists. He is St. Lawrence's active career leader with 93 points, including 34 goals and 59 assists. Junior Alex Petizian has posted a 7-7-2 record with a 2.32 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage. In conference games, his goals-against average dips to 2.29, but he has a 2-5-2 record.
THE SERIES
Since Feb. 22, 1929, the Saints have posted a 31-16-2 record against the Dutchmen with a 27-12-0 Division I mark. However, Union took both games last season by the score of 3-1. Prior to the two victories during the 2007-08 season, St. Lawrence was riding a six game series winning streak. Just before that, however, Union owned a five game winning streak. The two teams have only played one overtime game, which came on Mar. 11, 2000 in the ECACH playoffs. The Saints prevailed, 4-3.
LAST MEETING
Sam Bowles and
Justin Mrazek made a spectacular senior night showing to give Union a 3-1 win over St. Lawrence on Feb. 23. Bowles netted the game-winning goal and added an assist for a career-high night, while Mrazek stopped a career-best 46 shots to earn the win.
Jason Shaffer recorded a career-high two assists.
After falling behind 1-0, Simpson netted Union's first goal and
Chris Potts registered the team's third marker. Clarkson held a 47-26 shot advantage, but Union went 1-for-4 on the power play, while Clarkson failed on all six of its chances.
