Game Notes
HAMILTON, NY -- The Dutchmen close out the road portion of their 2008-09 regular season as they head to Colgate on Friday, Feb. 20 for a 7 p.m. contest. The following night on Saturday, Feb. 21, Union travels to Cornell for another 7 p.m. start.
After losing to No. 10 Yale, 4-2, on Friday, the Dutchmen bounced back with a 3-1 victory against Brown on Saturday for their 15th win of the season. For the weekend, junior forward
Jason Walters, who has registered points in back-to-back games nine times this season, led the way with a pair of goals. Sophomore goaltender
Corey Milan earned his 21st career victory on Saturday and he is currently on a two-game scoring streak.
The Dutchmen registered win number 15 for fourth time in program history and for the second consecutive year. The program record for wins in a season is 16, which was accomplished during the 1996-97 and 2005-06 seasons. Union's fastest to 15 wins came in 29 games during the 1996-97 season. This year it has taken the team 30 games. It took the 1996-97 squad 32 games to registered its 16th victory.
Union's power play and penalty kill have picked up as of late.With the man advantage, the Dutchmen have scored seven power-play goals in five games, while with a man down, Union has not allowed a goal in four outings. Since the Jan. 9 game against Princeton, Union has scored at least one power-play goal in nine of 12 games. During that span they have scored two or more four times.
The penalty kill is on a four game shutout streak and have shutdown 24-straight. The last man-advantage tally against the PK came at the 5:52 mark of the third period in a 2-2 tie at Dartmouth on Jan. 31.
Scouting Colgate
The Red Raiders are coming off a weekend split with a 3-2 loss at Harvard on Friday and a 1-0 win at Dartmouth on Saturday. This season, junior forward David McIntyre, a Dallas Stars prospect, leads the team 36 points. He has produced at team-best 17 goals and 14 assists. Freshman forward Austin Smith, another Dallas prospect, is second on the team with 24 points, He has tallied goals and 13 assists. Junior Charles Long has seen the majority of the action between the pipes, posting a 7-8-4 record with a 2.53 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage. Despite posting a 2.12 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage he is 3-6-3 in conference games.
The Series
Friday's meeting will be the 49th all-time between the two schools and Colgate leads 34-14-1 and 24-11-1 in Division I action. The programs first squared off on Feb. 15, 1929 and Union claimed a 3-1 win.Between Feb. 21, 2003 and Feb. 10, 2007, the Red Raiders produced a series-long nine-game winning streak. However, in the last four outings, Union has gone 3-1-0, including a 4-2 victory at the 2008 Governor's Cup earlier this season.
Last Meeting
Junior forward
Mario Valery-Trabucco scored twice and added an assist in a Union 6-3 win on Jan. 17. The two-goal performance was the fourth of his career as he extended his scoring streak to a season-long five games. In all six Dutchmen had multi-point nights, including senior
Matt Coo and sophomore
John Simpson with a goal and an assist each. Senior
Brendan Milnamow, sophomore
Adam Presizniuk and freshman
Kelly Zajac each totaled two assists. Milan earned his 12th victory of the season and 18th of his career by turning away 24 shots. Union unloaded 38 shots, eclipsing the 30 shot plateau for the 10th time. They went 2-for-6 on the power play, while killing 4-of-5. Colgate finished with 27 shots.
Scouting Cornell
The Big Red are one of the top defensive teams in the country and are led by junior goaltender Ben Scrivens, who leads the country in both goals-against average (1.63) and save-percentage (.940). In conference games, he has posted a 1.52 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage. Cornell has struggled of late, losing its last three outing. At one point they were on an eight-game winning streak. Offensively, junior forward Colin Greening leads the team with 23 points 10 goals and 13 assists. Sophomore forward Riley Nash is the only other 20-plus point scorer with 22. He has potted nine goals to go along with his 13 assists.
The Series
The two teams first met on Feb. 22, 1928 and Cornell skated away with a 7-4 victory, propelling them to 6-0-1 record against Union in the first seven outings. On Feb. 22, 1992 the Dutchmen earned their first victory, 6-4, against the Ithaca team. Cornell owns the all-time series lead with a 26-12-5 mark and a 21-12-4 Division I record. The Dutchmen's last victory came in the form of a 3-2 win at Cornell last season on Feb. 15.
Last Meeting
Union saw its three-game winning streak snapped with a 4-1 Cornell win Jan. 16 in a nationally televised game. Presizniuk registered his team-leading 10th goal of the season. Presizniuk scored the 17th goal of his career during the 6:57 mark of the second period, which pulled Union within one at 2-1. Walters picked up the first assist on the goal for his ninth assist and 15th point of the season. The second assist went to Valery-Trabucco, giving him nine helpers on the year and 14 points overall.
