Union Wins The Cleary Cup on Senior Night

Last night was such a great feeling. The emotions of when the final buzzer sounded, all the way to the post-game celebration was perfect. I am so proud of the guys for everything they accomplished, and everything the seniors have done in their four years. The reception the seniors received from the fans was awesome and well deserved. I was also honored and shocked when Andrew Buote gave me a shout out during his speech. I really appreciated it and am just honored to be a very small part of this amazing senior class and Union Hockey.

It was also great to see Luke Cain and Stephane Boileau score goals on Senior Night. They both don't dress every game, so it was awesome to see them capitalize. You could tell how excited they were to score, especially Boileau (check the highlights). John Simpson also added an empty netter.

Union's power-play once again did a great job last night as they scored twice with the man advantage. They lead the nation with a 30.97% conversion rate. Union went 3-for-4 last night and 4-for-6 on the weekend. Daniel Carr netted a PP goal and added an even strength goal later. He is now tied with New Hampshire's Paul Thompson and Colorado College's Tyler Johnson for the nation's lead with 12 power-play goals. Thompson and Johnson are both seniors, while Carr is a freshman. His two first period goals gave Union an 3-0 first period lead. Three has been the magic number this season as the Dutchmen are 21-1-2 in games where they've scored at least three goals.

Keith Kinkaid had another great weekend once again. He made 35 saves (including 17 in the second period) last night to pick up his third shutout of the season. Kinkaid leads the nation with a 1.93 GAA and 24 wins.

Well, now it's on to the playoffs. Union gets the weekend off with the first round bye. Here are the first round matchups:
(5) RPI vs. (12) Colgate
(6) Princeton vs. (11) St. Lawrence
(7) Clarkson vs. (10) Harvard
(8) Quinnipiac vs. (9) Brown

For more on the game check out:
USCHO
Union Athletics
Ken Schott's Blog
Times Union (Sean Martin)
Times Union (Mark McGuire)

I also want to make a special shout out to former Union College president Roger Hull. In January 2004 he said:

"Let me tell you of my idea of being competitive: fielding a team that has a reasonable chance of winning every time it steps on the ice... And when they got to 40 percent [winning percentage], I was proud, and when they reached nearly 50 percent a few years ago, I was tremendously proud of them."

I wonder if he's super-tremendously-ridiculously-doing hand stands proud of this team.