Union drops first league game

Well, you can't win them all. With last night's 4-1 loss to Harvard, Union became the last team in the nation to lose a league game. Even Coach Leaman recognized that in the post-game press conference. And honestly, a loss like this could be a blessing and could take some pressure off the players. I would much rather lose my first league game in January than in February while heading into the playoffs. Also, it's not like the Dutchmen played an awful game. It was basically a 2-1 game with two empty-netters. It is true that they weren't crisp with their passing or decisions with the puck, but they got a decent amount of scoring chances and threw 48 shots on net. They just happened to run into a goaltender who made a bunch of big stops and finished the game with a career high in saves (47), along with Union barely missing some golden opportunities in the third period (Presizniuk, Bodie). Harvard is starting to find their identity as a team and their highly praised freshman class is beginning to adapt to the college game. Each Louis Leblanc and Danny Biega were very impressive last night. The Dutchmen just have to go out tonight against Dartmouth, salvage two points on the weekend, and maintain their first place standing. Also, with the loss Union moves down to #13 in the PWR, which still is the best for any ECAC team. One positive thing to come out of last night's game was that Jason Walters extended his scoring street to 14 games.

Read some reviews of last night's game on:
USCHO.com (by myself)
Daily Gazette.com (by Ken Schott)
Times Union.com (by Tim Wilkin)
Union Athletics.com
You can also see Ken Schott's post-game thoughts and video.