Union Sweeps Central New York Trip

Keith Kinkaid

The Starr Curse? OVER! Lynah Rink? SILENCED! This is the first time Union can say that since they swept the Central New York trip in 1998.

Friday night the Dutchmen were able to pull out a 2-1 victory at Colgate despite a poor effort. But, winning games that you really shouldn't win is a sign of a good team. Wayne Simpson and Josh Jooris scored for Union, and Keith Kinkaid put in one of his best performances of the season with 24 saves. After the game Coach Leaman said, "if it wasn’t for Keith I don’t think we win that game."

They were not discouraged or intimidated by Cornell the following night as they convincingly beat the Big Red 5-1 just one night after RPI lost at Lynah by the same score. It didn't look good for Union at first as they went down 1-0 early, but finished the game with five unanswered goals. Daniel Carr scored two power-play goals, Brock Matheson scored his first goal of the year, Kevin Sullivan picked up his second goal in as many weekends along with two assists, and Wayne added an empty netter. Kinkaid made 16 stops. The Dutchmen completely dominated as they outworked the Big Red and out shot them 42-17.

On a side note, it must have been weird to go from playing in front of under 800 people at Colgate to playing in front of a sold out crowd at Cornell. The atmosphere in the two rinks are complete opposites. Maybe that's why Union's had so much trouble during this road trip in the past.

Also, Keith Kinkaid has allowed four goals in his past four games. He is third in the nation with a 1.91 GAA among goalies with at least eight games played, and is tied for second with 14 wins. Kinkaid leads Union's defense, which is tops in the nation with 2.00 goals allowed per game.

Daniel Carr

With his two power-play goals against Cornell, Daniel Carr now has nine power-play goals on the season. Not only does this tie a Union D-1 record (Chris Ford 1993-1994), but is second most in the country. At season's end I'm sure Carr, along with Jooris and Mat Bodie, will be in serious contention of the ECAC Rookie of the Year.

Up next, Union hosts Dartmouth and Harvard. Both games (as usual) are extremely important, especially the Dartmouth game.

For more on the Colgate game go to:
Union Athletics.com
Go Colgate Raiders.com
Ken Schott's Blog

For more on the Cornell game check out:
Union Athletics.com
Cornell Big Red.com
Ken Schott's Blog
Ithaca Journal

Oh, and Union's Club Hockey team opened up their winter term schedule with a win over Mohawk Valley CC 7-3.