Video: Senior Athletes Appreciation Dinner

In honor of Senior Week I thought I would post this video.

Last week all Union senior athletes were honored at the annual Athletics Appreciation Dinner. Many Union hockey players won awards and some made speeches. Here is the video of the entire dinner.

Check out the speeches from these Dutchmen:
Brock Matheson (1:43:50)
Stephane Boileau (2:06:24)

Have a great week guys!

Seniors Dominate Awards At End of Season Banquet

On Sunday at the Mohawk Golf Club, Union held their end of the year banquet and handed out post-season awards. The awards were pretty much swept by the senior class.

Here are the results:

Most Valuable Player: Adam Presizniuk (third time)
Coaches' Award: Brock Matheson
Charles N. Morrison Award: Luke Cain
Thomas VanArden Dukehart Award: Stephane Boileau (third time)
Rookie of the Year: Mat Bodie
Scott Richardson Unsung Hero Award: Andrew Buote (fourth time)
Most Improved Player: Justin Pallos

I can't disagree with any of these selections. But, I also think that Daniel Carr could have been selected for ROY, John Simpson for Unsung Hero, and Wayne Simpson for MIP. You could also make an argument for Keith Kinkaid and Kelly Zajac for MVP. Either way, I bet it was a very tough decision to make for each award.

For more check out Union Athletics.com.

Congrats to the seven players who received an award!

Dutchmen Win 5 of 7 ECAC Awards

Tonight in Atlantic City the ECAC announced their regular season awards. Of the seven awards handed out, five were given to individuals from Union.

Here were the results:

Most Outstanding Player: Chase Polacek, RPI
Ken Dryden Award: Keith Kinkaid, Union
Rookie of the Year: Andrew Calof, Princeton
Best Defensive Forward: Adam Presizniuk, Union
Best Defensive Defenseman: Brock Matheson, Union
Student-Athlete of the Year: Stephane Boileau, Union
Coach of the Year: Nate Leaman, Union

For more on each recipient check out:
ECAC Hockey
Union Athletics
Ken Schott's Blog

Congrats to Keith, Prezie, Brock, Stephane, and Coach on these tremendous honors! Also, congrats to Polacek and Calof on great seasons. It's a little weird that none of these guys will be in Atlantic City this weekend.

You can't really disagree with the selections too much. Personally, I would have give the Rookie of the Year to Greg Carey from St. Lawrence.

Videos From Senior Night

Here are some videos I took on Senior Night:

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.

Rock The Vote, Plus Other News

Four Union players are up for major awards this year:

Senior Stephane Boileau is up for the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. 33% of the vote belongs to the fans, so make sure to vote for the Professor by clicking here. As of this moment he has 4.3% of the vote, while Canisius forward Cory Conacher leads the way with 24.2% of the vote.

Senior Adam Presizniuk and sophomores Jeremy Welsh and Keith Kinkaid are up for the Hobey Baker Award. You can vote for them by clicking here. Last year Mario Valery-Trabucco won the the fan vote. As Union fans we really have to pick up here as Kinkaid has received 1% of the vote while the other two have received none. Also, RPI's Chase Polacek and Allen York have received 19% and 18%, respectively. The current leader is North Dakota's Matt Frattin with 27%.

Tonight was "Coach's Corner LIVE at Bombers." Coach Leaman was unable to make it tonight, so captain Brock Matheson and Coach Ben Barr filled in for him. The last raffle of the night was an autographed puck from Brock. The luck winner was Connor Meigher, the son of Garnet Blades president Tim Meigher '75. Brock talked with the Meigher's for a bit and took this picture (below) with Connor. The senior captain did a great job on the radio and talking with fans after the show.

In other news, the repercussions of the Klump-Stewart confrontation were handed out today. Stewart was fined, while Klump was let go by CHN.

Tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 7pm the Union College Club Hockey team will travel to Binghamton to take on Broome CC. You can watch the game online by clicking here.

Dutchmen Participate in Center for Disability Services Telethon

Today the Union College hockey team helped out at the 51st Center for Disability Services Telethon by working the phones. This is just one of a number of community service acts the team partakes in.

The telethon was also on Channel 8 today, so when I was flipping through the channels while taking a break from writing my thesis I saw that the team was on TV. Humanitarian Award nominee Stephane Boileau is sitting in the front row.

For more on the event check out Union Athletics.com.

I took a few pictures and video:

More Than Just Hockey Players...

Just came across this video of the Dutchmen doing some community service on Thanksgiving. These guys are more than just a bunch of hockey players. They are students and members of the community. It's great that they give back to a community that supports them.

The video features Stephane "The Professor" Boileau, and may spawn a new blog segment with Stephane...

Learn How To Speak French With Professor Boileau (Episode 6)

Here is the last episode for the term. Today, Stephane teaches us some of his faceoff techniques.

The show will return in the first week of January.

If you have any requests on what you would like "The Professor" to teach next term please leave a comment.

P.S. Look out for Jeremy Welsh during the second technique.

Good Luck On Your Finals!

Classes for the Fall term ended yesterday afternoon, so all the Union students are now diligently studying for the finals which begin on Wednesday.

A special good luck goes out to our Dutchmen who just came off an exhausting weekend. But, I doubt they need the extra good luck as 12 current Union players made the ECAC All-Academic team last season:

Jean-Sebastian Bergeron, Stephane Boileau, Andrew Buote, Luke Cain, Nolan Julseth-White, Brock Matheson, Justin Pallos, Taylor Reid, John Simpson, Wayne Simpson, Shawn Stuart and Jeremy Welsh.

I'm pretty confident that "The Professor" will have no problems with his finals considering he was a finalist forthe ECAC Hockey Student-Athlete of the Year award, was given the Thomas Vanarden Dukehard award for the highest GPA on the men's ice hockey team, and was named Union College's junior student-athlete of the year last season.

The Dutchmen will return to the ice in two weekends to play at Brown and Yale

Route 7 Rivalry: Parts 2 and 3 Take Place This Weekend

It's that wonderful time of the year where two schools get to hate each other for an entire weekend. Isn't it awesome?!

The Union-RPI rivalry is one of the fiercest rivalries in all of college hockey, and it has become even more energized due to Union's recent surge from cellar dweller to a national ranked team over the past few years. Heading into Friday's matchup at Messa Rink the Dutchmen are ranked 12th in the country, while RPI is 18th making this weekend even more important. Both rinks should be rocking all weekend, and are each hosting a "Blackout" night.

The two teams met two weekends ago at Lake Placid and tied 3-3 thanks to Mat Bodie's game-tying goal with about 30 seconds left in regulation. For more on the game click here.

You should expect shis weekend's games to be the same since every game between these teams in recent memory have been absolute classics.

All-time RPI holds a 44-22-10 advantage in the rivalry, including a 28-19-9 record in Division I play. But, over the past few years Union has dominated going 7-1-2 in their last 10 games. Also, Head Coach Nate Leaman is 12-5-3 all-time against the Engineers. The first game of this rivalry took place on February 26, 1904 where the Engineers topped the Dutchmen 6-2. Union won their first game of the series on February 23, 1924 with a 7-0 win in Schenectady.

Union is currently riding a seven game unbeaten streak (4-0-3), while the Engineers come off of a win at Dartmouth (4-1) and a loss at Harvard (1-0) last weekend.

RPI is currently has the top ranked defense in the nation among teams that have played at least three games as they are averaging just 1.67 goals allowed per game. Union on the other hand is third in overall defense among teams that have played at least three game (1.80 goals allowed per game), fourth in overall offense (4.20 goals per game), and has the best power-play unit in the country (17-of-44, 38.64%).

My prediction: A weekend sweep for the Dutchmen... 2-1 Union, 3-2 (OT) Union

Players To Look For: RPI
Pretty much the same cast of characters here:


Nick Bailen '13



Chase Polacek: is the reigning ECAC Player of the Year... leads RPI in scoring with five goals, six assists, and 11 points... scored two goals last weekend in a win over Dartmouth... one of the fastest players in all of college hockey.

Nick Bailen: leads all ECAC defensemen in scoring with two goals and six assists.

Allen York: allowed just one goal last weekend to begin ECAC play... fourth in the nation among goaltenders with at least four games in GAA (1.62) and save percentage (.939).

Players To Look For: Union
Once again, the same cast of characters:

Adam Presizniuk: is third in the nation with 17 points... needs just one point and one assist to become Union's D-I all-time points and assists leader passing Jason Walters '10 and Joel Beal '05, respectively.

Keith Kinkaid: also allowed just one goal last weekend to open up ECAC play... tops in the nation among goalies with at least four appearances with a 1.38 GAA and is second with a .943 save percentage.

Stephane "The Professor" Boileau '11



Stephane Boileau: leads all current Dutchmen with 10 points (3 goals, 7 assists) against the Engineers.

For more go to Union Athletics.com.

Learn How To Speak French With Professor Boileau (Episode 5)

Sorry about the long wait for this episode, but this might be the best one yet. "The Professor" worked really hard on his lesson plan this week and wanted to make sure everything was perfect. I hope you enjoy!

Special shout out to team manager Phil Cohn on editing this week's episode. He does such a good job!



See how "The Professor" created his lesson plan:

Union opens up ECAC play at Harvard and Dartmouth

Union hits the road this weekend to begin ECAC play at Harvard and Dartmouth. This is when the important games begin because the easiest way to make the NCAA tournament is to win your conference. Recently, the Dutchmen have not been good in ECAC openers. They have not begun ECAC play with a win since a 6-5 win against St. Lawrence on Nov. 5, 2004. Over this period Union has gone 0-3-2.

Let's take a look at the Crimson and Big Green:

Harvard
Last season they finished 10th in the ECAC going 7-12-3 in league play and 9-21-3 overall. But, they swept the Dutchmen in 2009-10. In the first game the Crimson won 4-1 behind 47 saves from Ryan Carroll. It was a one-goal game before Harvard scored to empty-netters late in the game. The second game took place at Harvard where the Crimson jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but the Dutchmen scored three goals in the last 5:30 to make it a one-goal game. Union was unable to tie the game. This season's game will be Harvard's home/season opener.

Sophomore Danny Biega

Harvard lost their leading scorer from last season, freshman Louis Leblanc, to the NHL's Montreal Canadiens. This will be a big hit to them since he was definitely their best player on the ice.

Players to Watch:

Conor Morrison: as a freshman was second on the team with 10 goals.

Michael Biega: the senior led the Crimson with 15 assists last season.

Daniel Moriarty: only scored six goals last season, but four them came on the power-play.

Danny Biega: was the youngest of the three Biega brothers on the team last season, and led all Crimson defensemen with five goals. He has a very bright future ahead of him.

Prediction: Union 4, Harvard 1

Dartmouth
Finished 9th in the ECAC last season (7-12-3) and 10-19-3 overall. They played Quinnipiac very tough in a three-game series in the first round of the ECAC playoffs. The Big Green and the Dutchmen were very well matched last season. Dartmouth took the first game at Union 3-1, but the Dutchmen won at Dartmouth with a come-from-behind 5-4 win. In the game, Darmouth went up 4-0 after one period where Keith Kinkaid made only one save. But, Union scored three goals in the second, and two in the third including Kyle Bodie's game-winner with 2:45 left in regulation. Corey Milan made 14 saves in relief, and James Mello made 38 saves for Dartmouth. The Big Green opened up their schedule last weekend at the Ivy Shootout where they beat Princeton 2-1, but fell to Yale 7-3.

I picked Dartmouth as my sleeper team this season. The main reason being that they return their top seven scorers and ten out of their top 11 scorers. I actually picked them to finish in 3rd place, ahead of Union. Also, they showed a lot of promise towards the end of the 2009-2010 regular season. The ECAC Coaches and Media picked them to finish sixth in the conference.

Players to Watch:

Senior Scott Fleming

Scott Fleming: the senior led the team with 22 goals (10 PPG) and 39 points last season. He should be up for First Team All-ECAC at the end of the season

Adam Estoclet: Fleming's partner in crime who led the team with 24 assists and was second with 36 points. I picked him as a pre-season All-ECAC selection.

Evan Stephens: led all Big Green defenders with six goals, 14 assists, and 20 points last season. The Coaches picked him as a pre-season All-ECAC selection.

James Mello: split time in between the pipes with Jody O'Neill last season. He played in both games against Union in 2009-10 where he made a combined 77 saves.

Prediciton: Union 3, Dartmouth 3... picking ties is weird (haha).

Union
The Dutchmen come off of two 3-3 ties against Connecticut and RPI. While it wasn't an awful week, it was not the way they wanted to head into league play, especially the tie against UConn. The Dutchmen have been able to jump ahead early in the game, but have allowed their opponents to jump back in the game this season. Let's see if they can change this around this weekend.

Sophomore Keith Kinkaid

Players to Watch:

Keith Kinkaid: he had an awful game in his last outing at Dartmouth. Let's see if the second time around is a better performance.

Mat Bodie: the freshman has had some difficult growing pains of late, but came up big late in the game against RPI. Maybe he'll get out his funk during ECAC play.

Stephane Boileau: "The Professor" has been playing on the top line with Kelly Zajac and Adam Presizniuk lately. Let's see if he'll be able to produce and create chemistry with these guys.

For more about the game with Harvard and Dartmouth check out Union Athletics.com.

Learn How To Speak French With Professor Boileau (11/2/10)

This is the fourth episode of the show. This week "The Professor" teaches us four numbers of certain Union players and shows us how to do and not do a one-timer and saucer pass.

I have included an opening and closing slide/song for this video... I know, my video editing skills are amazing (haha). Enjoy!

Learn How To Speak French With Professor Boileau (10/26/10)

This week Professor Boileau teaches us about certain penalties in hockey. He specifically teaches us how to say slashing, cross-checking and hitting from behind in French. He also tells us how to say the numbers two (minor penalty), five (major penalty) and ten (game misconduct) in his native language.

NOTE: Kyle Bodie was not harmed during the filming of this segment.

Learn how to speak French with Professor Boileau (Segment 2 - 10/19/10)

This week's "Learn how to speak French with Professor Boileau" features sophomore defenseman Jean-Sebastian Bergeron. J-S is a huge fan of Professor Boileau and has learned so much French after just one show. So, Stephane and I decided we should invite J-S on the show to show off what he has learned already.

"The Professor" also teaches us three new numbers this week.

So, here's "The Professor" and his student J-S:

Learn how to speak French with Professor Boileau (10/12/10)

Official flag of Quebec

Here is another weekly segment that UHB will be hosting called "Learn how to speak French with Professor Boileau," starring senior forward Stephane Boileau. Every week Stephane will teach all of us English speakers how to say numbers and words in French, while relating them to Union College hockey.

Last season, Boileau was named to the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America At-Large Second Team. As of last June, he held a 3.88 GPA (the highest on the team) while being a neuroscience major... now that's pretty good! He was awarded the the Thomas Vanarden Dukehard award for the highest GPA on the men's ice hockey team, and was named Union's junior student-athlete of the year. There was also a rumor last year that Boileau would leave Union early to head to medical school. Obviously Stephane is very smart and is worthy of "professor" status.

Stephane is a native of Blainville, Quebec and is one of two players on the 2010-11 team from the province of Quebec (the other is sophomore Jean Sebastian Bergeron). For those of you who do not know the official language of Quebec is French. So, growing up Stephane spoke French... and only French. Stephane said that before coming to Union he knew very little English, and was taught how to speak it when he arrived. Besides his strong accent, you could never tell Stephane didn't know English before his freshman year.

So here we go with Professor Boileau's first lesson:

16 Dutchmen named to ECAC All-Academic Team

The ECAC announced today that 181 student-athletes have been named to the ECAC All-Academic team. 16 of the 181 players are from Union. These Dutchmen are: freshman Jean Sebastian Bergeron, junior Stephane Boileau, junior Andrew Buote, sophomore (technically a junior since he red-shirted) Luke Cain, senior Jeff Christiansen, sophomore Nolan Julseth-White, senior Jon Lareau, junior captain Brock Matheson, junior Justin Pallos, sophomore Taylor Reid, senior Jason Shaffer, junior John Simpson, freshman Wayne Simpson, freshman Shawn Stuart, senior captain Mike Wakita, and freshman Jeremy Welsh.

Over half of these guys are Economics majors, which is pretty impressive to me. I took Economics 101 freshman year... and let's just say it wasn't my best class.

To be eligible for the All-Academic team one must obtain a 3.0 GPA.

Congratulations to the 16 Dutchmen and the other 165 ECAC players. The ECAC is by far the most challenging league academically in college hockey. Each team in the ECAC had at least 13 All-Academic selections, except for Clarkson who only had four (weird?).

For more check out ECAC Hockey.com and Union Athletics.com.

Boileau to return for senior season

According to Ken Schott's Blog, Union forward Stephane Boileau will be returning for his senior season after deciding not to go to Med School early. Check out Ken's blog for more information and quotes from Stephane here.

YES! I was so worried that Stephane was going to leave for Med School and opt out of his final season in Schenectady. He is such a great student (I think he has a 3.88 GPA) and will definitely be great in the medical profession, but that can wait for just one more year.

The now senior forward is such a valuable part of Union's success and is the type of player all successful teams need. He is an extremely gritty player and is awesome at taking faceoffs. Boileau goes 110% for the whole 60 minutes and will put in a decent amount of goals.

Last season Boileau put in eight goals and tallied 13 assists for 21 points (three goals and five assists in ECAC play). He scored three power-play goals and tallied one game-winner. In his sophomore season he registered 10 goals and 15 assists, and in his freshman season he had five goals and 15 assists. It wouldn't surprise me if Stephane's numbers went up next season.

Boileau named Academic All-American

Union forward Stephane Boileau has been named to the 2010 ESPN The Magazine/ CoSIDA Academic All-America At-Large Second Team. Boileau, a native of Quebec, has a collective 3.88 while being a Neuroscience major. The gritty and energetic forward has the highest GPA on the men's hockey team, was awarded the Thomas Vanarden Dukehard award, and was named Union's junior student-athlete of the year.

For more on Boileau check out Union Athletics.com.