ECRHA Roundtable- Williamsport and Sewell Events

Bill: Good evening and welcome to another edition of ECRHA Roundtable.  Well, it has been a while since we last got together. We got hammered by Hurricane Sandy and then grazed by the first Nor'easter of the year. Despite all of the delays, were ready to start the second roundtable of the year.

 

 

Jesse: It's been a pretty crazy week here in the Northeast, but we seem to be getting along pretty well and am ready to talk some ECRHA hockey. Where to start, Bill?

 

 

Bill: Let's turn the calender back two weeks and focus on Williamsport, PA. The weekend was just wrapping up when the rain from Sandy moved in, but inside, the rink was dry and ready for some exciting DI & DII action.

 

 

Jesse: Sounds good. Let's start with DII, where a couple Slippery Rock players had some outstanding weekends. Christian Scott (19 points) and Chris Allison (14 points) were very impressive for the Pride, if I may say so myself.

 

 

Bill: Slippery Rock really impressed me in Williamsport, if Northeastern is the regional favorite, Slippery Rock is my pick to meet them in the regional final.

 

 

Bill: Outside of Slippery Rock, Max Stern from Cortland really had a solid weekend, scoring 14 points with 6 goals and 8 assists to help Corltand post a 3-1-0 record.

 

 

Jesse: Christian Ricketts had a pretty solid weekend as well, posting a 2.75 GAA in 4 games, leading Slippery Rock to a 4-0-0 record over the weekend.

 

 

Bill: You know my stance on goalies, I hate them, after showing them love last week, I am going to shun them this week.

 

 

Jesse: That's cold. Cold as the snow lying on the ground right now, Bill. Did anyone else stand out to you?

 

 

Bill: No. But let me throw in some input from twitter to make our choices easier.

 

@racketss "@ecrhahockey christian Scott and Chris Allison #sru"

 

 

Jesse: Very nice- another candidate nominating two of his own. So what do you have for the final stars of the weekend for DII?

 

 

Bill: I was thinking Scott, Stern, Allison.  Gotta go with the production.

 

 

Jesse: I'm on board with that

 

Let's move onto Division I. Who stood out to you?

 

 

Bill: I am going to have to pick Evan Dressel from Brockport, who predicted a perfect weekend for his team and then backed it up with 3 goals and 4 assists and 7 points.

 

Jesse: I was actually more impressed with Brockport goaltender Robert Fatone, who went 3-0-0, posting a 2.00 GAA and a save pct. of .895 for the weekend. Robert also posted a shutout over the course of the weekend.

 

 

Bill: You would. I thought I was clear...the love for goalies is over.

 

 

Jesse: For sure- but those are real good numbers over the course of a weekend.

 

 

Bill: I want to put in Carlin Crombie from Pittsburgh for consideration, the kids scored 7 goals this weekend in just 3 games, it seemed at times he was scoring every other goal for Pitt, scoring 7 of 13 on the weekend.

 

 

Jesse: Pretty solid weekend. Kevin McGraw from Penn State had 6 points this weekend for the Nittany Lions, which is certainly worth mentioning.

 

 

Bill: Agreed, Penn State struggled this weekend and McGraw was involved in every goal scored by the team, not sure anyone else in DI can make that claim.

 

 

Jesse: Very true. That being said, I would go Fatone-Dressel-Crombie. Whatdya think?

 

 

Bill: I am going to disagree with you, I want Dressel-Crombie-McGraw...I am boycotting goalies, but will let you make the final decision.

 

 

Jesse: You are lucky I am a goalie, Robert Fatone. Fatone-Dressel-Crombie.

 

 

Bill: It's done.

 

 

Bill: Let’s move to this past weekend in Sewell, NJ. The storm caused 4 teams to miss the weekend and wreck havoc on the season schedule (Stony Brook, Penn State, Vermont and Stony Brook B). The event went on as planned though, and the games were quite exciting.

 

 

Bill: I say we start in the B Division, and would like to bring my first comment from twitter:

 

 

@mtshack83 " @ECRHAHockey Matt Phiilipes and Dan Valvano came up huge this weekend helping Temple B win close games #ECRHARoundtable #stillundefeated "

 

and @pemper78 " @ECRHAHockey Matt phillipes of Temple B, big weekend, couple of DI games w/ points too #hardworkshouldntgounearned #ecrharoundtable"

 

 

Jesse: I agree- I thought Matt Phillipes had a great weekend for the Owls. posting 5 goals and 2 assists.

 

 

Bill: Additionally, he is sitting on top of the B Division with 14 points, surely that is impressive.

 

Bill: I'll tell you what, B is very tough, I am at a loss right now when it comes to the players of the weekend...I might have to look at some goalies.

 

 

Jesse: Whomp whompppppp

 

 

Jesse: Matt Shackleton from Temple had a good weekend, posting a 3-0-0 weekend with a GAA of 3.33, stopping 51 of 61 shots.

 

 

Bill: I see your Shackleton and raise you Dane Osmanski who had a 2-2-0 record, 98 saves with a .867 SPCT and 3.75 GAA.

 

 

Jesse: That's a lot of rocket puck. I would go Phillipes, Osmanski, Shackleton. What do you think?

 

 

Bill: I think we can agree to that, despite the inclusion of two goalies...I am going to lose sleep over this. What Division do you want to take on next?

 

 

Jesse: Let's go D II.

 

 

Jesse: Who stood out to you?

 

 

Bill: I am going to turn to old reliable on twitter, from @Bobby_Light49

 

 

"@ECRHAHockey Donovan from @NURollerHockey beasted in NJ with 14 points in possibly his best tournament in his ECRHA carrer" Gotta say, thats pretty impressive, don't you agree?

 

 

Jesse: I would certainly say so. He had a great weekend for NU. Eric Downes had a great weekend with 5 goals and an assist, with 3 goals coming against Boston in a critical game for both teams.

 

 

Bill: Along the same lines, Jonathan Aprile from UMass also recorded 5 goals and 1 assist on the weekend for a 2-4-0 UMass. UMass has to be the best 2-4 team in the country and they will continue to be dangerous when Aprile is on like last weekend.

 

 

Jesse: It is shocking that UMass is 2-4. 3 of their losses have been by 1 goal. There is still plenty of time to turn their season around, but they will certainly need to figure out how to win these close games.

 

 

Jesse: That being said, what are your choices for the weekend?

 

 

Bill: Hard to say, I am going to defer this one to you.

 

 

Jesse: I would go Donovan, Aprile, Downes. Flip a coin between Aprile and Downes, both teams did just as well as one another, and the point totals were identical.

 

Bill: Sounds good to me, the final division of this roundtable is DI, since I have been putting the decisions on you, I will start. I gotta give some love to Chris Culot from Hofstra, if anyone in the country told you that Hofstra would be sitting at 7-0-0 you probably would not have believed them. Culot was a huge part of them staying undefeated, scoring 3 goals with 9 assists for 12 points.

 

 

The twitter-verse seems to agree, @Bobby_Light49 "@ECRHAHockey Culot from @HofstraHockey put the team on his back late a couple games nd Occhicone also continued dominating"

 

 

Jesse: I would agree to an extent. I think we need to recognize that Occhicone has given up 9 goals in 7 games thus far this season. That's really impressive, no?

 

 

Bill: No? That has to be some sort of record, I can't remember a team that has ran off a streak such as that. Can you?

 

 

Jesse: I can't remember. That's why I brought it up.

 

 

Bill: If that is the case, I am going with John Gunn from Hofstra as my third star, the kid was instrumental in Hofstra upsetting Neumann 4-1, he had 2 goals and played some amazing defense in the contest.

 

 

Jesse: I like that choice. Hofstra had a great weekend- Gunn was a huge part of that.

 

me: So who is your top 3?

 

 

Jesse: Occhicone, Culot, Gunn.

 

 

Bill: Let's call it then. Thanks for another great roundtable.

 

Any parting words?

 

 

Jesse: No sir- looking forward to a great weekend in Harrisburg.