Tough Loss in League Finale

We lost 5-1 to Hobart on Sunday, eliminating us from Liberty League playoff contention, although we would have been out anyway due to RPI defeating Hamilton and Union beating Clarkson. It is still disappointing for the senior class to end our Liberty League careers like that, along with the fact that a victory over Hobart would have given us a very convincing profile for ECAC selection. The game was a disaster from the start, as Hobart's early 3-goal barrage was followed by a scary injury to our captain Kevin Goldberg that delayed the game for over twenty minutes (luckily he’s doing better now and can hopefully play this week). We briefly made a game of it when Matt Belli scored early in the second-half, but Hobart responded right away with a fourth goal and was able to cruise to an easy victory.

This year’s Hobart squad was probably the strongest Liberty League team in my four-year career and it would not surprise me if they won the National Championship this year. I thought they were stronger than defending National Champions Middlebury (although we played them in pre-season), and they are currently ranked 4th in the nation. I saw the nation’s #1 team (Trinity, TX) on television in the national championship game last year and their standard of play was on another level, but Middlebury was still able to shut them out and win in a shootout, so you never know what will happen in this year’s knockout tournament.

Tomorrow we take on New Paltz, a team that has given us a lot of trouble in recent years. While not traditionally one of the stronger teams in the area, they had a run of four straight victories over us, including a 3-2 overtime victory my freshman year and a disastrous 5-4 overtime win in 2006 when they played down a man the entire game after an early red card. We broke that streak last season, but it wasn’t easy, as we scraped out a 3-2 victory. New Paltz is also much stronger this season than they have been in the past. They defeated Bard 4-0 (a team we beat by five goals), beat a good Fredonia team 2-1, and only lost 1-0 to nationally-ranked Stevens Tech (who beat us 3-0). It will be a very tough match-up for us. A win will make us eligible to be selected for the ECAC playoffs, but we’ll probably need to win both of our remaining games to be chosen.