State of Bobcats, Pt. 1: Men’s hockey thus far

State of Bobcats, Pt. 1: Men’s hockey thus far

By Marty Joseph, QBSN Staff Writer

Recap of First Half:

The story of the Bobcats’ first half (11-6-3, 3-4-3) can be told simply as two streaks book-ending a slump. The team jumped out to a 7-2-0 start and was ranked No. 19 in the USCHO.com National Poll on Oct. 31, 2011. A five-game October winning streak was highlighted by wins at Ohio State and home blowouts against Canisius and Bentley. Despite October success, the Bobcats struggled in the month of November.

The team started ECAC Conference play on Nov. 1 with a 5-2 victory at Princeton but failed to get a win in conference play for the rest of the month. Goal scoring was the team’s greatest success in the month of October but the team’s Achilles’ heel in November. In a key stretch of conference games against Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Colgate, and Cornell, the Bobcats could only net two goals despite strong offensive efforts in the shot department.

The Bobcats stuck to their game plan going into a pivotal non-conference game against Massachusetts and were able to jump out to a four-goal lead and hang on for a 4-2 win.

“We knew we haven’t been scoring many goals as of late and I think we just needed one to get in for us and we just started rolling,” said sophomore Connor Jones (Montrose, British Columbia) of the team’s play following the game saying.  “Getting those two goals in early was something we haven’t done all year and it gave us a bunch of confidence.”

The confidence Jones spoke about seemed to slowly come back to the team as the month of December rolled around, as the Bobcats closed out the first half of the season with a five game point streak going 4-0-1 down the stretch. As well as the win against UMass, the Bobcats tied nationally ranked Union before rolling off three straight wins against Rensselaer, Sacred Heart, and Princeton. Despite a slow start in conference play, the Bobcats sit in third place currently in the ECAC going into the break.

Trends/Streaks/Performances/Milestones:

Forwards Scott Zurevinski (Saskatoon, Sask.) and Yuri Bouharevich (Montreal, Que.) both go into the break riding multi-game point streaks. Zurevinski has a four-game point streak in which he has recorded two goals and three assists. Bouharevich has a five-game point streak in which he has recorded two goals and five assists, including a game-winning goal against Rensselaer with 2.4 seconds remaining in the contest.

Goaltender Eric Hartzell (White Bear Lake, Minn.) is playing as well as any other time in his career of late. Hartzell has gone eight straight starts holding opponents to two or fewer goals in every start. Hartzell has posted a 3-2-3 record with 1.75 goals against average and .930 save percentage over the course of the streak.