{"id":29514,"date":"2007-12-06T10:42:58","date_gmt":"2007-12-06T16:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2007\/12\/06\/this-week-in-ecac-hockey-dec-6-2007\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:57:07","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:57:07","slug":"this-week-in-ecac-hockey-dec-6-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2007\/12\/06\/this-week-in-ecac-hockey-dec-6-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in ECAC Hockey: Dec. 6, 2007"},"content":{"rendered":"
Billy Blase has played some pretty frustrating hockey for Yale so far.<\/p>\n
Frustrating, if you’re in Alec Richards’ position.<\/p>\n
Now I’m not insinuating that there’s anything but the finest camaraderie between the two netminders. But with the way Blase has been playing, it’s suddenly up to the former incumbent Richards to earn starting time tending the twine.<\/p>\n
Hailing from the hockey hotbed that is Santa Monica, Calif., Blase has made the most of his opportunity this year, rocking a .935 save percentage and a 1.75 goals-against average in eight and a half games played. <\/p>\n
While the Yale defense has been strong, Blase has nonetheless been called upon to stop upwards of 25 shots a game, and is a huge reason why Yale’s penalty kill is currently second-best in the nation (94.4 percent, 34 kills in 36 tries). <\/p>\n
The six-foot sophomore stopped 23 of 26 in a 3-3 tie with Harvard a week and a half ago. I wonder who his sister was rooting for in The Game (on Ice)…she captained the Crimson women’s varsity fencing squad between 2002-04. <\/p>\n
Let’s just presume strong and healthy relationships all around, shall we? There’s no evidence to support that Billy’s life is any more stressful than we already know it to be.<\/p>\n
Sorry Cornell, but it’s not always<\/i> about you.<\/p>\n
Seth Appert has Rensselaer rolling right now, though you may not suspect it at first glance.<\/p>\n
“We’ve had a chance to win in every game we’ve played,” said the second-year Trojan. “We’ve had a chance to win in every third period we’ve played,” he added, almost incredulous at his team\u00ef\u00bf\u00bds misfortune in translating effort into victories.<\/p>\n
Appert pointed out that of the Engineers’ five overall losses, four were to highly ranked opponents (Minnesota, Boston College, Harvard and Notre Dame). The fifth loss was at highly potent and highly regarded Quinnipiac, who has fallen short of preseason expectations thus far.<\/p>\n
However, it looks like the ‘Tute might finally be seeing some results to match their improved play.<\/p>\n
With a 4-2 win over Harvard in the rearview, Appert was positively impressed with his charges’ game.<\/p>\n
“It was probably our best effort of the season…as a combination of skill, execution, and physical intensity,” he said.<\/p>\n
Putting four pucks past Kyle Richter should count as a victory in and of itself this season, but RPI made sure to take care of business on both ends of the ice to earn the true W.<\/p>\n
“We got traffic to the net…where we were settling for fadeaway jumpers [before],” he said, to use a basketball analogy. “Part of the reason we were able to beat Harvard on Tuesday was playing BC, playing Minnesota, and coming close but not close enough.”<\/p>\n
“There were more guys on the team who wanted the puck against Harvard and Princeton than there ever were against Minnesota and BC…they all wanted to sit back and wait out the win [back then].”<\/p>\n
“It’s too early to say that we’ve turned the corner, but the signs are there that we’re taking the proper steps,” said Appert.<\/p>\n
…well, until January 4th, at least.<\/p>\n
Brown visits Yale on Friday in the final league game of 2007, and the standings are indicating a strong chance of continuing parity in 2008.<\/p>\n
Clarkson’s still atop the rankings, like everyone figured they’d be, but head coach George Roll doesn’t think the team has played to its potential just yet. <\/p>\n
Union earned its first league win last weekend, but Nate Leaman is certain that his team is better<\/i> than its results. <\/p>\n
Harvard’s played one more ECAC game (nine) than anyone else so far, and Quinnipiac, St. Lawrence and Colgate are dead sure that they’ve been delivered somebody else’s records by mistake. <\/p>\n