Back in the office today after a long 7 day trip down to VA and CT. Thanks to Gio I think everyone knows what went down with the W&L game. It was an amazing experience for our guys with a good crowd and a great venue for the game. Hats off to Coach Ritter and the defense for holding W&L scoreless in the 4th quarter and for our guys to stick a few shots at the end. I was very impressed with the W&L goalie and with a few of their attackmen, they graduated a lot from last year but still have some good talent.

Yesterday we made the trip up to New London where many spring break trips have ended over the years, typically in a hard fought game. Yesterday was no different. Conn played extremely hard and stuck to their game plan of being deliberate on offense and packing it in with a tight zone. They also dominated on face offs as they went 13-19 on the day. Their goalie was also on top of his game and made us earn everything we got. I believe the combination of him making a few good saves and us giving him what I used to call "popcorn" as a goalie, made the goal seem smaller than it was yesterday.

Conn definitely made us pay for a few careless mistakes on the day and that was enough for them to hand us our first loss of the season 8-7.

I would not say that we didn't play hard but we definitely weren't a sharp team yesterday, nothing we did was crisp on the offensive or defensive end.

What we did learn is that we have a few guys who will be ready to play anytime, anyplace. Matt Rayner on defense was playing on the wing on face offs and wreaking havoc all over the field. Pete Smith found a way to score a few big goals for us as well as make some tough hustle plays. Lastly, Alex Englert had two big goals, one in transition in the first half and the 2nd came in the last few minutes to tie the game up at 7 a piece. Those three guys aren't afraid of the moment and if we can get a few more guys to step up like they did yesterday we'll be alright.

Next up is Colby on Saturday in Waterville. They'll be another scrappy team ready to defend their home turf. With a full week of practice to get ready for them and a loss in our rear view mirror, I'm eager to see what we have this year.