A few quick recaps here, sorry for the delay on these.  Busy stretch for us up here even though we were on break and a few huge games on tap this week.

First the Hamilton game, credit them for playing a great game and for sticking their shots.  They have the best attackman we've gone up against this year in Jon Leanos (son of Tom Leanos, Head Coach at Drew, great guy) and have some nice complimentary players as well.  The story of this game was them burying their chances and us letting them slip away, which is unfortunately our season in a nutshell thus far.  Both teams were getting some good looks early in the game but we were getting stuffed on the doorstep or hitting the goalie in the foot while they were sticking shots.  After falling behind 5-0, junior Stew Kerr finally got one to go after an inside roll to set up his left hand.

We came out flying in the 2nd half and were dominating play for the first 10 minutes and pumped in another three goals to make it 5-4 Hamilton.  We were getting the ball back on the ride, creating turnovers on our defensive end, and created some great opportunities on offense.  The problem on Wednesday and with our team this year is that we only score three goals in that stretch instead of going on a 4, 5, 6, goal run with all the chances we had.   Hamilton would add another goal at the end of the quarter to make it 6-4 heading into the 4th.

Tim Cahill got on the board a few times in the 4th quarter to tie the game at 6 and it felt like the tide had turned and we were going to win it.  Unfortunately we weren't able to get another one to go in the back of the net.  Their last goal came off of a nice hustle play where they put the ball down in our defensive end as we were attempting to clear the ball and then had a one on 0 with our goalie.

As for the Bowdoin game, I thought it was our best of the year in terms of how we competed but it wasn't enough.  If we continue to improve in terms of how hard we play and practice each day, I do believe we can play with anyone in the conference but the way our schedule is set up, we don't have any room for error.

There were definitely some other positives on Saturday in Brunswick, Brian Foster went 15 for 19 on draws, Darric White looked like a difference maker once again on the wing, and Nate Gaudio made some big-time saves between the pipes.  It was also great to get Matt Rayner back on the field.  After the Hamilton game he decided it was time to give it a go and did a nice job for us on Saturday, his leadership and experience are a great asset to us in practice and on game days.

The game itself was back and forth in the first half after we took the lead 1-0, they went up 2-1, then we were up 3-2 before they tied it right before the half.  Coming out of the break we scored on our first possession to make it 4-3 and won the ensuing face off for a fast break only to drop a pass right on the doorstep.  Instead the ball went down to the other end and Bowdoin would score the next five goals of the game to take an 8-4 lead.  Our guys once again battled back and created a number of turnovers on the ride to give us some great chances on the offensive end. We were able to cut the lead to 8-7 but once again couldn't get over the hump.

Next up we have our most difficult three days of the season coming with Tufts on Thursday followed by Amherst on Saturday.  Tufts is not the same team as they've been in the past but still have plenty of weapons on offense, they did run into a hot goalie on Saturday and lost to Trinity in OT.  Amherst is loaded this year but has lost their last two NESCAC games to Wesleyan 6-3 and to Hamilton 12-6.  It's safe to say nobody is feeling sorry for Middlebury right now and I'm sure we're running into a few motivated teams this week.  Should be fun.