Another yawner in Brunswick yesterday as we coasted to a 14-13 win over the Polar Bears.  Even though I was still coaching at Conn at the time, this game reminded me of the 2006 game at Bowdoin where we turned an 11-3 halftime lead into an 11-11 tie by the end of regulation only to win in OT.  Fast forward three years and as Erin reported yesterday, we took a 10-3 lead and an 11-5 advantage into halftime only to find ourselves trailing 13-12 with 9 minutes left!    The conclusion that I've drawn from all of these tight games up in Brunswick (including our 2OT comeback win last year) is that we are just destined to play a one goal game in Maine. Oh yeah, and that we're going to win!

The amazing thing about both of these games is that our guys are still playing hard and aren't just folding over for the P-Bears, but any lapse mentally or physically on the field is magnified by Bowdoin and they know how to make us pay.  I give a ton of credit to the Bowdoin coaches and players for how hard they compete and for their mental toughness in a game like this.  I also hope that our guys learn a lesson that you can't change how you approach each possession and try to be the one who puts the end to the run yourself.  Sometimes guys wanting to step up actually hurts what we're trying to do as a TEAM.  We had some uncharacteristic turnovers, guys trying to score from low angles or from 15 yards out when they wouldn't have taken those shots in the first half.  We had guys trying to make the hustle play but instead taking loose ball pushes and late hits which led to more Bowdoin possessions and Bowdoin goals.  We had guys coughing up the ball out of their stick while running with it and running on the field too early during a substitution (that was the same guy), as well as some great ground ball play by Bowdoin that fed their run to get back into the game.

The other big difference in the two halves was the play by the face off men and the wings.  After dominating that part of the game in the first half, we lost the 2nd half face off battle 7-6.  Not terrible but we also were making our possessions count in the first half and when you're playing make it-take it, you can string together a nice little run.

Offensively we put in a new wrinkle this week to take advantage of Bowdoin's adjacent slides and then also expected them to put poles on Mike Stone and Skyler Hopkins in the midfield, which they did.  We're fortunate that when the other team puts two poles, even very good poles like Bowdoin did yesterday up in the midfield, it doesn't really effect how Mike or Skyler play.  They both have excellent stick protection, are comfortable carrying against long sticks and can still generate good looks against them.

Mike ended up with 6 goals on the day and finally played within himself, it's the first time he's done that since Bates.  As I had mentioned previously, he puts a lot of pressure on himself to be the best and sometimes that works against him.  Hopefully he can just relax and play his game the rest of the season.

Skyler won our game ball for his 3 goal effort and has arrived as a big time player this year.  As I told him the other day, it's his mental toughness and confidence that have him playing at such a high level this year, it's not because he's playing a different position. 

I could keep going all day on this one but I'll just summarize the last few minutes and leave it at that.  When we came down on offense with a little under 2 minutes to play and the score tied we didn't need to call a timeout to get set, we just ran our offense.  They were sliding adjacent to our middies up top all day long.  Anytime we did get to the middle the other defensive middie would sag and then help across.  To counter that, we had our offensive middie up top just fade out the backside and in a passing lane instead of clearing through.  When a defense decides to slide to Chris Teves going to his left hand at 12 yards and leaves Mike Stone open at 13 yards with his hand free, that's a good situation for the boys in blue.  Mike took Chris' feed and stuck it right under the cross bar and it came flying back out of the net because he had gotten so much on it.  

We won the ensuing face off, got the ball in our offensive end and called timeout.  We were able to get the ball in the box off the timeout and were effectively killing the clock when Bowdoin just started laying the lumber, after 3 or 4 slashes went uncalled, they finally decided to call a loose ball push instead of the trip call that should have been made.  On the quick restart unfortunately we didn't do a good job of getting set again in our kill pattern and they were able to put the ball on the ground.  Before you know it they have the ball on offense and call a timeout with just over 20 seconds to play.     Rit did a great job of getting the defense on the same page during the timeout while I made sure to remind the officials about how they had put their flags away for the day on Bowdoin's defensive end.  If you're going to let the players decide the game, you better call it that way for both teams!

Out of the timeout we did a good job of executing our defense, the slide and help were there, we put the ball on the ground but of course that wasn't going to be enough.  As the ball squeaked out towards the sideline outside the box, one of their middies (Rob Halliday) picked it up and shot the ball from probably 20 yards out with about 7 seconds left.  The shot didn't reach the goal because Rob Halliday's younger brother Russ caught the shot on the crease and one timed it only to be stoned by Pete Britt.  The ball trickled away and the clock expired.   I'm going to head home and start plucking the gray hairs out now. 

A special thanks goes to Roy Heffernan who not only made the trip up to Brunswick yesterday but who could also be spotted shagging balls behind our goal during warm ups! 

RPI on Tuesday at home, not much time to get ready for the Red Hawks/Engineers.