Our 21 game win streak ended on Saturday vs. Bowdoin and a new one began on
Sunday vs. Colby.  "Welcome back to NESCAC".  That's what I told the guys at
breakfast on Sunday.  After not losing a league game since 1998 we came up
short vs. Bowdoin on Saturday.  I was anticipating a tough game as they have
a strong defense and an excellent goalie.  Their offense is very average,
but they are above average athletically and they had great heart and hustle.
They outplayed us across the board.  Their goalie played better, they more
than doubled our face offs and ground balls, we didn't clear well, their
defense played better, their possessions were better and their top players
played better than our top players.  In addition, in the sense that they
were able to do exactly what they wanted and needed to do and we were not,
they also coached better.  With all of that it was a 9-8 game and we had our
opportunities to score and win.  The first quarter ended up 2-1 and the
halftime score was 4-2.  I was pretty happy about the score at this point
given that they were a tough defensive team and we were not shooting well or
making great decisions.  I thought we would get better possessions in the
second half and finish better, but we did not.  My feeling was that they
were more prepared to be in this type of game on that day than we were.  We
were prepared for that kind of game at Gettysburg and were able to stay
loose and finish the game well.  We were awful for most of the 4th Quarter
vs. Bowdoin.  We gave up some soft goals and continued to play poorly on
offense.  We made a late run to come back to within 1 but ran out of time at
the end.  We actually had the ball with 8 seconds left just shy of the
midfield line, I chose not to call a time out, hoping that with a quick
restart, a frenetic pace and the players spread out around the field that we
might run by someone in the open field and get a goal before they had time
to set up.  We threw the ball away and time ran out.  Give credit to
Bowdoin, any negative comments about our play should not detract from the
fact that they played well.

We bounced back well on Sunday at Colby.  3 games in 5 days and two of them
in Maine were not easy.  We got out to an early lead and it looked as if it
might be an easy day.  They battled back however, and it became clear it
would be another down to the wire game.  It was a perfect scenario for us to
have to play against another patient offense with a good defense and strong
goalie to see if we could handle the pressure of a tight game.  One
difference in this game was that Colby plays a zone the entire day, so we
had much more possession time.  There were a few possessions we would like
to have back, but for the most part we had great looks against their zone
and could have blown them out if we had shot better (again, give some credit
to a very strong senior goalie).  It was a wet, muddy sloppy field, so not
great conditions for shooting.  It also provided for some sloppy play
between the lines by both teams.  Other than some poor execution vs. one or
two fast breaks and man down the defense played very well, defenseman Sebby
Astrada won the game ball.

We don't play again until Saturday vs. Trinity.  We can use the time off!
We're giving them Monday and Tuesday off for rest and academics and then
we'll get ready to play our best for the alumni and parents this weekend.  I
will follow with some details on the alumni weekend.

Erin