Having slayed their dragon that is Geneseo in the UCHC title game, Utica now prepares for hosting a first-round game with surprise NESCAC champions, Williams on Saturday night. Some style changes were employed to defeat a Knights team that owned the Pioneers in previous meetings, including last year’s conference title game – with their successful deployment, more could be in store for this year’s national title pursuit.
“We finally beat Geneseo,” said an elated head coach Gary Heenan. “They have been a thorn in our side including last year where they rolled to a 4-0 nothing first period lead in the title game. Every time we have played them, we have given them the lead in the opening five minutes, and we were committed to not letting that happen on Saturday. We asked some of skill guys to be a little more “gritty” and focus on the defensive side of the puck to help get our goaltender into the game without facing any serious quality chances and we did that. We probably keep some of that this week against another skill team like Williams that is really believing in their game right now.”
Utica has introduced a total of fifteen new players into the lineup this season and in doing so, has leveraged the experience of balance of the roster in key situations across special teams and five-on-five play. The junior class has figured prominently in the offensive statistical numbers and players like Drake Morse, Nick Ahern, Eric Vitale, Andrew Della Rovere and Aiden Hughes will be expected to continue to provide not only the offensive numbers but a 200-foot game moving forward in the national tournament.
“We didn’t roll four lines on Saturday,” noted Heenan. “We mostly went with three lines and a single power-play and penalty kill unit. When the game was tied against Geneseo you could see the guys on the bench get mad and thinking this isn’t happening again to that team. I look down the bench and feel it and hope the guys will take advantage of their chances when they get on the ice and that is exactly what Nicholas [Rogers] did in the final five minutes of regulation with an immense individual effort. After that we focused on playing solid team defense and took advantage of some empty-net opportunities. We will need that type of discipline against Williams. They have an exceptionally fast and skilled first line and power play unit and have found their goaltending late in the season. They are believing in their brand of hockey right now, so we need to be ready to go.”
Utica has also found its man in the crease as Elmira transfer Kyle Curtin has stepped up with some big wins for the Pioneers this season. In 20 starts this season, Curtin has a 2.21 goals-against average and .903 save percentage but surrendered just two goals in the two games of the UCHC conference tournament.
“We sometimes want to all get involved in the offensive end of the ice and have our defensemen part of the attack which can lead to some odd-man rushes and real quality chances for the opposition. In past years our shots against numbers have consistently been pretty low but as a percentage, the quality numbers are too high and put our netminders in bad spots. We feel really good with Kyle in the crease and see that senior experience and calmness helping us advance.”
Utica hosts Williams on Saturday night at the Adirondack Bank Center at 7 PM with the winner advancing to a quarterfinal matchup with the winner of the Wisconsin – Stout v. Anna Maria game.