Senior forward Josh Coyle could have been a 20-goal scorer at least once in his Union career. He has that kind of talent.
But there is another part of Coyle's game that can be irritating. He seems to relish in agitating the opposition. It gets in the way of his offensive game. It can lead to penalties.
It can also cost the Dutchmen a game.
That's what happened Friday in Game 1 of the ECAC Hockey tournament quarterfinals against Cornell at Messa Rink. Coyle held down Topher Scott for seven seconds after a faceoff in the neutral zone. Referee Jack Millea watched, giving Coyle every opportunity to let Scott up. Coyle didn't, and he got penalized with 7:20 left in the third period and the scored tied, 2-2. Coyle complained, but he had no right to do so.
Brendon Nash made Coyle and the Dutchmen pay. His high-slot blast deflected off Union forward Andrew Buote's stick and over the left shoulder of goalie Justin Mrazek for a power-play goal with 5:43 left, giving Cornell a 3-2 victory and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.
Nate Leaman pulled no punches when I ask him about Coyle's style of play.
"Unacceptable penalty," said Leaman, who said it again for emphasis. "The No. 1 thing in our scouting report is they live on their power play."
Coyle was requested by the media for the postgame interview session. But he wasn't made available. He should have been to answer the one question on everyone's mind: "What were you thinking?"
Just over a minute earlier, the Dutchmen had tied the score on Michael Beynon's goal. They had the momentum. But Coyle ruined that with his awful penalty.
Leaman probably should have benched Coyle for the rest of the game. But with Jason Walters ejected earlier in the third because of a major hit from behind penalty on Chris Fontas, Leaman had to play Coyle.
I asked Leaman if Coyle would be in the lineup for Game 2. His response from curt: "I don't know."
If I were Leaman, I would sit Coyle. I don't care if it could be the last game of his college career. He made a bad play, and it cost his team a game.
Coyle's teammates stuck up for him.
"Josh obviously feels horrible," Mrazek said. "The team supports him, obviously. Sometimes, those things happen. But we have to be more disciplined as a whole."
"We always have his back," said Torren Delforte, who scored Union's first goal. "We're there to pick him up."
It's fine that Coyle's teammates are rallying behind them. Maybe Coyle does feel bad for what he did. Of course, we may never know that.
Other thoughts:
— Attendance was announced at 2,111. Capacity at Messa is 2,225. There were people standing along the walls at both ends of the rink, and it appeared every seat was filled. Someone isn't counting right.
— The home teams won the other games. Top-seeded Clarkson beat No. 8 Colgate, 1-0; No. 2 Princeton downed No. 6 Yale, 3-0; and No. 3 Harvard blew out No. 6 Quinnipiac, 11-0. It appears to me Quinnipiac has quit. The Bobcats lost six straight games to end the regular season. They swept No. 11 Brown last weekend, but blew leads of 5-1 and 6-3 in Game 1 before winning, 7-6, in overtime.
That's it from Messa Rink. I'll be back with more coverage on Saturday. Until then, "Good Night, Good Hockey."
