For the last six years, Union coach Nate Leaman has had to eat alone at the ECAC Hockey awards banquet.
No, he hasn’t sat alone at the table. There has always been other people sitting with him. But those other people weren’t his players.
Thursday night at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany, Leaman will have his Dutchmen with him.
Union finally made it to the ECACH tournament final four at the Times Union Center. The third-seeded Dutchmen edged seventh-seeded Quinnipiac, 2-1, in the deciding game of the best-of-three quarterfinal series Sunday at Messa Rink.
“I didn’t say this to our guys, but I said it last year at Princeton is that the coaches have to go to the banquet, and I didn’t want to go there without my team,” Leaman said. “For six years, I’ve been going there without my team. I told them last year at Princeton, ‘I don’t want to go there without you.’ ”
One year ago, the Dutchmen were a similar situation on the road at Princeton. But a 3-1 loss to the Tigers in Game 3 ended the Dutchmen’s hopes.
Despite having home-ice advantage in this year’s quarterfinal round, the Dutchmen dropped a potentially devastating 3-2 five-overtime loss to the Bobcats. It was the second time in four years that Union lost a five-overtime game at home in the playoffs. That loss to Yale in 2006 ended Union’s season.
The Dutchmen had a chance to bounce back, but how much energy would they have? A 3-1 win Saturday evened the series, and set up Sunday’s dramatics.
“That’s pretty tough to come back from losing the toughest game these guys have ever lost in their career,” Leaman said. “I thought it showed a lot of character for the guys to come back and win two in a row.”
Sunday’s victory should put to rest any notion that Union’s hockey program doesn’t care about winning. The program wasn’t treated like a Division I team in the formative years.
But since Leaman became head coach in 2003, he and his staff have gone out and been able to attract quality talent. And the program has received more and more respect over the years.
When the final buzzer sounded Sunday night, the 1,976 fans were finally able to see their Dutchmen make it to the TU Center. And just in time, too, since the tournament is ending its eight-year run in Albany before heading to Atlantic City, N.J., next year for a three-year stay.
“I was just so happy for our kids, and our students,” Leaman said. “I had a lot of people calling and texting today. You just want to do those people proud, all those people who have supported our program.”
Ticket sales
Good news for TU Center general manager Bob Belber and ECACH commissioner Steve Hagwell.
There was a long line of people waiting in the Messa Rink lobby to buy tickets for this weekend’s championship round.
No RPI
With Union making its first appearance in the league’s final four, a total of 12 teams made it to the TU Center since the tournament moved there from Lake Placid in 2003.
The only team not to make it? RPI. Sorry to bring that up, RPI fans.
Included in the 12 teams is Vermont, which got to Albany in 2005, its final year in ECACH before moving to Hockey East.
Eleven teams played in Lake Placid from 1993-2002. The only team not to get there? Union.
No power plays
Quinnipiac is a team that thrives on its power play.
But in Sunday’s game, the Bobcats didn’t get a power play. Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold found that curious.
“We had some good chances,” Pecknold said. “Unfortunately, we had zero power plays, and that’s what we’re good at. We have a great power play, and we didn’t get any tonight. That clearly hurt us. We’ve been averaging five or six power plays per game.
“I’m not going to comment on that, but that obviously killed us.”
Three stars
My three stars of the game:
1) Corey Milan, Union — Made 30 saves.
2) Wayne Simpson, Union — Scored game’s first goal.
3) Jeremy Welsh, Union — Got the game-winner.
That is all for tonight. I will try to have a College Hockey Slap Schotts blog for you on Monday.
If you have any comments, post them below, or e-mail them to me at schott@dailygazette.com.
Good Night! Good Hockey! See You at the TU!
