Yesterday's Providence Journal included a writeup on the contribution made
thus far this season by the Friar's class of 2000.  Frosh make up one third
of the PC team.  Coming into the season the graduation of both the Friar's
top guns and leading blueliners meant this year's team was pretty much a
question mark and depended on how much and how quickly the team's newest
members could contribute.
 
The numbers the Journal cites are pretty impressive.  During one mid-season
six game stretch they accounted for 2/3 (14 of 21) of the Friar goals.  On
the season the frosh chipped in 42 of of the team's 134 goals (31%) and 77
of the 227 assists (34%.)
 
A couple of the frosh deserve particular note.  Fernando Pisani tied for
third on the team in scoring, equalling soph Mike Omicioli's 29 pts in 33
games.  He ended the season with an 8 game scoring streak and led the team
with a plus 21 rating.  Jerry Keefe has had 9 points in his last six games
and Nick Lent led the team with 3 short handed goals.  And I'd agree that
Jason Ialongo, Josh MacNevin and Leigh Dean have all shown their ability to
play at this level on the blue line.  Dave Gunderson and Richard Miller, as
well as forward Doug Sheppard have seen only occasional action but have all
been a part of the Friar's February run culminating in home ice and a number
3 seed for the Hockey East post season.
 
This year's PC team has had a different look IMHO than the past two.  While
Coach Pooley still touts his offense from defense philosophy the Friars have
not appeared to me to be nearly as defensively oriented.  Instead of
concentrating on clearing the zone and patiently waiting for an offensive
opportunity, they are creating far more scoring chances. Or, is their/his
transition game being used more effectively and the team is doing a better
job of finding them?  Whatever they're doing, Pooley's the tactician and I'm
certainly not, and with his success I'm not going to disagree with him.
 
If you're interested in looking at the rest of the article they usually stay
on the ProJo site for about a week.  You'll find it at
http://www.projo.com/report/pjb/indexes/sp.htm
under "Freshman class showed it had the numbers for PC."  Sherry Skalko's
weekly College Hockey Notes is also there under "Brown women reap their
reward."
 
Bill
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Bill Schneller                                  home-> [log in to unmask]
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_/_/_/Founding member, Marist College Hockey Club, a long time ago\_\_\_
 
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