Trinity College was the top ranked Division III team in the
East last year going into the conference tournaments, guaranteed home ice up
until their version of the Frozen Four. The Bantams had the most prolific
offense in the nation, with three of the country’s top four scorers fueling a
devastating power play (30.6%). Anchored by a stellar senior goalie, this
juggernaut was set for a long, long run through the post season. And suddenly
BOOM; it ended just as it began. A loss
to wily Bowdoin in the NESCAC semifinals triggered a couple of cruel clicks in
the Pair-Wise computer, and Trinity’s offensive circus was kicked to the curb
by the NCAA. The NESCAC regular season champion found itself on the outside looking
in during the Div. III big dance, a punch to the gut impossible to forget.
“You know, it sucked,” said current senior Jackson Brewer, the nation’s leading
scorer a year ago. “There’s no way around it, a team that had 21 wins and five
1-goal losses shouldn’t be left out of the dance.” While 12 other schools
around the country prepped for the NCAA show, the Trinity Bantams cleaned out their
lockers in disbelief. A dream season had gone suddenly and horribly wrong,
replaced by a hockey nightmare: Bowdoin, the team Trinity swept in the regular
season, took their spot on the national stage. Hartford’s mud season was
particularly dark for 20 hockey players on campus.
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| Player of the Year Brewer Shut Down by Bowdoin |
As the seasons changed, outlooks brightened, and fueled by
the bile of an NCAA slight, a brilliant returning cast went to work with grim
determination. “The team put in a lot of hard work over the summer,” said
sophomore Ryan Cole of Anchorage. “We
came together in August determined. We want to do big things this year and that
meant being in the gym three times a week, being on the turf doing sprints,
extra captains practice, whatever it took.”
“We did crank it up,” said Brewer. “One of our mottos this
fall and this year is ‘If we keep doing what we have been doing we will get the
same results.’ So we felt like Hey, we fell short last year, we got to do a
little more if we want to get to where we want to be in the spring.”
Trinity returns a veritable Murderers Row of offensive talent, the most lauded in the land. Their
2014 accolades and scoring numbers are frightening: NESCAC Player of the Year Brewer
tallied 56 points in 26 games; Michael Hawkrigg
led the nation in goals per game with 22 tallies; NESCAC Rookie of the Year
Ryan Cole had 19 goals and 48 points; defenseman Mike Flynn had 22 helpers and was a 2nd team All
American; another freshman Sean Orlando
had 22 goals and 40 points. The season-long party of red lights and goal
celebrations sparked plenty of national recognition, making the post-season
train wreck even more painful. All of that offensive talent returns for this
year’s mission.
Last Friday Trinity took on Amherst in their home opener in
Hartford. Prior to the game they raised a banner as NESCAC regular season
champs, but the brutal ending to that season made it a bittersweet affair. “It’s
not the championship we wanted, but those guys in that locker room worked their
tail off,” said Bantams coach Matt
Greason, a Trinity alum plucked from USA Hockey’s national team in Ann
Arbor. “It’s nice that we have some hardware, or a banner hanging there, but
they know the real one is ahead, hopefully in March.”
Friday’s game in Hartford was a league barometer: Amherst
was a NESCAC power last year as well, sweeping Trinity in the regular season
and boasting some brilliant newcomers this fall. Rivals Williams and Bowdoin
were undoubtedly studying this result. Thanks to three power plays, Amherst
outshot Trinity in the first period and carried the play territorially. Only a
Ryan Cole snipe with two ticks remaining allowed Trinity a shaky 3-2 lead in
the first intermission.
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| Matt Greason coaching Alma-Mater to new Height |
From that point on the Bantams began to push the play,
rolling four lines of relentless pressure, and eventually the Lord Jeffs of
Amherst crumbled. For the second period in a row, Cole fired a scoring laser in
the closing minute. This wrister was so precise--finding a virtual keyhole in
the top shelf that barely nudged the water bottle--that the super soph didn’t even
know he had scored. “I thought it didn’t go in, I kind of circled around, and
he (ref) was pointing. I guess I surprised myself on that one.” The goal was a
dagger, giving Trinity a 5-2 lead, and the Bantams never looked back. Cole
collected his second career hat trick in the third period as Trinity outshot
Amherst 11-5, rolling to their third consecutive victory by identical 7-2
scores. The NESCAC community must have choked on their coffee Saturday morning
when they saw the result. Trinity has outscored its opposition 11-0 in third
periods this year, sucking life out of teams over 60-minute games. The Roosters
have become hockey anacondas.
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| Ryan Cole: Goal a Game for Bantams |
“They can’t keep up, we’re pretty well conditioned,” said
Brewer. “Teams get demoralized, they get worn down if we play our system the
right way.”
“Chinese water torture,” said Greason after his first win
over Amherst in two years. “We’ve had a consistent plan. If we keep doing it
and doing it, it’s going to work eventually.
And we’ve been fortunate to get on the right side of it in the second
half in the first three games.”
Trinity’s style has added to last year’s “beautiful game” of
multiple passes often seen on their power play.
The attached video is a nine-pass tic-tac-toe goal finished off by
Brewer in game two versus Tufts. It is reminiscent of last year’s special team.
Brewer had 42 helpers in 26 games last year, helping the
Bantams set a school record with 44 power play goals. But Bowdoin spent a week prepping
for Brewer and company prior to the NESCAC semis, knocking him off his game and
stealing their glory.
“Bowdoin did a good job trying to match lines, they were
finishing their checks,” said Brewer. “We do have a target on our back, but that’s
what comes with success.”
This year, however, Trinity has another dominant line, led
by Cole, and two outstanding freshmen Tyler
Whitney and Anthony Sabitsky.
That unit totaled nine points while ringing up five goals in the Amherst
blowout; the faces have changed but the numbers remain the same. This group plays
a different brand of hockey than last year’s first line of perimeter puck
movers Brewer-Orlando-Hawkrigg. This new rendition of the “Diaper Line” plays
with breakaway dash and patient grit in the dirty areas of the ice. “I just put
my head down and work,” said Cole. “Guys like Tyler Whitney can create offense,
it kind of gives more room for me so that really helps a lot.” NESCAC rivals now
have yet another Rooster headache to try and solve.
This is the dawn of Trinity Hockey 2.0, a sick blend of four
lines loaded with talent from Alaska, Sweden, Canada and the best prep schools
in the U.S. At least half a dozen could have gone Division I, but they are
stoked to be in Hartford here and now, rocking Division III in one of the
premier leagues in the country. With Greason behind the bench and a huge chip
on their shoulders, this team is poised to make noise nationally. Trinity
started the season ranked 10th in the weekly polls, climbed to
number 8 last week, and should be in the top five by Tuesday. Yet nothing they
do in this regular season will satisfy them.
“Now we know that even if we run the table in the regular
season and get first place, it doesn’t mean we’re going to get into the
national tournament,” said Brewer, embarking on his final season of college
hockey. “We’ve got to make sure we take care of business in the NESCAC
tournament, to get to where we want to be in March.”
The coach offered a sober reminder Friday. “We’ve got a
long, long way to go, and we’ve got to get a lot, lot better if we’re going to
do that.” Greason will have the full attention of his squad this week after
they dropped a point in a 1-1 tie with Hamilton Saturday afternoon. But the
Bantams offense still peppered the Continentals with 44 shots and won’t be
denied often this year.
They have outscored their opponents 22-7 to open the 2014-15
campaign, and are taking all the required steps to become champions. They
sprint through practices and games in their collective mission, using all their
self-control not to focus on a very special date on the calendar—January 16. The Bantams head north that
third Friday of the coldest month for a showdown with the Polar Bears of Bowdoin
in Brunswick, Maine. Trinity’s first meeting with the team that ended their
dream season last March is appointment viewing. Time to get your Live Stream
on.
