For Union, staying off road begins with winning at home

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

Defenseman Nick DeSimone and his Union College teammates begin the final month of the ECAC Hockey regular season tonight when they host Clarkson at Messa Rink.

Last year, a 10th-place finish in ECAC Hockey forced Union to go on the road for the conference tournament and play two series.

It was the first time since 2007 that the Dutchmen didn’t host an ECACH tournament series. They don’t want to travel that rough road again.

The final month of the regular season begins tonight for the Dutchmen and the rest of the conference teams. Union (3-7-4 ECACH, 10-9-7 overall) is in ninth place, three points behind Clarkson (5-6-3, 13-10-3), the team it hosts tonight at 7 at Messa Rink, for the final first-round home ice spot. It will host St. Lawrence at 7 p.m. Saturday.

The Dutchmen, who are coming off last week’s three-point weekend at Yale and Brown, and the Golden Knights each have eight games left in the regular season.

“It’s very important,” Union coach Rick Bennett said. “I thought it was just important as the two we played last weekend. Obviously, [the games] are magnified as you go towards the end of the regular season. We haven’t focused on it as a team, and we’re not going to.”

Still, Union doesn’t want to tempt fate again.

Last year, the Dutchmen went to Cornell and swept the best-of-three first-round series from the seventh-seeded Big Red. However, the Dutchmen’s bid for a fourth straight ECACH tournament title ended with a quarterfinals loss to top-seeded Quinnipiac in three games. And who knows how the series would have turned out had Union not blown a 3-1 lead late in Game 1 before losing 4-3 in triple overtime.

“Last year was a good teacher,” Bennett said. “Maybe you can pull it off once. But pulling it off twice, especially going to three games with overtimes, it takes its toll, but it’s not saying that you can’t do it. We’ve seem to gone on different tracks here to get to the promised land. To try to get home ice would be a different route. I would be excited to try it.”

Dutchmen junior goalie Alex Sakellaropoulos, who made 62 saves in last weekend’s games, tried to downplay the home-ice aspect. But in the end, he understands the importance of it.

“We’re just trying to take it day by day, practice by practice,” Sakellaropoulos said. “We’ve just got to work hard and, hopefully, it translates to the weekends for us. Last weekend, it did for us. We worked hard all week, and it translated into the weekend.

“It is tough going on the road. Obviously, their rinks are going to be loud and they’re going to be rooting against us. So it would be nice to be home and having the crowd on our side because we want to play in our rink, and the crowd would love to see us play.”

Union has dominated Clarkson over the past several seasons. The Dutchmen are 15-1 in the last 16 meetings with the Golden Knights, including the 4-1 victory at Cheel Arena on Nov. 7.

The Dutchmen’s record against the Knights is even better at Messa. They are

11-0-1 in the last 12 matchups on their home ice.

All of that means nothing to Dutchmen junior center and co-captain Mike Vecchione.

“We haven’t really thought about that,” Vecchione said. “It’s obviously a game we want to win. They’re a good team. They give us a hard-fought battle each and every time we play them. It’s going to be a tough game. We can’t overlook them.”

The Knights are rolling. They are 4-0-1 in their last five games, which started with a stunning 5-1 victory at defending ECACH tournament champion Harvard on Jan. 16. With solid goaltending from Greg Lewis, the Knights have allowed only five goals during their streak.

Clarkson is 6-1-1 in its last eight games. Bennett knows his squad will be tested.

“Just like everybody else, you’ve got to play sound,” Bennett said. “You’ve got to try to play your system as best as possible and not get involved with their system. Obviously, goaltending’s huge.”