Bar Lax Trax Fax from John Nichols

Week of 4/4-4/10

Bears vs Bears:

In the week’s only interursine battle, the Denver Pioneers (Archer) upset the Duke Blue Devils (Offit & Tkac), yet another instance of the unpredictable, surprising outcomes that have come to characterize the 2011 season.  Josh Offit had five shots in the game, 4 on goal, in Duke’s losing effort.

Bears in Action:

Nick Rhoads at Tufts continues to be an impact player for the Jumbos, winning 35 of 58 face-offs (60%) over two games while scooping up 14 ground balls.  Nick also scored a goal in the Jumbo’s weekend tilt with Trinity.

Connor Cassidy also saw some action at the X, winning 4 of 7 faceoffs plus 2 faceoffs in Hofstra’s two games this week.

Max Feely had 2 ground balls and 1 caused turnover in Cornell’s 13-12 win over Harvard. The ESPN commentator exclaimed what a key play Max made when he intercepted a Harvard pass as the Crimson set up to try to score the trying goal against the Big Red (for two Ivy League schools, how unimaginative names and then there is the Big Green of hanover!)

Connor Reilly had 1 ground ball, Jack Strabo had significant playing time against the Orange’s stud middies and Mike Grossman had 1 goal on 3 shots (2 on goal) and 1 ground ball in Princeton’s 7-5 loss to Syracuse. The Grossman goal was an All IAC play as the sweet assist was from EHS alum Hunter DeButts.

Ryan Curtis’ Vermont Catamounts picked up a pair of decisive wins this week, beating Holy Cross 15-5 and Albany 11-6

This Coming Week:

Loyola (Hart) jumps on I-95 to visit Georgetown (Fisher) in the week’s only Bear Vs. Bear contest.

Duke (Offit and Tkac) host UVA in a game that will decide the #1 seed in the ACC tournament.