60 Days. 60 Teams. 600 Words (or Less): Union

Union College

2018-19 Record: 20-13-6 (10-10-2, 7th in ECAC)
Head Coach: Rick Bennett, 9th Year
Top returning scorer: Anthony Rinaldi (11G-12A)
Top returning goaltender: Darion Hanson (Jr.)

2014 Frozen Four appreciation week rolls on with a profile of the Dutchmen. (Sadly, if not for moving AIC up for making the NCAA Tournament, Union, of all teams, fittingly would have been the Labor Day profile.) The Pairwise continues to have a cold sense of humor, even if Shayne Gostisbehere is not on the ice.

Union won at least 20 games for a third straight season thanks in part to non-conference success. A 4-0-1 start with a sweep of Northeastern at Matthews Arena, the Friendship Four title in Belfast, a dominant win over St. Cloud State at the Three Rivers Classic plus a goaltending duel for the Mayor's Cup over RPI stand out.

Conference play was not as successful.  Union's seven non-conference wins in 12 games nearly matched its 10 ECAC wins. The Dutchmen finished seventh in ECAC (one point away from fifth), entering 2019-20 taking some time to reassess and rebuild back into contention following the departure of its top three scorers and other major contributors.

What's New: One reason to reassess and rebuild is that Bennett has 12 newcomers this season. Eight forwards, two defenders and two goaltenders make up the Dutchmen's Class of 2023.

As a group, the new Union players are from mostly outside the Northeast. Bennett's Minnesota pipeline continues to flow as three of the eight forwards - Christian Sanda (Vadnais Heights), Colin Schmidt (Wayzata) and Chaz Smedsrud (Luverne) - hail from the "State of Hockey." Defender Dylan Anhorn helped Prince George (BCHL) capture the Fred Page Cup (as BCHL champions) and Doyle Cup (between the BCHL and AJHL champs).

Garret Nieto is the younger brother of Brown goalie Gavin Nieto, which will either make for a fun ECAC brother battle or mass confusion of people thinking they are seeing double - four G. Nietos! The other incoming goalie is the appropriately named Merek Pipes.

Potential leading scorer Liam Morgan left in August for Belfast. Union's annual Mayor's Cup game with RPI for Capital Region bragging rights is scheduled for January 25th.

Closing Thoughts: It wasn't planned, but coincidentally having the two 2014 championship game teams go back-to-back shines a light on the similar position both are in five years later. The connection remains. Both have Luverne freshmen (Smedsrud and Jaxon Nelson) as part of large rookie classes. Even Colin Schmidt was at one time a Minnesota commit.

Then there's the fact Union, like yesterday's team (and the other 2014 Frozen Four semifinalists), has not hit its expectations. On one hand, the Dutchmen keep winning 20+ games and beating elite teams. On the other hand, Bennett's teams have made a single NCAA Tournament appearance in the five seasons since winning the 2014 national championship.

Bringing in a large freshman class to replace major contributors can take some time to adjust, but the expectations should be a little lower. Union does not, on paper, get an easy start to the season, opening against a BU team in a similar position before playing Northeastern and Massachusetts on back-to-back October weekends. Searching for the consistency missing in recent seasons and having time to find it leads to an intriguing situation. The ECAC portion of the schedule might be that much more important.

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