2007-08 Men's Ice Hockey Season Outlook

Head coach Bill Kangas enters his 19th year as the head coach of the Ephs coming off an uncharacteristic 8-14-2 campaign last winter. Kangas is looking for maturity and consistency to get his team back on the winning track.

Kangas reports that the team came into preseason in excellent shape and is quickly rounding into game shape due to the strong leadership of the senior class.

Williams allowed 27 goals last season on the power play by being in the penalty box for 413 minutes, 34 minutes more than its opponents. The Ephs capitalized on just 15 power play chances last season, which added a half a goal a game to the opponents' total. That stat when coupled with the Ephs being outshot by nearly 140 shots let the opposition have a +1 scoring margin on the year.

"I think we are ready to play aggressively, but under control, and not put ourselves down a man as often as we did last year," noted Kangas. "We will be making some changes on defense to try and limit our opponents chances and increase ours."

The interesting feature of last year's record was the Ephs actually had more success in league games –- 8-9-2 than in their non-league games, yet NESCAC is one of the toughest leagues in the nation. Against non-league teams the Ephs came up empty in all five contests.

The Eph schedule features 19 games that factor into the standings as Williams will play each NESCAC team once and each ECAC East team once. "I love that our conference schedule has 19 games," said Kangas. "That means you have to be ready to play every night and you can't rely on just getting hot at the end of the year. Last year there was not much to choose between the top four teams in the conference and this year that could even grow by a team or two."

Offensively Kangas returns 52 of the team's 61 goals last season, but only one player managed to score double figures in goals – senior forward Brandon Jackmuff. Jackmuff tallied 11 goals last season and recorded four assists to tie the graduated Kevin Colwell in points with 15. "Brandon has the ability to score 20 or more goals and we will be counting on him to lead our attack," said Kangas. "It's important for him as a senior captain to set the tone up front for this team."

Kangas will also be looking to sophomores Alex Smigelski (7g, 5 asst.) and Owen Holm (5g, 8 asst.) to step up their production along with junior Matt Dreiheim (2g, 7 asst.). "We need everyone to contribute something positive every game if we are going to be successful," said Kangas.

Three of the four seniors lost to graduation came from the defense, but Kangas thinks with the changes he and assistant coach Dan Muse have implemented the defense will be stronger and quicker to transition into offense this season. Mainstays on defense lost to graduation include Steve Lunau, Matt McCarthy and Colin Greenhlagh.

In keeping with his new defense quickly becomes offense theme, Kangas has moved forwards Greg Schultz and Will Bruce back to the blue line where they will join Steve Bruch who saw time up front and in the back last season. "This group is strong one on one, they have the ability to hold their check and they can get out and support a quick transition to offense because they know where to fill in. We want to use our quickness in the back to fuel our transition game and turn defense into offense his year."

Both top goalies from last season return in junior Rick Redmond and sophomore Marc Pulde. Redmond and Pulde played almost the same number of minutes last season with Redmond having a 66-minute advantage.

Redmond posted a record of 3-6-2 in his 11 starts and recorded one shutout. His goals against average was 3.58 and his save percentage was .897 in 753:26 in the net.

Pulde in 687:44 compiled a record of 5-8-0 in 13 starts and he fashioned one shutout.  He stopped .902 of 388 shots and his goals against average was 3.32. "I believe in college hockey you need two good goalies and we're pleased to have both Rick and Mark," said Kangas. "They are both very capable goalies and the players have a lot of confidence in both of them."

"If we do the little things like play smart and avoid foolish penalties, improve on our power play and get more shots than our opponents we are going to turn this around in a hurry," noted Kangas. "I like our team a lot, because we have a good balance of youth and maturity."

Each of the eight first years on this year's roster will see time on the ice this season, laying the ground work for success in the future.

The NESCAC is a tough league with a demanding schedule. As far as Kangas is concerned the top team right now is Colby because the Mules return the most seniors, while Bowdoin and Middlebury are not far behind.

"We're tired of hitting each other," said Kangas. "It's time to go hit someone else and see what we have."

The Ephs open the 2007-08 season on the road Friday night at 7:00 pm at Tufts and will follow that up with a Saturday afternoon contest at Connecticut College.