59 Teams in 59 Days Union

The 59 Teams in 59 Days tour hits day number 54 on its last week of the tour. Today we make a trip to Schenctady, New York where the Union Dutchman are featured.

Head coach Nate Leaman is entering his fourth season at Union. He and the team is coming off an up and down season as the team went 16-16-6 in which Union lost five out of their last six games of the year, including a first round loss on home ice to Yale.

The team had trouble scoring goals as they only came up with 90 goals in 38 games last season. This year might not be any different for the Dutchman.

Eight Seniors are gone from last years team. And with only four Seniors this year, the team will be young. Leaman will have his toughest task yet, and that is replacing goaltender Kris Mayotte. A four year starter in net, Mayotte in his career had 10 shutouts, including five last year. Mayotte started 116 games in his career at Union, this years goaltenders have a combined 26 starts in goal.

The likely replacement for Mayotte will be Junior Justin Mrazek. As a Freshman, Mrazek did start 19 games for the Dutchman, however, with the success of Mayotte last season, Mrazek only started five games last season. Senior Daniel Tatar and Incoming Freshmen Rich Sillery, and Shaun Williams will battle to be Mrazek's backup.

On offense, the leading scorer from last year returns in Senior Olivier Bouchard, however, he only scored 14 goals last year. He will need to improve his stats if Union wants to go anywhere this year. A couple of sleepers to watch out for are Sophomores Augie DiMarzo, and T.J. Fox.

On defense the Dutchman return five, and will be lead by Senior captain Sean Sterich. Last year the Dutchman allowed 103 goals. If the Dutchman have a strong point it is on defense.

Overall expect the Dutchman to struggle a little bit this year. With only four Seniors on the squad, the Dutchman will not bring a whole lot of experience this year. 12 Freshmen are coming in so expect this to be a tough season for the Dutchman.

The predicted ceiling for Union is seventh in the ECACHL, while the gutter is 12th.

Tommorrow we will head to Burlington, Vermont on day number 55 of the tour where the Vermont Catamounts will be featured on the 59 Teams in 59 Days tour.