The Big East conference will have quite the competition this year and sees a lot of change as well. Gone are Big East powers in Notre Dame and Syracuse. Welcome, Denver, yes Denver to the Big East. While Denver may be the favorite, Rutgers and St. Johns are two teams that could give Denver a run for its money in 2014.
St. Johns
When talking about St. Johns, the conversation starts and ends with their attack line. The three headed monster of Kieran McArdle, Kevin Cernuto and Colin Keegan compose one of the best attack units in the nation. McArdle, who last year had 80 points, spearheads this line. However, Cernuto and Keegan are no slouches themselves as they put up 48 and 31 respectively.
The midfield will also return all of its scoring except for senior Alex Logadich. Ryan Mullen, Kyle Fitzgerald and Keith Switzer will all look to add on to their point totals of 20, 18 and 15 respectively.
The thing that is really special about this offense is that they have all been playing together for three years and are all seniors. This will be a really experienced team that could really make some noise in 2014.
Defensively, the Red Storm will have to replace Jeff Lowman in net. Lowman saw the majority of time as he posted a 56.7 save percentage. It will be interesting to see who emerges between senior Andrew Boyer and sophomore Harry Burke. If last season was any indication, Burke was second on the depth chart and had 23 saves last season in mop up duty.
Luckily, the Red Storm does return all three defensemen in Drew Viscusi, Joe Addona and Mark Difrangia. They should provide some insurance in front of whoever plays in goal and will allow them to grow.
In terms of the face off unit, they will need to replace Jordan Rothman who took the majority of the face offs. Luckily, he didn’t have much of an impact at the ‘X’ having won less than 50 percent of his face offs. Regardless, they will still need someone to emerge in order to get the ball to their powerful offense.
In terms of an outlook for the season, their schedule is an interesting mix. They will play former Big East rival in Syracuse in the middle of the season. They also will play at Yale and at Pennsylvania which should prove to be tough games. If they can boast a winning record in those games, the Red Storm could have a great season ahead of them.
Rutgers
Last season, this team was young. The roster only had six seniors last season and as a result they barely lose anything of significance. They bring back their entire offense, a stellar faceoff man and an experienced defense and goaltender.
As previously mentioned, the offense brings everyone back. The attack unit is well rounded with Scott Klimchak, Nicholas Depaolera and Scott Bieda. Klimchak led the group with 38 points while Depaolera and Bieda has 31 and 25 points respectively. Jacob Coretti and Matt Klimchak also chipped in with 15 and 10 points last season so Coach Brian Becht will have plenty of options.
In the midfield, Brian Gross and Anthony Terranova lead the group with 20 and 19 points respectively. After that is a little bit of a fall off in production and it should be interesting to see who emerges.
Luckily, the opponents will have a tough time getting the ball as Joseph Nardella won 62.2 percent of his face offs last season as only a sophomore. Everyone talks about Kevin Massa of Bryant and Brendan Fowler of Duke, deservedly so, but it wouldn’t shock me to see Nardella battle them for face off supremacy this season.
Defensively, the entire group comes back, led by Nick Contino who had 24 caused turnovers and 30 ground balls. Andrew Parrilla was second on the team with 15 caused turnovers and 25 ground balls as well. A third pole will need to emerge but they do have Kris Alleyne who, as a freshman, posted a 58.7 save percentage and had 199 saves as well.
As for the schedule, Rutgers boasts a relatively strong non-conference schedule with Duke, Princeton and Virginia as the notable opponents. Otherwise, they take on a weak Wagner squad as well as first year programs in Richmond and Monmouth.
Rutgers has higher hopes heading into 2014 and could make some noise if their experience and talent produce as expected.
