Alumni Hockey 2020 Recap
NY Delta Alumni v. Active Hockey 2020
We're a bit late on posting this outcome but prior to the COVID-19 advisories and restrictions, the alumni and actives battled it out for the annual Alumni v. Actives Hockey game in February. The alumni reluctantly admit that the actives won for the first time since 2015. Below is an accounting of that game. We miss live hockey of all forms and hope everyone is staying healthy and safe and hope for a quick return to normal.
TROY, NY - It was a very long five year drought for the active hockey team but they finally managed to beat the alumni for the first time since the 2015 annual game. The actives relied heavily on their main weapon and sniper Stuart Irwin ’21. And Irwin delivered. He scored 4 goals to put on a show for his sister, mother, and girlfriend who were all in attendance at the RPI Houston Field House for the Saturday game on the early afternoon of Leap Day 2020. Irwin had also scored hat tricks for the actives in the 2018 and 2019 matches but the alumni still prevailed in those years. So, the actives knew they needed more firepower than Sniper Stu alone could muster.
Thus, determined to break the alumni winning streak, they brought in more reinforcements with Joey Whelan, the older brother of active Kris Whelan ’ 20, who added 2 goals with one having an assist, of course, from his brother and our brother Kris. As with Kris, Joey immediately stood out given the choice of tape on his hockey stick blade. While most players go with solid white or black stick tape, Joey sported a very stylish stick blade wrapped in the Italian tricolors (il Tricolore) of green, white, and red.
The actives also relied on 2 of the 3 Keefe children, Landon, age 6, and Logan, age 10, who added 2 goals for the active tally, while dad Dan Keefe ‘ 01 played for the alumni. Half of the Hurley twins in the form of Ben Hurley ’15 (the bearded one) also signed with the actives after becoming a free agent at the end of last year’s game. In addition to Irwin, the older Whelan, 2 Keefe kids, and half a Hurley twin, the actives rounded out their arsenal with: Kris Whelan ’20, Stuart Arthur ‘21, Andy Chafy ‘21, Alex Jenouri ’22, & Alex Ryan ’23 with now veteran goalie and grad student Casey Manifold ’20 in net.
New brother Alex Ryan, who never played hockey before, was a last minute add and was provided with equipment sourced from the alumni including skates, the all important jock strap with cup (a new one, of course - the alumni are classy), dressing instructions, and extra equipment only minutes before game time. He performed admirably and should be on any scout's radar.
The alumni sported an all-veteran team consisting of: Don Burgio ’89, Will Hallam ’91, Dave Tomkins ’92 (2 goals), Shawn “Spoon” Daly ’01, Dan Keefe ’01, Zach Hurley ’15 (1 goal), Andrew Groskopf ’16, and Tom Cronin ‘16 (1 goal) with future hall-of-fame net minder Greg Desmond ‘14 in the pipes.
Our ref was A-leaguer Jack Conlin from Sigma Alpha Epsilon whose services were secured by undergraduate alumni relations chair Tom Reber ’20. Conlin made the actives sit in the sin bin twice (Irwin & Arthur) where they felt the shame and sent Tomkins there once for the alumni on an obviously questionable tripping call. The ref almost made a bench minor "tipping" call when a gratuity was suggested for him but decided to pick up that proverbial flag. The alumni capitalized on one of the two power plays with a goal by Tomkins. Conlin also disallowed a goal by Burgio due to alleged goaltender interference. In an obvious make-up call, Conlin failed to call a penalty when alumnus Dan Keefe gave one of the younger Keefes, playing for the opposing active team, what could be described as an on-ice swirly. Or perhaps Conlin couldn’t find anything in the rule book against that.
The game was close until the alumni pulled their goalie with a few minutes left to go. At that point the score was 5-4 actives but the empty net proved to be the alumni downfall when the game ended 8-4 actives.
In a pre-game ceremony, the jersey of Alex Lin ’15 was retired. Lin announced his retirement before the start of the 2019 game. It was a touching ceremony and only fitting given the other jerseys hanging in the rafters of the field house such as those of Adam Oates and Joey Juneau. Unfortunately, Alex arrived after the ceremony and didn’t get to see it before his jersey was removed from the rafters for safekeeping.
Over 30 fans were in attendance largely supporting the actives. However, Superfan Steve Fallick ’68 once again led the raucous alumni cheering section with classic hockey chants including sieve, sieve, sieve. The game also featured three sets of brothers: Hurley, Keefe, and Whelan. For active goalie Manifold, it was his first win since 2017 when he manned the pipes for the alumni in a shut out of the active team that year. It was also his first win playing for the active team.
The NY Delta SigEp Sportswriter Association awarded the MVP of the game to Stuart Irwin ’21 with his 4 goals. The 3 stars of the game were:
3) Dave Tomkins ’92 with 2 goals for the alumni
2) Brothers Keefe and Brothers Whelan with a combined 4 goals for the actives
1) Stuart Irwin ’21 with the other 4 goals for the actives
In the post game news conference, alumni head coach Henry Winklestein responded to questions from the press:
On the game overall: “It was a tough loss. We spent a lot of time breaking down tape from past games to come up with our strategy which was to score more goals than the actives; but, we failed to execute and for that I blame the officiating, the ice conditions, the timekeeper, the scorekeeper, the actives, their fans, and the league.”
On Sniper Stu: “We failed to contain him early. Towards the end of the game, we had a lot of success with the neutral zone trap, poke checks, and double coverage but we missed the early opportunity there.”
On the Keefe kids: “They just get better every year. We're thankful there were only 2 of them on the ice versus the usual 3 this year. The hardest part with them is you coach your guys to play 60 minutes of heads-up hockey and sometimes the Keefe kids are below your line of vision and just sneak by.”
On goaltending, “Des stood on his head but our back checking wasn’t where it needed to be. Also, he cut his hair. Last year he had a proper hockey do. Hopefully, he didn’t anger the hockey gods with the new cut but you never know.”
On the older Whelan: “Our scouts just missed the guy until he was on the ice for the game. I knew something was up when I saw his stick tape. It reminded me a lot of Jamie Benn’s tape job.”
On his veteran line: “Yeah, we had 3 guys on the ice who were 50 and over but Gordie Howe played well past that. And, we save a lot of money on team meals with their AARP discounts.”
On only having 3 subs: "I’m just disappointed we seem to be missing a lot of players from the 80s, 90s, and 00s that could have really helped out. I mean we had no players from class years 2002 through 2013. How lame is that? Plus where were the rest of the guys from 2000 and 2001 and from the legendary Deniers and Inepts team dynasties of the late 80s? At least Christopher DiNicola ’16 had an excuse that he was traveling back from out-of-country and didn’t get into Troy until minutes after the game ended but even that seemed a bit suspect."
On the officiating: “Obviously the penalties called against the actives were on the mark. But the Tomkins tripping call was questionable. Also, the ref denied Donnie B a goal claiming their goalie was pushed into his own net by our other players. That was a real travesty of justice. Really, who can believe that. Everyone knows that once Manifold is cemented in his net, no one is moving him. The league really needs to bring in video review."
On the actives acquiring free agent Ben Hurley: “It was disappointing Ben didn’t re-sign with the alumni. We just couldn’t justify the salary cap hit for what his agent wanted and quite frankly we needed the money to help rebuild our team by bringing in even older players. Unfortunately, without Ben, we couldn’t run our patented wonder twins activate play with him and Zach which hurt us.”
On what he would have done differently: “When we pulled Des with a few minutes left, we were only down a goal. I knew we should have run the Flying V but instead we let them score a bunch of garbage and empty net goals.”
On the active fans: “You never want to play against a player the caliber of Irwin but come on, for the third year in a row, his purported fans failed to throw any hats on the ice to properly celebrate his hat trick."
On Alex Lin’s pre-game jersey retirement ceremony: “Lin deserved that with no qualifications whatsoever. No one else in the history of the game has had those sort of career stats."
On next year, Winklestein only had one comment: “Baruba!”
- Don Burgio '89, NY Delta Hockey Sportswriter