Pearl of Wisdom #23

"He's an excellent defensive player, but he also adds a lot to our offense. He made the big play last night and had another great game today. He not only scored those goals, but he also broke the puck out well and did the things we expect from him on the ice."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Steve Kendall's game story in the November 5, 2006 edition of the Sunday Telegram, talking about senior defenseman Jon Landry's outstanding play (including a hat trick) as Holy Cross completed the weekend sweep of Canisius with a 6-3 victory at the Hart.


Does Steve Kendall know we're "24" fans? He led his story by comparing Landry to Jack Bauer. We know you were throwing us a bone, Steve. You've seen THIS, right?

Pearl of Wisdom #22

"You have to be able to kill penalties consistently to have success. It's not a glamorous job - getting hit in the gut with a 90 mile-an-hour slapshot isn't fun - but it's incredibly important."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Steve Kendall's game story in last Saturday's Telegram & Gazette, discussing his team's three big penalty kills in the third period of the 5-4 HC win over Canisius at the Hart Center.

Pearl of Wisdom #21

"We couldn't get the puck up the ice, be it five-on-five or five-on-four. We just kept fumbling the puck. I don't know, a bad night I guess. We worked really hard to establish the puck on a power play - and once we get set up, we're moving pretty good - we're going to start moving it over and the puck's flipping over the guy's stick or he's fumbling the pass. Different things were occurring out there. With the quality of defensemen we have, that can't happen in a game like this and expect to win."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's game story in Saturday's T&G, after Holy Cross lost a very winnable game to Yale, 2-1.

Coach Pearl didn't hold back in discussing his team's mistakes. In talking about going one-for-ten on the power play, Pearl said, "we were acting like the thing was a hand grenade instead of a puck."

I have to say, I'm not used to reading quotes like these. Stay candid, Coach, but hopefully the team will get its consistency so you don't have to describe your team's play this way!

Pearl of Wisdom #20

"(After the loss to Mercyhurst Saturday) we talked about simplifying our game and not making the types of mistakes we were making. We just want to make simple plays and do the things you do when you have a third-period lead, like getting the puck deep and making plays."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Steve Kendall's game story in the Wednesday, October 25 edition of the Telegram & Gazette, after Holy Cross held on in the third period to defeat Merrimack, 2-1, in a big early-season non-conference victory. A great outing for goalie Ian Dams!

Pearl of Wisdom #19

"It was an unbelievable accomplishment, but the best thing we can do is cut off last year and move on. Last year is last year. This year is this year."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's season preview in Friday's Telegram & Gazette, discussing the hockey team's incredible and dramatic 27-10-2 season last year.

Unfortunately, the Crusaders twice blew three-goal leads last night at Niagara, losing 5-4 in the 2006-07 season opener. With the loss of experienced seniors Tony Quesada and Ben Conway, goaltending figured to be a critical factor this year. But a quick glance at the box score makes it seem we can't pin this loss on young goaltender Ian Dams. There will be some bumps this year, for sure, but with Coach Pearl at the helm, leading Bubba Sixsmith (below) and a steady crop of talented players, it should be an entertaining season.

Pearl of Wisdom #18

"Good players have puck luck."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Rich Garven's game story in today's Telegram & Gazette, referring to Tyler McGregor and the winning goal in overtime, as Holy Cross defeated Minnesota 4-3 in the first round of the NCAA Hockey Tournament.

By the way, kudos to the T&G for sending Garven to North Dakota for coverage of the tournament. I would've been surprised if the newspaper hadn't sent a reporter, but nevertheless, it's been fun reading the daily features and notes columns the past several days.

Pearl of Wisdom #17

"I think the thing I like the most is the relationship with the kids, that and the challenge of getting good players. I like working here - and I know this may sound corny - because I went here and I really believe in Holy Cross as a school. The Jesuits do a great job and I like the whole spiritual aspect of the place. I just think this is the right spot for someone to go to college. That makes it easy to be here. I like the work environment. There are a lot of good coaches and people to learn from here. I like being a college hockey coach, but no, I did not envision this at all. It's been really neat."

-Coach Paul Pearl, in another quote from Jen Toland's feature story in Wednesday's Telegram & Gazette. And it may be the quote of the year.

I think we've said it before, but we're lucky to have Coach Pearl leading the team here at Holy Cross. He understands the limitations and the advantages that Holy Cross may offer a recruit. There's a special story at Holy Cross, and Pearl gets it. We sincerely hope that Coach enjoys it here enough to stay on for many years to come!

Pearl of Wisdom #16

"We're not North Dakota and we're not Minnesota, but we want our guys to act like it is and to buy into the program, and I know they do. There's no evading the academic rigors here, but the second thing in their lives is hockey and training for hockey. They've bought into our picture of 'We want Holy Cross hockey to be this,' and they know it's not going to happen just by saying it. It's going to happen with hard work and they've done all the work."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's excellent feature story on the coach, which ran in the Telegram & Gazette of this Wednesday, March 22.

Pearl of Wisdom #15

"We're very excited to play Minnesota. They obviously have a great program and it will be a great challenge for our program to go match up against theirs. They're really fast and they have excellent special teams. It will be a formidable opponent. We're going to have to play really good defense against them and be opportunistic on our chances that we get. We'll go in there and play them hard and see that we can do."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's "selection show" story in Monday's Telegram & Gazette.

Play hard they did. We fell behind on our "Pearls of Wisdom" after Holy Cross clinched the number one seed for the AHA tournament, so in recognition of the team's unbelievable victory last night, we're trying to catch up on a couple of Coach Pearl's comments from the past week.

Pearl of Wisdom #14

"At the beginning of the year we set some goals, and we can check three off now. Now we need to start working toward goal four, which is to win the playoffs. It won't be easy - there are no easy games in this conference."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Steve Kendall's game story in today's Sunday Telegram, after Pierre Napert-Frenette scored the winning goal with a minute left in Saturday night's 3-2 win over Bentley, clinching first-place in Atlantic Hockey. The #1 seed Crusaders kick off their playoffs with a home game against AIC on Saturday at 7pm. Go Cross!

Pearl of Wisdom #13

"You don't go through a long season like this without a few ups-and-downs. This was a tough loss, no question, but we have shown the ability to bounce back from tough games like this very well."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Steve Kendall's game report in Saturday's Telegram & Gazette, after his team's excruciating 4-3 loss to Sacred Heart, as the Crusaders lost with less than 4 seconds left in overtime after rallying back from a 3-0 first period deficit.

After HC's eight-game winning streak was snapped by Canisius two weeks ago, I had an inkling that our guys might've peaked too early. But they bounced back with a win and tie against Mercyhurst, and things were looking good. This weekend's sweep by Sacred Heart was surprising, and has resulted in a logjam at the top of the AHA standings, with HC and SH tied for first, with the 'hurst a point back. A critical weekend awaits!

Pearl of Wisdom #12

"Hopefully, lesson learned tonight. We bury it and now have our season in front of us. The three goals were just inexcusable. We don't clear the puck while a man was down on the first, two guys collide on a line change on the second goal and on the third we try to be cute instead of getting the puck into their zone."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Rich Garven's game story in the February 12 Sunday Telegram, after a disappointing 3-1 loss to Canisius by his hockey team. The Crusaders were 0-4 on the power play, and the loss broke an eight-game winning streak.

Pearl of Wisdom #11

"I think we've got enough older guys that they know how it works. There isn't an easy point to be had in this league."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Rich Garven's game story in the Telegram & Gazette of Saturday, February 11, after his team's 8th straight victory, a 5-2 win over Canisius at the Hart Center.

Garven writes that the club is "confident," but Coach Pearl thinks the team has the leadership to avoid becoming cocky. A commenter to a previous "Pearl of Wisdom" seems to agree. I agree, too.

Pearl of Wisdom #10

"If we start enjoying what we've done now, we won't enjoy the rest of the season. We've put ourselves in great position, but we can't kick back now. We have to take advantage of what we've done."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's "Colleges" column in Wednesday's Telegram & Gazette. Toland also reported that the lineup change that triggered the team's recent hot streak was suggested by assistant coach Kyle Wallack.

As Toland writes, the team has been very consistent this season:

HC’s penalty-kill percentage (90.6, second in the country) and power-play conversion percentage (21.8, fourth) are also good, and consistency has probably been the biggest key to the Crusaders’ success. They have not lost back-to-back games this year.

Pearl of Wisdom #9

"We've been playing solid hockey, and I think this weekend what we did better than last weekend is to play better team defense. We're doing a good job of keeping teams wide and clearing the rebounds. Obviously, Tony is doing a really good job on that first shot."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Rich Garven's story in the February 5 edition of the Sunday Telegram, on his red-hot team's 4-1 victory over Bentley at the Hart Center on Saturday.

The win completed a weekend sweep for the Crusaders. The men's hockey team has surged to first place, and holds a record of 19-6-1, and 15-4-1 in league play. They've won seven games in a row, and nine out of ten. Do you think Coach Pearl's comment about "playing solid hockey" is a bit of an understatement?

Pearl of Wisdom #8

"They're physical, and we're probably smaller and quicker, and I'm happy with how gritty we played. You have to be ready to play all challenges. You can't always play your game. It's nice to play someone else's game and still be able to win."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's game story in Saturday's Telegram & Gazette, after his team's 2-1 win at Bentley. The win moved the Holy Cross men's hockey team into sole possession of first place in Atlantic Hockey. The win was the seventh in a row for senior goalie Tony Quesada.

Pearl of Wisdom #7

"We were getting a little stale five-on-five, and it reinvigorated our power play, too. These guys have been playing together for two years, so we tried a different grouping, just shifting people around. It's worked. It's worked really well."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's game story in the Telegram & Gazette of Saturday, February 4, discussing his lineup change of five games ago. Pearl moved talented sophomore Dale Reinhardt to the second line, joining Tyler McGregor and Blair Bartlett. Pierre Napert-Frenette was swapped to the first line, joining Bubba Sixsmith and Sean Nappo. So far, Coach Pearl is looking like a genious with that change!

Pearl of Wisdom #6

"That was one of the best periods we've played all season. Two mistakes (two goals allowed). I told them to just keep working hard and continue to do what we do."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from the January 29 edition of the Sunday Telegram, describing the first period of Holy Cross' 5-2 victory over AIC at the Hart Center on Saturday.

The men's hockey team now holds a record of 17-6-1, and 13-4-1 in the AHA. Linemates Blair Bartlett, Tyler McGregor and Dale Reinhardt are playing very well. Keep it up, guys, and Go Cross!

Pearl of Wisdom #5

"No question - that was a turning point for us. Then he comes back a couple minutes later and scores, which was only fitting."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Telegram & Gazette of Friday, Jan. 20, discussing the outstanding play of senior forward Blair Bartlett in Thursday's 5-2 victory over the UConn Huskies at the Hart Center.

According to Bill Ballou's game story, the Crusaders held a 3-0 lead late in the second period when the Huskies gained a two-man advantage:

Bartlett controlled the puck along the right boards and took off in the direction of the UConn net. Normally, the plan on a two-man disadvantage is just to clear the puck and get ready for the next assault, but Bartlett kept going, checked only by a tired Connecticut defender. He finally got off a couple of shots on Huskies’ goalie Brad Smith, who stopped them both, but was able to draw a charging penalty in the process.

That took the life out of the Connecticut power play and less than two minutes later, Bartlett made it 4-0 with a goal from a bad angle on the right side.

Good hustle, Blair. And congrats to Coach Pearl on his 167th career win at Holy Cross, tying current women's coach Peter Van Buskirk for first on the school's all-time men's hockey win list.

Like Crossports poster "Ignatius Loyola," I also heard the HC score announced on WEEI's "Sports Flash" updates last night. I'll admit, I haven't listened much to Boston's top-rated sports radio station recently, as my iPod has greatly altered my radio listening habits. But I used to listen almost every night (yeah, I put up with Ted Sarandis), and I never heard a Holy Cross hockey score reported. So what if it was the only Division One hockey game played last night in the nation. WEEI didn't have to report the score. They did, though, and that has to be considered progress.

Pearl of Wisdom #4

"I thought Ben played a terrific game. He and Tony have been going Friday and Saturday night for a while, so it's good to see Ben step up when we need him to play more. They're a good team; Sacred Heart's as good as anyone we've played this year."

-Coach Paul Pearl, quoted in the Jan. 8 Sunday Telegram, after his team's 3-2 win over the SH Pioneers at the Hart Center Saturday evening.

That was Pearl's only quote in the game story. Tony Quesada was scratched with an illness, but is expected back for the next game (Army, on Friday).

I met senior goalie Ben Conway over a year ago, and had a chance to hang out with him for a while. I was very impressed with him. He was personable, thoughtful, goal-oriented (no pun intended - obviously!), and overall, the kind of student-athlete of whom we can be proud. He has a direction in his life and a good head on his shoulders. I've rooted for him ever since I met him, and I'm happy to see him having a great senior season.