Now in its sixth season in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, Union reached the halfway point of its league campaign in a battle for the home ice advantage in the March playoffs.
The team's 5-6-2 ECAC record is its best effort ever at this point in the season, and the Skating Dutchmen have boasted the nation's No. I team defense since the start of the campaign.
The key is the goalie, Trevor Koenig. A 5'10, 170-pound native of Edmonton, Alberta, Koenig led the country with his 2.18 goals against average, and his save percentage of .927 was the best among netminders who have played more than 450 minutes.
Koenig has led the Skating Dutchmen through three of their six seasons in the ECAC, and each year he has improved. In his first two seasons, he allowed an average of 3.40 goals a game and compiled a record of 12-21-4. On Jan. 4, he led the Dutchmen to a 6-4 win over Princeton to become just the seventh Union goalie to achieve twenty career wins and the first to do so at the Division I level. His 4-2 victory the following Friday at Harvard-Union's first-ever win at the Bright Center-moved him into fifth place on the Dutchmen's
all-time win list.
Koenig is a competitor who enjoys challenges. He decided to come to Schenectady because Union, which does not offer athletic scholarships, did offer him the opportunity to bring respectability to a young hockey team while preparing him for life after his playing days are over.
A mathematics major, Koenig has developed a strong interest in English courses.
“Ever since I was young I
was good in math,” he says. “I'm taking a lot of English courses now, and I'm enjoying those more than my math classes. They allow me to
express myself a little more.”
Nicknamed “The Shark” by his teammates for the big-toothed smile he exhibits after making a save, Koenig has helped improve everyone's playing level. Senior defensemen Greg Buchanan and Bill Moody say that Koenig's fierce competitive attitude is as much a reason for the Dutchmen's success as his athletic talent.
“Trevor has to be one of the most competitive guys in terms of not liking people to beat him,” Buchanan says. “It doesn't matter if it's in a practice or in a game, Trevor does not tolerate losing.”
Moody adds, “He's what we call a `garner,' and it's a pleasure to play with a guy like that.”
Coach Stan Moore notes another attribute.
“Trevor likes to stand up a lot,” Moore says. “It's important to have someone who can make a first, but also a second and third save. Trevor is capable of that.”
Koenig's hockey roots
began in what he considers to be a routine fashion for any Canadian boy.
“Your dad takes you to a couple of professional games, he buys you a little wooden stick, you start playing in the kitchen, and it carries on over to the backyard to the homemade ice rink,” he says. “Just about every kid in Canada grows up playing hockey.”
Koenig played two years of Junior “A” hockey for the Fort Saskatchewan Traders. The best thing about juniors, according to Koenig, was learning to make the most out of his opportunities. “Learning that, I came to Union,” he says. “It was an opportunity I couldn't turn down.”