Men miss NCAAs for second straight year

Author: Peter Baumann

The Middlebury men's hockey team saw its season come to an end this weekend, as they beat Williams 4-1 on Friday, March 6 but fell to Amherst in the NESCAC championship game the following day by a score of 5-2. Amherst received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA championships, while Middlebury failed to receive an at-large bid for the second year in a row. The Panthers end their season with a record of 19-7-1.

Middlebury advanced to the title game for the 10th straight year by jumping out to an early lead on Friday, going up 1-0 after the first period. A lackluster second period, however, threatened to let the Ephs back into the game. While Williams only pushed across one goal in the frame, the Panthers were lucky not to find themselves down going into the third. For this they can thank goaltender Doug Raeder '09.

"[Williams] totally dominated us in the second period," said coach Bill Beaney, "and if it wasn't for Doug we would have been down by three or four goals."

Middlebury made the most of its second life, scoring three third period goals to create the final margin. Waiting for the Panthers in the title game on Saturday were the Amherst Lord Jeffs, 3-0 victors over the defending NESCAC champion Trinity in their semifinal. Right from the start the Lord Jeffs controlled the pace of play, grabbing an early lead they would never relinquish.

"The better team won," said Beaney. "They were much more solid across the board, they won all the little battles and, quite honestly, from player 1 to player 18 they are a better team than we are."

While the loss marked the second time in as many years the Panthers have failed to win the NESCAC and qualify for the NCAA tournament, Coach Beaney thinks that apart from Amherst, the quality of play in the conference has actually gone down over the last couple of years.

"I don't think there are as many top end players," he says, "and that can be attributed to a lot of things. The last few years there has been such a push for admission to NESCAC schools that the academic requirements have risen to the point where a lot of the NESCAC-caliber athletes haven't been able to get in."

According to Beaney, it is the ability to work within this framework that has allowed Amherst to cultivate success over the last couple of years.

"I give them credit," he said. "They have done a great job recruiting in western Canada, as well as developing the guys they have