Men's Hockey Squeaks by Williams in OT Thrillers

Men’s hockey captain Louis Belisle ’14 delivered a game-winner with forty seconds remaining in the overtime period against Williams on Saturday, Feb. 15 to win by a score of 2-1. Middlebury also played Williams to a 1-1 tie at the Ephs home rink on Friday, Feb. 14, with Liam Moorfield-Yee ’16 squeezing tight between the pipes with a .957 save percentage over the two-game series.

At Williams on Friday, George Ordway ’15 finally broke the ice about one minute into the third period, snatching up a giveaway in the Williams zone and spinning in a wraparound goal for his fourth of the season.

“When I think of players who do all the right things, but don’t always get the credit on the score sheet, Ordway definitely comes to mind,” said Assistant Coach Jamie McKenna.

Williams mustered a response two minutes later on a man-advantage. Moorfield-Yee slid across the crease neatly to save a one-time slap-shot, but the rebound spilled right to well-positioned Eph and the score was tied.

Mason Graddock ’09, an assistant coach with the Middlebury team, developed a reputation for defensive toughness as a player here and now trains the four-man units that kill off penalties. This means scouting the other team’s power-play beforehand and matching up against their strength. Despite surrendering the late power-play goal, he stood by the system which has held opponents to scoreless on eighty-eight percent of the two-minute opportunities.

“Friday’s goal was not a defensive breakdown. They got a good bounce and that will happen once in a while,” he said. “I am pleased with how we’ve been killing off penalties this year.”

At Middlebury on Saturday, Williams scored eight minutes into the first period, again on a power-play. The Ephs’ Paul Steinig collected a pass just below the right wing faceoff circle and slung one just inside the far post.

After the first goal, Middlebury took a death grip on puck possession and began barraging the Williams goaltender with shots from all directions. By the end of the game, the Panthers held a 44-23 shots advantage.

Derek Pimentel ’15 finally scored on a six-on-four advantage when Jake Charles ’16 surprised everyone but Pimentel with an extra pass across the goalmouth to complete a brilliant tic-tac-toe scoring strike.

Right when it looked like the game was headed for another tie, Belisle took a breakout pass from John Barr ’14 in the defensive zone and wove down the ice. Cutting laterally at the blue line, Belisle zipped a wrist-shot across his body and the puck found the top right corner.

“It felt so good to score that one,” Belisle said. “It was such an important game to win. The game was ours to take. I think the shot count really tells the story.”

With a strong turnout from the fans this weekend, the Panthers hope that they can continue this train of success.

“We have a new game plan where we play tougher in front of both nets and play harder to play against,” Belisle said. “As much as we know the challenge of some of our opponents, we know that our biggest opponent is ourselves.”

Graddock was pleased with the teams play, especially on Saturday night.

“You could attribute some of it to the bigger rink, but more so I think we were hungry to get a win,” he said. “We’ve had a number of games that did not go our way recently, so we didn’t want to let that happen again.”

Middlebury sits in a tightly packed NESCAC race with two games remaining. Two wins or two losses could land Middlebury anywhere between third and ninth place when the dust finally settles. That means there is still a chance to win home-ice advantage in the first round of the NESCAC playoffs, a favorable situation given the teams impressive 6-3-1 record at home, outscoring conference opponents 23-12 in those games.

“Our fans are loud,” Belisle said, “It feels really good to have that support and it makes a big difference. It would be really special to get a playoff game at home.”

The Panthers return to the ice this Saturday, Feb. 22, with a home matchup against second-place Amherst. Middlebury will then wrap up its regular season by hosting Hamilton on Sunday, Feb. 23.