Men's hockey splits games with Amherst and Hamilton Team concludes regular season, will host Hamilton in quarterfinal matchup s [

Author: Peter Baumann

The Middlebury men's hockey team split its last two regular season games this past weekend, dropping the Friday night game to Amherst 4-3 before bouncing back to defeat Hamilton 5-2 on Saturday. With the win, the Panthers locked up the second seed for the NESCAC tournament and will host Hamilton on Saturday, Feb. 28 in a first-round contest.

The Panthers were dealt a tough hand on Friday, as Head Coach Bill Beaney was forced to miss both games over the weekend due to illness.

In Beaney's absence, Assistant Coach John Dawson '05 prepared to take over behind the bench - something that the team learned of only on Friday morning.

Possibly in some way due to the change in leadership, the Panthers allowed the Lord Jeffs to jump out to an early lead and found themselves down 4-0 after the first period.

"They came out pretty sharp and capitalized on a couple of mistakes we made," said Dawson. "They are a good team and were able to pick up a couple of opportunistic goals early."

Despite the difference on the scoreboard, Middlebury actually out-shot Amherst in the first period by a margin of 20-11. While Dawson cautioned that this metric is not always an apt indicator of the better team, he did believe it shows that the first period - and the game in general - was much closer than the score would indicate.

"We try not to pay too much attention to the shots," he said, "but we came out pretty prepared and we did control some of the play."

Over the course of the next two periods the Panthers did everything within their control to get back into the game. Doug Raeder '09, who had replaced John Yanchek '12 in net halfway through the first period, was spectacular as the last line of defense. The Panther offense continued to pepper the Amherst goal, finishing the evening with 57 shots on net. Second period goals from Charles Nerbak '12 and Martin Drolet '12 and a third period tally from Mason Graddock '09 put the Panthers within striking distance, but the flurry of activity proved to be too little too late.

After starting slowly against Amherst, at least on the scoreboard, the Panthers were determined to not let the same thing undermine their effort against Hamilton.

"Coming back and getting a win on Saturday was important for our team to establish momentum going into the playoffs," said Bryan Curran '11, who scored two goals in the victory. "It was encouraging to see us take [a] strong team work ethic into Saturday's game and get a win against a physical Hamilton team."

Middlebury controlled the game from the outset, scoring four goals in the first period and one in the second to build a commanding 5-0 lead.

Perhaps most importantly, however, the Panthers continued to cut down on the number of odd-man rushes they gave up, something that has plagued the squad at times this year.

"The gap control by our backs was very good," said Dawson. "We were really pleased with that part of our game."

With the win, the Panthers locked up the second seed, forcing a rematch with the Continentals - this time on the Panthers' home ice. Kenyon Arena features an Olympic-sized ice sheet that should allow Middlebury to take advantage of their speed.

"Hamilton likes to play a pretty physical game," said Curran, "but we are confident that if we move our feet and stick to our game plan, we will have a lot of success."

Dawson agreed that speed through the netural zone will be important for the Panther attack.

"It is going to be a tough challenge for us," he said. "Playing a team twice in a row is always difficult. We need to keep our speed but also win the battles down low as well."