Panthers suffer overtime defeat

Author: Peter Baumann

With a crucial NESCAC weekend looming on the schedule, the talented Middlebury men's hockey team received a proverbial wake-up call this weekend, squeaking by Babson 3-2 on Friday, Feb. 13 before falling to UMass-Boston by the same score on Saturday, Feb. 14. The games resulted in a virtual heat atop the NESCAC standings with the Panthers trailing the Amherst Lord Jeffs by two points. The winner of their tilt on Friday, Feb. 19 will most likely earn home-ice advantage for the entirety of the NESCAC playoffs.

During both of this past weekend's contests, the Panthers were at times muscled around by their more physical opponents. Against Babson Middlebury was consistently slow to chase pucks in the corners, seemingly scared off by the physical play of the Beavers.

On Saturday, while the Panthers did a better job of moving their feet down low, they fell victim to several open-ice checks in transition. This limited the effect of the normally potent Panther transition game as Middlebury seemed loath to attack the neutral zone with their normal speed.

"If you're not willing to battle for pucks down low, you're not going to score goals," said coach Bill Beaney when asked about the effect of his opponents' physical play. "But if you keep moving your feet, it is not going to have an effect."

Despite the physicality, the UMass game in particular allowed spectators a glimpse of the talent on the Middlebury roster. UMass did a good job of forcing the Panther forwards to the outside, but the hosts still managed several good scoring chances, as they out-shot the Beacons 39-18 on the night.

"To tell you the truth, I was more frustrated with the way we played on Friday [rather than Saturday]," said Beaney. "It is the nature of the game that sometimes the team that gets the most chances doesn't always win."

The most impressive element of Middlebury's performance on Saturday was the power-play. The Panthers did a great job of moving the puck quickly in order to create confusion and mismatches.

With the score tied at one midway through the first period, the Panther power-play used some nice passing from Chazz Svoboda '11 and Michael Kretschmer '11 to create some room for Mason Graddock '09 down low. The senior scored his second goal of the day, senior day, by stepping around a UMass defenseman and lifting the puck into the top of the net from just inside the right face-off dot.

Unfortunately the Panthers were unable to protect the lead, as they continued to give up odd-man rushes. Doug Raeder '09 made several point-blank saves during the game, the most impressive of which was a sliding save on a Beacon two-on-one in the first period. His stellar play was not enough to win, but the effort does provide the Panthers with some comfort knowing they enter the most important weekend of their regular season with two of the top goaltenders in the league in Raeder and John Yanchek '12.

In order to beat a team like Amherst, the Panthers know they need to cut down on the odd-man rushes.

"We gave [some odd-man rushes] up because of breakdowns in our defensive shape," said Graddock, "they took advantage of it."

"It concerns me that we're not making the right decisions," added Beaney, who was also concerned that his three defensemen were getting too flat in the offensive zone - something he promised the Panthers were going to work on in practice this week.

Despite the losses, the Panthers realize that they have the talent level to realize their lofty expectations.

"We can play with any team in the country," said Beaney. "What is important for us is to come together with an understanding of what it is going to take moving forward."