Amherst continued its stellar play in the game against the Colby White Mules on Friday, skating to a 3-1 lead early in the game on goals by juniors Roy Mabrey, Jon Hill and co-captain Beau Kretzman. Kretzman's goal tied sophomore A.J. Greco's team-leading 13 goals.
Colby responded forcefully after Kretzman's goal, as Ross MacMillan scored his 11th goal of the season. The Mules added one more goal on the power play and took a 4-3 lead early in third period as Nick Bayley fed Patrick Walsh for the goal.
Amherst bounced back as sophomore forward Steve Nelson scored 5:37 into the third period. Amherst and Colby battled through the rest of the period and into overtime, but no goals were scored and the Jeffs tied the Mules. Goalie Dan Smith '07 played particularly well, saving 38 of 42 shots on goal.
"We worked hard together. We played well as a team," said Brad Craigen '05. "We really started to gel."
Unfortunately, Amherst could not maintain momentum from the tie, and the Jeffs fell flat during Saturday's game. Despite a goal by senior forward Mike Kreger a mere 14 seconds into the contest, the Bowdoin Polar Bears triumphed. The Polar Bears tied the score 15 minutes into the first period. Jon Landry scored the go-ahead goal early in the second period and Shannon McNevan put the game away with a pair of goals early in the third period. First-year goalie Josh Fillman was stellar in net in the loss, saving 42 of 46 shots. Amherst was stifled offensively the entire game, only putting 15 shots on goal. The game proved to be a letdown for the Jeffs after such a competitive game against Colby.
Despite the loss, Amherst secured the seventh playoff spot in the NESCAC tournament. Wesleyan University finished three points ahead of Amherst but is not competing in the tournament after withdrawing due to what Wesleyan Sports Information Director Brian Katten called "internal university disciplinary action." If Wesleyan had played, Amherst would have faced the third-ranked team in the nation, Middlebury College.
Instead, Amherst will play at Trinity College in the first round. Trinity is the second seed in the NESCAC playoffs and the defending NESCAC Champion. Trinity is led by Joseph Ori and Stephen LaBrie, who have tallied 29 and 25 points, respectively. Trinity's goaltending has been excellent as goalie Douglas Kiselius has posted a .912 save percentage on the season.
Amherst won both of its games against Trinity this year, with both wins coming early in the season when Amherst was nationally ranked. Since their last meeting, Amherst has gone 4-9-1, while Trinity has gone 9-3-1, and, more impressively, Trinity has been undefeated (9-0-1) in NESCAC play. This Trinity team should prove harder to beat than the team Amherst faced earlier in the season.
"We're not going to change our game plan much," said Craigen about Amherst's first-round matchup. "We need to do what we've been doing-go out there and play hard, but we're certainly not going to take them lightly."
Amherst will travel to Trinity on Saturday with hopes of making it to the second round of the NESCAC playoffs. With gritty play and solid defense, there is no reason the Jeffs should falter this weekend.