With the loss of goaltenders Dan Smith '08 and A.J. Scola '09, Amherst's roster took a serious hit in its depth. Luckily, David Litt '06 was willing to walk on and assist the team with its goaltending needs for the remainder of the season.
Amherst has tinkered back and forth with an extra defenseman or an extra forward over the past few games to no avail, and it's evident this team has not been the same since losing reliable goal scorer Steve Nelson '06 to injury. However, there is no doubt that when it comes to a rivalry game, the Jeffs will play Williams tough this weekend, and they already proved they can skate with the Panthers at the Middlebury Holiday Classic earlier in the season.
The Jeffs opened their home weekend against ninth-ranked New England College on Friday night in what proved to be the wildest game of the season. New England dominated the first period and took a two-goal advantage as Pilgrim Mike Mullen scored two of his three goals. The first was on a nice move around an Amherst defenseman followed by a hard wristshot that beat goaltender Josh Fillman '07 while the second was during the man advantage. Both Pilgrim goals were assisted by Jeremy Koning.
The second period was as bizarre a period as you will ever see in college hockey - it included 12 penalties, a disallowed goal, a controversial goal, a timeout, three power-play goals, a shorthanded goal and 28 shots. New England pushed its lead to three when Rashaun Ewing scored shorthanded, putting the Pilgrims in the driver's seat. Amherst finally lit the lamp on the powerplay after forward Sean Ellis '07 and defenseman Shane Lennox '09 exchanged a few passes. Lennox sent the puck towards the net where forward Greg Adamo '08 made a sweet deflection past the New England goalie for his seventh goal of the year. But Amherst gave the goal right back, surrendering another score three minutes later-again on the powerplay-when Tor Person poked home what appeared to be a covered puck by Fillman. The referees, who were far from in control, awarded New England the goal sparking a number of physical altercations behind the Amherst net, which resulted in the referees sending four players to the penalty box.
New England seemed to ice the game when RA Mobile connected on a one-timer from Brian Shea to give the Pilgrims a commanding 5-1 lead. The Jeffs appeared to bounce back when forward Andrew Schremp '08 knocked home his own rebound but the already unpopular striped shirts called the goal off saying that the net was dislodged by the goalie just before the puck crossed the line. Amherst eventually got a goal back when forward Kyle Schoppel '08 slid home a one-timer from defensemen Mike McIntosh '08 and Rylan Burns '09 on the powerplay, wrapping up the bizarre stanza.
Amherst came back on the ice for the third period, firing as Ellis scored on a sick one-timer off a pass from Adamo with defenseman Jeff Landers '09 also tacking on an assist. Mullen completed his hat trick with another assist from Koning in what turned out to be the game winner, but not before the Jeffs gave it all they had. Desperate for a goal they turned to gritty leader "Captain Jack" Greeley '06 who followed up a tremendous individual effort by forward Brendan Powers '09 to knock home a shorthanded goal. The momentum seemed to swing when Schoppel tallied his second of the evening with assists from Ellis and Adamo, but the rally was short-lived as New England's Brandon Fackey answered less than a minute later to seal the Pilgrim victory, 7-5. Despite allowing 12 combined goals, Fillman and his New England counterpart, Scott Gray, seconded 29 and 31 saves, respectively.
Senior day was designed to honor the accomplishments and contributions to the Amherst program made by Rob Balanda, A.J. Greco, Steve Nelson and Jack Greeley. The foursome has combined to produce 73 goals and 103 assists while appearing in 257 games during their tenure at Orr Rink. Unfortunately, visiting St. Anselm College played spoiler, up-ending the nostalgically minded Jeffs 5-2.
St. Anselm's opened the scoring during four-on-four hockey when Rob Curran stole the puck in the Amherst zone and buried a wrister. The Hawks doubled their lead when Derek Evjenth deflected home a shot from the point during the powerplay. Landers got Amherst on the board when he launched a bomb through a crowd of skaters that soared into the net with Burns and McIntosh notching helpers. But St. Anselm squashed the momentum just 17 seconds later when Andrew Gartman delivered the eventual game-winner. The Hawks piled on a pair of goals to put the Jeffs in their rear-view mirror, and a late goal by promising first-year forward Will Collins finished the scoring.
For the Jeffs, the hopes of hosting a conference playoff game have faded and a new goal is in the forefront of their mind: get back to playing Amherst hockey. The team needs to find its rhythm to ensure they pull off some upsets in the tournament, starting this weekend when the Jeffs face the top two teams in the conference.
NESCAC Notes
Middlebury's Michey Gilchrest is atop the conference in points with 28. Amherst's Sean Ellis is fourth in power play points with 10. Middlebury needs just one point to lock up home ice advantage throughout the NESCAC tournament.