With a hostile Wesleyan crowd tossing objects on the ice and a late skirmish behind the net, there was certainly no love lost between the Cardinals and Jeffs. "The game was very intense," said captain Sean Ellis '07. "From the opening face off to the little scrum at the end of the game we battled hard. We finished all our checks and we imposed our game on them."
Four players earned game misconducts as time expired as a result of Wesleyan frustration. But can you blame Wesleyan? Amherst has owned the Cardinals, winning all three matchups this season including two at the "birdcage," as the Wesleyan players have deemed their rink.
The opening period was a back-and-forth battle with the league's top goaltender Mike Palladino stymieing Amherst's few shots on goal. However, Scola was more than up to the task in his first career playoff start, keeping the score level after one period. The Jeffs applied steady offensive pressure in the second stanza, out-shooting Wesleyan 17-9. Finally, the Jeffs' line of Jack Baer '10, Ted Vickers '10 and McIntosh made the difference 14 minutes into the second period. Baer and Vickers skated in two-on-one before Vickers launched a shot on Palladino, who made the initial save. But McIntosh crept up and poked home the loose puck, much to the chagrin of Palladino, who vehemently argued that he had covered the puck. However, there was no love in the birdcage for this angry Cardinal, and the Jeffs headed into the third period with a precarious one-goal lead.
Wesleyan dominated the third offensively, reeling off 14 shots to Amherst's measly five, but this night belonged to Scola and the Jeffs who would not allow the puck to cross the goal line.
"It was a great defensive effort led by A.J.'s play," said McIntosh. "We found a way to win."
Sophomore sensation forward Joel Covelli sealed Wesleyan's fate with 25 seconds to play when he slide home an empty netter to earn the Jeffs their biggest victory in quite some time.
"Considering this is our first win in the playoffs in my career it means a great deal to finally be able to advance to the semifinals," said defenseman Brandon Zangel '07.
The Jeffs savored the victory Saturday night, but a trip to meet top-seeded arch-nemesis Bowdoin College lurks next weekend. Bowdoin has ended Amherst's season the past two years and dominated the Jeffs 5-1 three weeks ago at Orr Rink.
"We are going to need to play a tenacious, physical and defensively sound game to beat Bowdoin on their home ice," said Zangel. "They have a talented team and play very well in their own building so we must play with the same enthusiasm we did against Wesleyan."
Bowdoin crushed Trinity College 7-3 over the weekend while Middlebury and Colby Colleges held seed to round out the semifinals.
"Going into this weekend against Bowdoin we will try not to change much," explained Ellis. "In the past we've been too focused on how they play and obviously we didn't play too well." McIntosh also added that Amherst will need to, "win physical battles in small rink and get the offense rolling."
How Amherst will get that offense rolling again will be a major concern this week. Once the toast of the league, Amherst has struggled to tickle the twine the past few weeks. "We have a lot of firepower up front so we will be fine as long as we get the puck to the net and look for some rebounds," Ellis said.
NESCAC Notes
Middlebury has won the NESCAC title in each of the the last four seasons and is currently riding a season-high, five-game unbeaten streak. Colby defeated Middlebury 4-3 in a game earlier this year.