After finishing 10-15 last year, Amherst doubled its previous win total en route to a 20-7-3 record. The season was marked by one first after another. The Jeffs toppled NESCAC rivals Williams, Bowdoin and Middlebury Colleges and claimed the NESCAC title. Their first postseason win turned into four as they went on to beat Rochester Institute of Technology in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. With numerous individual awards and exciting memories of the breakout season in tow, Amherst headed to the Frozen Four.
The Jeffs were in elite company. In the first game, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point faced off against Middlebury, while Amherst's semifinal opponent was undefeated and top-seeded SUNY-Plattsburgh. The Pointers, Panthers and Cardinals were not strangers to the Frozen Four, as each team reached the final bracket last year. One year ago, UW-SP finished third, winning the consolation game, and Middlebury beat Plattsburgh in the championship final. Middlebury's 2005-06 NCAA title was the team's third in three years.
After the defending national champions dismantled UW-SP, the Jeffs and Cardinals met for the second time this season. On Dec. 8, Amherst lost to Plattsburgh 5-1, which dropped the Jeffs to 3-4. Since then, however, Amherst had lost just once, putting together unbeaten streaks of 11 and nine games. A completely different Amherst team took the ice.
"We really did think of ourselves as a new team," said junior forward Elizabeth Ditmore. "There was a definite point in the season when we started taking ourselves a little more seriously and started believing that we could be a competitive team. We knew that we had had our typical losses against the usual, top-ranked teams, except that we'd continued in the season to beat them, so it wasn't out of the question that we could beat Plattsburgh too."
Given the NCAA Tournament history of the other teams in the Frozen Four, Amherst was definitely the most inexperienced squad, but the Jeffs drew from the lessons they learned in this postseason. "At that point in the season, we were used to being the underdogs," said tri-captain forward Kirsten Forsberg. "It was our third time in a row walking into another team's rink, where not many people expected us to win. We knew that Plattsburgh was going to be a tough team to beat, but we had nothing to lose. We had competed with the best teams in the country before and were successful; we truly believed that we could beat them."
The game featured the top two goaltenders on the East Coast as Plattsburgh's senior goalie Bree Doyle was named to the All-America East First Team and Amherst's Krystyn Elek '10 earned All-America East Second Team honors. Though Plattsburgh got the first goal less than three minutes into the game, Amherst proved to be a worthy opponent. The goalies kept the puck out the the net for the rest of the first period. The second period began like the first, but this time Ditmore got the early score for Amherst on a miscue by the veteran Doyle. "I shot at the goalie and she fumbled it," explained Ditmore. "Their defense panicked, tried to pull it away from the goal and in the process pushed it in themselves."
But Amherst's second period luck ran out there. At 8:33, Plattsburgh's Amber Ellis charged toward the goal with Amherst defenseman Alyssa Chwick '10 defending. The players crashed into the net, knocking it of its moorings, and Ellis was injured in the play. While Ellis was being helped off the ice, Chwick was slapped with a five-minute major penalty for checking.
The Jeffs's penalty kill unit denied Plattsburgh for more than three minutes, well over the span of a typical penalty. However, the Cardinals were eventually able to score. Since it was a major penalty, the Jeffs were down a player for the entire five minutes, even though Plattsburgh had already cashed in. Almost a minute and a half after the first power play goal, one of the leading scorers in the nation and First Team All-American, Danielle Blanchard, gave Plattsburgh a two-goal lead.
"I think we were all pretty upset after the five minute penalty, because it allowed them two goals which had a huge impact on the game," said tri-captain forward Alena Harrison. "However, even after that, no one stopped believing that we could still win the game. Everyone came out for the third period with a positive attitude which I think is a characteristic that has allowed us to be so successful this season."
The third period also began with an early goal. This time Amherst's leading scorer, forward Tarasai Karega '09 brought the score to 3-2. The Jeffs battled for the rest of the period, and forced two hooking penalties against the Cardinals, while staying out of trouble themselves. The final penalty came with 42 seconds left as Blanchard spent the duration of the game watching from the penalty box. Though Amherst constantly pressured Plattsburgh, the Cardinal defense held on, spoiling Amherst's bid for a spot in the NCAA Championship game.
Even though they lost, the Jeffs had a lot to be proud of in their national semifinal game. Aside from the two goals in the final two minutes of the extended penalty, Amherst outscored the top-ranked team in the country. Even the Plattsburgh squad was impressed, as Cardinal Head Coach Kevin Houle said, "I feel like we were lucky to pull this game out," and Blanchard admitted, "I think we underestimated Amherst a little."
Nevertheless, Amherst had to settle for the consolation game the next day while Plattsburgh completed its unbeaten season by defeating Middlebury in the final, halting the Panthers' National Championship streak.
"The consolation game was really anticlimactic," said junior forward Meg Quinn. "It was hard to be excited about, but we really just wanted to go out there one more time as a team and play together."
"We were all disappointed with the day before," added Ditmore, "so I think we all let loose and just had fun."
Senior goalie Lindsay Grabowski made her final start in the consolation game, a salute to the members of the Class of 2007 that led Amherst to its best season in program history. The Jeffs were down two goals before Quinn put Amherst on the board just over five minutes into the second period. UW-SP scored again, but then Karega took over. The sophomore scored her 19th and 20th goals of the season to tie the game 3-3. With three goals and an assist in the Final Four, Karega was named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team. In overtime, the Jeffs went on the power play, but UW-SP was able to score a short-handed goal. Amherst finished its season fourth in the country.
"There was definitely less pressure [in the consolation game], and it was nice to be able to put on the jersey one last time," said Harrison.
The seniors-forward Meg Dickoff, Forsberg, Graboswki, Harrison, tri-captain defenseman Tes Siarnacki and defenseman Rachel Simon-have amassed a career record of 51-46-8, with 20 of those wins coming just this year.
"This season has been a huge turning point for our program," said Dickoff. "I can't wait to see what the team does next year."
"This season has been a huge turning point for our program," said Dickoff. "I can't wait to see what the team does next year."