A major problem for the Jeffs over the weekend was their tendency to play from behind. In each opening period, Amherst headed to the locker room trailing, forcing comeback efforts. Down a pair after the first period in Friday night’s game, Amherst failed to convert on two power-play opportunities within a five minute frame, before giving up a third tally at the 11:52 mark of the second session. Amherst Head Coach Jack Arena ’83 had seen enough and called a timeout to calm the players down.
Whatever he said had an immediate effect, as senior co-captain Kyle Schoppel buried his fifth goal of the season off a feed from Rylan Burns ’09 only 90 seconds after the timeout. “In the first game, we were clearly the better team and we outplayed them for almost the entire game, but they were just able to capitalize on three chances in the first period,” noted Schoppel. “But we showed great character to battle back. It was a disappointing result, but a huge step for our team to battle back from such a large deficit.”
Amherst finally capitalized with the man advantage, when Brendan Powers ’09 picked up his first tally of the 2007 campaign off assists from Jeff Landers ’09 and Joel Covelli ’09. The third period saw Amherst knot the score when Keith Nelson ’10 fired home his first goal of the year on the power-play.
Amherst fell behind again only four minutes later, but the Jeffs quickly evened the score when senior Gregg Adamo continued his masterful start with 5:49 remaining in regulation. Mike McIntosh ’08 fed Adamo’s fifth goal in as many games, earning his eighth assist of the year. Despite outshooting St. Michael’s 40-26, Amherst settled for the tie. Rookie netminder Justin Larose ’11 picked up 22 saves in the contest.
Saturday was a showdown between two of the top teams in the Northeast. The two sides split last year’s games, and Amherst’s last visit to Norwich proved to be a nightmare, as they fell 7-0. This wasn’t to be a repeat, as the Jeffs and Cadets played an exciting three periods of hockey that culminated in the final minute of play. Norwich took the early lead on the power-play, which served as the only goal for the next half-hour of play. Norwich connected on the power-play just 52 seconds into the third period, but Powers answered for Amherst with a power-play tally of his own. Jack Baer ’10 fired home his first goal of the year with 12 minutes to play in the game. But Norwich delivered the heartbreaker with 40 seconds remaining, leaving the Jeffs empty-handed. “We took it to them in the second and third, and fought back from being behind again, Schoppel said. “We just lost on an incredible goal in the last minute of play.”
Without a victory in the past three games, Amherst will have another shot to pick up a win on Friday night. Schoppel feels confident going forward, despite a tough weekend. “We still have a lot of things to work on as a team, but the character we showed this weekend was a huge step in the right direction. Everyone knows now that we can compete with any team in the country.”
The team will travel to Fitchburg State in a critical ECAC East match-up before the three-week holiday break and the Oswego State Tournament on Dec. 29 and 30, which will feature Curry College and third-ranked St. Norbert College. “We are looking at the game against Fitchburg as another chance for us to improve as a team. No matter what the outcome, if we improve in all aspects of the game, then we will be confident heading into the break.”