The men’s hockey team might have played its best game heading into the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of good hockey still to come. With home ice assured, the Lord Jeffs traveled to play perennial powerhouse Middlebury College and Little Three rival Williams College over the weekend. The fourth-seeded Jeffs will be looking to earn Head Coach Jack Arena ’83 his 300th win in a postseason match-up against fifth-seed Connecticut College Saturday afternoon at Orr Rink.
The Jeffs started strong against the Panthers on Friday in front of 1,800 fans, when senior forward and co-captain Kyle Schoppel tallied his 13th goal of the season off of assists from fellow forwards Keith Nelson ’10 and Joel Covelli ’09. Heading into the second period with the lead should have settled the Jeffs down; instead, a slew of second-period penalties plagued the Amherst attack. Middlebury tallied a 5-on-3 goal at the 7:16 mark of the second period and then took the lead eight minutes later with another power-play goal.
The Jeffs’ undisciplined play prevented them from mustering many shots. Amherst was only able to throw nine shots towards the Middlebury net through the first two periods. Midway through the third period, Middlebury took a two-goal lead. Rather than giving up, though, the Jeffs took advantage of a two-man advantage of their own. Defenseman Jeff Landers ’09 brought Amherst within a goal of the Panthers with seven minutes to play, with Nelson and Covelli each collecting their second assists of the game.
Still, Amherst was unable to tie the game, and a late empty net goal gave Middlebury a 4-2 victory and left Amherst with nothing to play for in the standings heading into the final day of the regular season. Rookie goalie Cole Anderson made 26 stops in the losing effort. Landers expressed the team’s disappointment, saying, “Our team has been struggling to score goals and we just couldn’t seem to finish in the Middlebury game. We had a lot of chances but couldn’t find the back of the net.”
Looking to pick up some momentum and avenge five straight losses against the Ephs, Amherst came out flying on Saturday afternoon. The enthusiasm hurt them at first; just 44 seconds into the game, the Jeffs picked up another undisciplined penalty, this time for too many players on the ice.
But Amherst bounced back. Sophomore defenseman Andrew Stevenson banged home his first goal of the season 3:57 into the game, with Schoppel and Covelli collecting assists on the tally. Covelli gave Amherst a two-goal lead seven minutes later with Stevenson and Griffin Biedron ’08 grabbing the assists. Williams cut the lead in half early in the second period, but rookie forward Matt Rhone finished feeds from Jack Baer ’10 and Brendan Powers ’09 just 14 seconds later to give the Jeffs back their two-goal lead.
Williams never challenged Amherst again, as the third period was all Jeffs. Rylan Burns ’09 joined Stevenson by tallying his first goal of the year, and Schoppel later ripped home his 50th career goal to put Amherst in front, 5-1. “Beating Williams was great,” noted Schoppel. “Winning the Little Three Championship is something we haven’t been able to do in the last four years. For us seniors it was a great way to finish our regular season careers at Amherst.”
Rhone later buried his second goal of the night, with Powers collecting his third assist of the game. A meaningless late goal by the helpless Ephs did little to help their senior-day embarrassment. Rookie netminder Jonathan LaRose made 24 stops for his eighth victory on the season, propelling the Jeffs into the postseason on the right note.
Amherst can now turn its attention to the Camels. The Jeffs are confident and they have every right to be. As Landers put it, “We’re definitely a contender this year, so we are looking forward to the postseason.”