It took a bit of magic from the defending champion Middlebury College Panthers to knock out the Amherst men’s hockey team last Saturday afternoon at Colby College, but knock them out they did. Jamey McKenna Gilchrest buried a wrist shot after a clever pass by Justin Gaines to give the Panthers the game-winning goal with only 3:06 remaining on the clock. The goal ended the Jeffs’ hopes of advancing to the finals to compete for what would have been the school’s first-ever NESCAC crown.
The news wasn’t all bleak for the Jeffs this past week. The NESCAC recognized a league-high four Jeffs as members of their first and second teams. Former rookie of the year and senior co-captain Kyle Schoppel led the way with his first career first-team nod, while juniors Joel Covelli and Jeff Landers were honored with second-team selections. Rookie netminder Jonathan LaRose joined Covelli and Landers on the second team.
Following a monster upset by Trinity College over host Colby in the weekend’s first semifinal, the Jeffs were looking to find an upset of their own over second-seeded Middlebury. The first period was all Panthers, as Middlebury fired 14 shots at LaRose and broke the scoreless tie midway through the opening frame.
The goal seemed to wake up the Jeffs, who picked up their play during the final minutes of the opening period. The Covelli-Schoppel-Nelson line was especially effective, seeing a number of good scoring chances.
Trailing at the start of the second period, Amherst skated strongly and generated a lot of offense, drawing four Middlebury penalties. A controversial play six minutes into the period saw the Jeffs apparently knot the score before it was ruled that the whistle blew prior to the puck crossing the goal line. Instead of the goal, Amherst earned a 5-on-3 power-play.
The Jeffs didn’t take advantage of it, though, and would have given up a shorthanded tally, had LaRose not denied the breakaway chance. Schoppel and Covelli each missed one-on-one chances of their own, and the Jeffs couldn’t muster the tying tally during a solid second session of hockey.
Down a goal in the third, Amherst continued to apply pressure on the Panthers while LaRose kept Middlebury at bay with a couple of dazzling stops. Schoppel, however, made sure Amherst wasn’t finished, scoring his 99th career point and 15th goal of the season nine minutes into the third period. Nelson found Schoppel behind the net and Schoppel skated to the front of the net before stuffing home a wrap-around goal.
Jack Baer ’10 didn’t seemed surprised that Schoppel would be the one to score late. “Kyle Schoppel [has been] our go-to guy when we needed a goal,” the forward said. “He is a great leader and his never-quit style of play was an inspiration to all the guys on the team.”
The two teams battled back and forth before the Panthers found a little magic late, ending the Amherst title hopes. The end of the season also meant the end of the careers for the five senior players: Schoppel, Rob Stevenson, Gregg Adamo, Mike McIntosh and Griffin Biedron. Baer complimented the successful group. “Each guy has been a great example to our team,” he said. “Not only on the ice, but off the ice as well.”
“I think we will be very good next year,” the sophomore forward continued. “We lose a great group of guys and players in our seniors, but I think we have a very strong core group coming back next year.”
Baer continued to look to the future by complimenting the now-established winning mentality. “The team this year has established precedence of winning and of having a winning mentality,” he added. “I expect our team to pick up where we left off this year and continue to push the bar higher and higher for this program.”