“I think everyone looked at our games this weekend as playoff games [because] they really carried that much meaning for us as a team,” said Mike Baran ’12. The extra effort paid off, as the Jeffs defeated St. Anselm 4-3 on Friday and New England College 5-2 on Saturday.
On Friday, Amherst traveled to New Hampshire to face off against St. Anselm. There, the Jeffs got off to a quick start, jumping on the Hawks right off the opening faceoff. After winning the draw forward, Amherst’s offense surged past the opposing team’s defense, and Matt Rhone ’11 netted the first goal an amazing 10 seconds into the game.
According to senior captain Jeff Landers, “early in the season we had times in the game where we seemed to let up a bit and lose momentum. We’ve been trying to focus on giving a solid effort for the full 60 minutes. Scoring early seems to give us confidence to settle down and play our game and not play to the level of our opponent.”
It was clear that the Jeffs have taken this goal seriously. On just the next shift, the team again jumped on St. Anselm, scoring its second goal 37 seconds later. The goal was the eighth of the year for Brendan Powers ’09 assisted by Joel Covelli ’09. The Hawks would score two goals later in the first period, but the Jeffs remained in the lead after Baran netted the team’s third goal off assists from Eddie Effinger ’12 and Rhone.
In the second period, the Jeffs pulled ahead by two when sophomore Luke Arnold scored his fourth of the season shorthanded off a pass from Landers. The Jeffs almost let the Hawks back in the game when their opponent netted a power play goal with just under a minute to play. But the team stayed strong and played tough defense for the remaining few seconds to hold off St. Anselm’s surge. Goalie Jonathan La Rose ’11 made 25 saves in the 4-3 victory.
On Saturday, the Jeffs traveled to New England College. There, the team got off to another great start when Baran scored his sixth goal of the season only two minutes into the game off assists from Keith Nelson ’10 and Ted Vickers ’09. Vickers got his own goal late in the period with assists from Mark Colp ’12 and Landers. The Jeffs’ third goal was scored by Baran (his second of the game and his third of the weekend) while the fourth goal went to Rhone. Finally, sophomore Trip Wray recorded his first goal of the season to make the final score of the game 5-2.
Landers attributed the team’s success this weekend and in this part of the season to the combined contribution of all members of the team. “Our goalies and defense have played great all year but our forwards have really stepped up recently. When they establish a forecheck early in a game, we are tough to beat. It’s been a total team effort. If we can focus on playing our game and not play to the level of our opponent, we should be able to have a lot of success moving forward,” the captain said.
Next weekend, the Jeffs hope to keep their streak alive when they take on perennial hockey powerhouse Middlebury College, ranked fifth in the nation, and NESCAC rival Williams College. According to Powers, “the upcoming games with Middlebury and Williams will be huge. They are both right behind us in the standings, and this weekend will ultimately determine who gets to host the NESCAC tournament in a couple weeks.” But the senior believes that if the team keeps playing the way it has lately, the Jeffs’ chances are good. “We know we’ll have a great shot this weekend.”