January 9, 2012

We played in the Cod Fish Bowl over the weekend at UMass Boston. This is actually the longest continuous tournament in New England so it carries a rich tradition. This is the first time we have played in it and I hope not the last. Much depends on the NESCAC scheduling in the years ahead.

We teed of Friday at 1:00 against a very good Johnson and Wales team, 7-3 coming into the fray - we dominated the first period, 21-6 in shots but came out of it with only a PP goal at 3:44 Garrett Sider from Power and Carson - in addition J and W took nine penalties - in the second play evened out but we took a 2-0 lead midway through the period on another PP Dylan Plimmer from Voigt and Story (5 more J and W penalties) - late in the period we hit the post and they came right up ice at 19:31 to make it a 2-1 game after two - in the third JandW played better and tied it up at 6:42 - we came back at 12:42 and scored even up David Carson from Amico and Edwards - a penalty late in the period gave JandW a PP and they quickly tied the game up and into overtime we went -------- here we start to play better but no scoring - in tournaments you now go to a shootout but for the records it is an official tie ------ in a nut shell Barchard stops 2 in a row, Plimmer scores on our third try and Barchard stones their third shot to give us a trip to the final

Saturday at Four we face UMass, a 9-0 winner in play in game - this is a very physical game and we need a big effort from Barchard to keep us alive - no scoring in the first period and we start off the second with a PP goal at 0:44 Blake Edwards from Barchard (yes the goalie) and Voigt - this holds up for a while but our rather poor play caught up with us at 8:58 to make it 1-1 - for the rest of the period we survived, 2 goals against were disallowed, we killed two 5 on 3's and were happy to go into the third 1-1 ----- we now don't get many shots but we are playing better and toward the end of the period there is hope ---- OT again, same rules - but that is thrown out the window quickly when we score, Barker from Plimmer and Voigt, in the first minute to win the game and the tournament - UMB was in shock

A nice win before some great league games coming up - on the all tourney team we placed Jared Barker, Blake Edwards and of course the tournament MVP Scott Barchard - we all knew that before it was announced - congrats to the team and the all stars Amherst Friday the 13th at 7:00 followed by Hamilton Saturday at 3:00 then the next weekend Trinity on Saturday the 21st at 7:00 followed by Wesleyan on Sunday at 3:00

**note the Sat/Sun on the last one

I will be late with the games next weekend as my wife and I will be in Guatemala for our annual humanitarian trip for a late Christmas for many village kids (we usually do this in early Dec. but a quick house sale caused a quick move then) - hope to see some of you at these exciting games

Ben

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