November 25, 2009
Hockey update for the first three games:
Friday night vs. Middlebury - big crowd for the season opener - the pace started very quickly
from the drop of the puck - Middlebury controlled the play early on, we picked it up midway
through the period - we were outshot but closed out the period 0-0 - shortly into the second
we really started to get the better of the play, had the puck in there end a good part of the
period and were rewarded when we scored the first goal at 4:41 Tom Derosa from Mike Vitale
and Zach Diaco, a result of some hard work down low ---- we continued to play well, took a
few penalties, but good penalty killing resulted in a 2-0 lead at 12:27 with Vitale feeding
Diaco a sweet pass across the goal mouth, Trevor John also got an assist - the rest of the
period was more up and down with no more scoring ----- in the third Middlebury picked it
up again and finally got that crucial 3rd game goal to make it 2-1 at 6:08 - three minutes
later we were down 2-3 with a visitor PP at 7:47 and another goal at 9:29 -- instead of
collapsing we right out and the pace got frantic again - we went on the PP with 90 seconds to
go and finally scored after a huge scrum right in front of the goalie, I have no idea how they
figured who scored, they gave it to John with Derosa and Andy Davis getting assists ---- into
OT we go and nobody scores, in fact there were not any great scoring opportunities at either
end - kind of mixed feelings about the end, the win was there for either team ---- in goal
Scott Barchard was outstanding, the young defensive corps performed very well and everyone worked
their tails off
I was not able to see the Williams game or the Curry game last night so the info is more generic
on these games: Williams came off an overtime 3-2 win vs ConnCollege - we had our chances with 3
PP opportunities in the 1st period but came up empty - the pace of this game was right up there
with the Middlebury game and maybe more so - 0-0 after the first --- in the second again a high
speed game with no scoring until Williams scored on the PP at 17:17 to take a 1-0 lead into the
third period ---- more of the same on the third - it all came down to a 6 on 5 with the familiar
90 seconds remaining, unfortunately Williams took the advantage to close out the scoring into the
empty net at 19:06 ---- another super effort by the Jumbos - on a down note we did lose Andy Davis
to a hand injury in the second period, hopefully he will be up and running in January
Curry, the Northeast division leader, was last night - we are like the Patriots, we play an
undefeated team each time out - unlike the other two games the first period was full of scoring
- Curry scored at 14:09 on the PP and again even up at 15:12 - we came right back with a goal
at 16:16 Matt Amico from Dylan Plimmer and Nick Metcalf - we then got our own PP at 19:43 Dylan
Cooper from Derosa and Wilson - to make it 2-2 after one --- Curry tried to break it open at
1:05 but play evened out at this point, a few penalties but no scoring until we tied it up at
18:09 Amico again from Plimmer and Jared Barker --- in the third the score remained tied until
late in the period Curry potted one at 17:46 for a one goal lead which held up for the win
In retrospect we just played 3 very good, high ranked clubs, and were in all the games - not that
we should have won all three but we were competitive in all three with a chance to win down to the
last few seconds of each game - we play hard - we did lose anther defenseman, Myles Neumann, so our
depth at that position will be important ---- next games are at the Caslteton tourney on Saturday
and Sunday with our first round opponent last years Div !!! champ Neumann - no the school is not
named after Myles
[Return to Coach Sands' Updates Index]