A pair of sweeps highlighted the weekend gone by in the ECAC West. Elmira continued on its roll with home-and-home shutouts of Hobart. The Soaring Eagles extended their unbeaten streak to 12 games, beginning after the turnaround Thanksgiving weekend.
Elmira is tied with Adrian for the longest current unbeaten streak in the nation at 11-0-1 and is definitely peaking at the right time of the year.
The weekend started out quietly enough at Hobart on Friday. Elmira’s Jesper Strale scored late in the first period for the 1-0 lead and that held up until the third period. Elmira dominated the third period, outshooting Hobart 13-5. John Clewlow shot the puck over Statesmen goaltender Nick Broadwater’s glove just 1:46 into the third period and then added an empty-netter with 21 seconds remaining to finish off the 3-0 victory for Elmira.
Saturday’s rematch down Route 14 at the Thunderdomes was a much more spirited affair. Nineteen penalties were called between the two teams. Strale scored another two goals in this game, the first and the last of the night, as Elmira rolled to a 4-0 win. The pair of shutouts were goaltender Darren McDonald’s second and third of the season.
In the other series of the weekend, Neumann swept Utica as well. The momentum pendulum swung from period to period on Friday night. Neumann started out with momentum on its side, and the Knights scored two goals to take the lead.
Utica responded in the second period, generating a bunch of offense, and the pressure paid off late in the period when George Lotito scored to narrow Neumann’s lead to 2-1.
However, the Knights swung momentum back to their side in the third, notching a trio of goals to skate away with a 5-1 victory.
The same pattern held for the first two periods on Saturday night as well. Neumann tallied two goals in the first period and Utica responded with one of its own in the second.
The third period started out chippy, as a player from each team took roughing penalties before the puck even dropped. That set the stage for a closely-played period. Bill Foster scored an empty-net goal with just 55 seconds remaining to complete the sweep with a 3-1 win for Neumann.
The league may want to check the Neumann ice to see if it is tilted too far one way. All 10 goals scored during the weekend were at the same end of the ice.
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