{"id":30146,"date":"2008-12-04T16:56:32","date_gmt":"2008-12-04T22:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2008\/12\/04\/this-week-in-the-ecac-east-and-nescac\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:57:19","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:57:19","slug":"this-week-in-the-ecac-east-and-nescac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2008\/12\/04\/this-week-in-the-ecac-east-and-nescac\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in the ECAC East and NESCAC"},"content":{"rendered":"
As condensed as the playing schedule has been this year with Thanksgiving coming in the very last weekend of the month, the regular season league play gave way to some of the traditional and new holiday tournaments featuring some of the regions best teams from all leagues playing against each other for bragging rights and some early hardware in the 08-09 season.<\/p>\n
Seven tournaments featured area teams against some strong competition with some great hockey on display for fans that hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t succumbed to a tryptophan-induced coma. <\/p>\n
At the Rutland Herald Invitational in Vermont, host Castleton beat Brockport while Neumann, the defending tournament champion, earned their way into the final with a win over Becker. In the final, Castleton couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wrestle the trophy away from Neumann as the Knights repeated as champs with a 5-1 win.<\/p>\n
At the Babson Invitational tournament, the host school lost in the opening round to a very physical United States Under-18 team while Manhattanville knocked off Southern Maine. The final was tightly played and the U.S. Under-18 team leveraged a second period goal and a shorthanded third period tally for a 2-0 win and the title.<\/p>\n
The Skidmore Invitational tournament brought together Suffolk, Potsdam and Williams with the host school in a very exciting tournament. The final pitted Williams against Skidmore where the Thoroughbreds breaking open a 2-1 game early in the third period with three goals in the first five minutes of the final stanza to claim victory in their tournament.<\/p>\n
The Bowdoin\/Colby Faceoff represented a round robin at both schools alternating opponents which this year included Salve Regina and UMass-Dartmouth from the ECAC Northeast. Bowdoin was the official winner posting two wins over the weekend including a 4-2 win over the Corsairs that was only decided with a late empty net goal by the Polar Bears.<\/p>\n
The Doug Roberts Tournament hosted by Connecticut College rotates the host role every year among the participating teams, including Amherst, Trinity and Wesleyan in this all NESCAC affair. It follows an opening weekend where Amherst has already seen both Wesleyan and Trinity in regular season play. Connecticut College left no doubt in the final against Trinity by scoring five first period goals on their way to a 6-3 win and the host team the tournament title.<\/p>\n
Five tourneys down, two to go. And the remaining pair certainly brought a high level of excitement to both days of the tournament and great games throughout.<\/p>\n
In the 11th version of the Primelink Tournament, Middlebury hosted two other nationally ranked teams in Norwich and Plattsburgh along with Western power St. Thomas in one of the marquee gatherings in the country.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This may have been the best of all of the Primelink tournaments to date,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d commented Middlebury head coach Bill Beaney. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You really couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ask for a more competitive field of teams. All four teams will be legitimate contenders for NCAA competition.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n
The games included an overtime tie settled by a shootout in the opening round with Norwich moving on over Plattsburgh. Two close games ultimately settled by empty-net goals against St. Thomas with Middlebury prevailing in the first round and Plattsburgh winning the consolation game by the same 5-3 score. And a final between old rivals –Middlebury and Norwich — that saw the winning goal scored with just over three minutes remaining in the game.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was a real treat for the fans,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Beaney. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We played as good a game of hockey as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen in some time. We were solid in all areas including special teams and goaltending and really played a great sixty minutes against Norwich. You know we are very young with six or seven freshman playing every night so it was a little surprising that we sustained such a high level of play for two nights against strong competition. No doubt this was a confidence builder for the kids.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n