Pilgrims discover a new world, beat Panthers late

Author: Jeff Patterson

"Dum-de-de-dum, de-de-dum-de-de-dum, de-daa-daaaaa." After a two-month absence that saw losses to Plattsburg State, Southern Maine, Skidmore, Colby and Bowdoin - teams the Middlebury men's hockey team beat by a combined score of 35-12 over seven games last season - Big & Rich's "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" is back and blaring from the Kenyon Arena PA system.

Planned, anyone?

"That was intentional," said defenseman Jack Kinder '09 about the song's recent resurgence. "We wanted that extra jump to try to get that spark back."

The Williams Ephs could not have appreciated the musical come-back or the one staged by the Panthers on the ice on Jan. 16. Williams held the lead late into the second period and must have had visions of doing what Colby and Bowdoin did to the Panthers earlier that weekend, but when it was all over, Middlebury milked the white clad Purple Cows 3-1, scoring the last three goals of the game. Brett Shirreffs's '07 slap-shot deflected off an Eph's skate, ricocheting by goalie Mark Pulde with 1:16 left in the second period

Yev Saidachev '07 rifled in the game-winner in the third (from just over the blue-line) over Pulde's stick for his third red light of the year. John Sales '07 closed the sale on a pass from Jamie McKenna '09. Ross Cherry '08 made the necessary 20 stops, and the netminder in the number one jersey won his 39th career game.

Purposeful, anyone?

"Tom Maldonado '08, his freshman year, we put [the song] in there," said Saidachev. "We've had it in there for two years, but then for some reason they changed it this year. Then, we were going through that stretch with things not going too well and Tom wanted it back in. We think it's going to be a turning point."

Friday night's game with the New England College Pilgrims started late and ended late. An accident on Route Seven delayed the game that was originally slated for a 7 p.m. start by almost an hour. But when the puck was finally dropped the game saw seven goals, the final one coming with seven seconds remaining as N.E.C.'s number 17 Mike Carmody scored his seventh goal of the season to win the game 4-3.

As the third period was about to expire, Captain Mickey Gilchrist '08 tried to make an end-to-end rush, but was met at center ice and lost control of the puck. Carmody took possession, skated down the left side, and deposited the recently stolen puck into Cherry's net. The Pilgrims were thankful for the turnover and used the win to move into sole possession of second place in the ECAC East standings.

Gilchrist and the first line had been out on the ice for a minute and six seconds when the turnover happened. As it was their last shift of the game, it is fair to speculate that this line may have been too tired to perform like they needed to. Any hockey fan will tell you that 45 seconds is the ideal time for a shift, but given the circumstances there was no opportunity to make a line-change. "We're playing our best when everyone has short shifts," said Kinder. Don't give it short shrift this was not a short shift.

As a result, a conscientious comeback went for naught. Down 1-0 after one period, Rob MacIntyre '08 threaded the puck at the 14:44 mark of the second period through the crease and found Sam Driver '07 alone on the far post and with an open net on which to shoot. After Pat Mellino put the Pilgrims up 2-1 Charlie Townsend '10 scored 1:36 later to knot the game at two apiece. Mike Mullen put NEC up 3-2, but the Panthers tied the score 23 seconds later when number 23 MacIntyre scored on a feed from Sales.

In the game, Jamie McKenna '09 received a game misconduct for hitting from behind - the third ejection the Panthers have had this year. All three have resulted in losses. "All referees are crunching down on [penalties] this year, especially hitting from behind," said Gilchrist. "We've got to be a little smarter when a guy shows his back, we have to let up a little more."

Gilchrist more than made up for his turnover the following afternoon as he scored two goals, the 55th and 56th of his career, turning over a new leaf in a 3-2 win over St. Anselm. He opened up the scoring when, noticing that he was open around the net - something that does not happen very often - he raised his stick to get Sales' attention and one-timed his pass into the goal. At the 11:06 mark of the third period, Gilchrist scored after skating by a diving defender and beating helpless netminder Jason Rafuse.

"I just saw the defenseman overplayed my linemate [John] Sullivan '10," said Gilchrist when describing the game-winning goal. "He went down and I looked him off and I kind of laid it in the net. I got my shot off right before [another defenseman] hit me. Luckily it didn't affect the shot. That guy was just a little too late, I guess."

The win over St. Anselm was the seventh one-goal game Middlebury has been involved in this season. "The reason for a lot of the close games is that when we get the lead we have trouble finishing teams off," said Kinder. "Where last year we'd get the momentum off of a goal and have another good shift and just pour it on and overwhelm teams, this year we tend to let them come back in the game a little bit."

Saidachev thinks the close games will help the team in the long run. "Down the stretch you're not going to win a game 5-0, or 8-2, it's going to be a close game and you have to learn how to win those," he said.

Kinder kind of agrees. "Yeah, I think it's good to practice and to be comfortable in tight games," he said. "We've had to grit it out in the third period a bunch this year. But there are a lot of things we can to do to open it up."