Men’s hockey sees season end to Colby in NESCACs

It’s been a long time since no men’s Panther hockey was played in March, but unfortunately fans and players will have to wait another eight months to see the team take the ice at Kenyon Arena. On the heels of a lackluster regular season, in which several times the team seemed primed to make the jump back to an elite conference power, the Middlebury men’s hockey team dropped its opening round game in the NESCAC tournament by a score of 2-1. This marks the first time in 11 years that the Panthers did not qualify for the NESCAC championship, let alone the semifinal round.
The team entered its quarterfinal matchup with the Colby College Mules of Waterville, Maine following a disappointing final weekend to the regular season. However, assistant coach John Dawson asserted that the poor results of two weekends ago were not the reason for Saturday’s defeat.
“Our loss against Colby was a result of a season of poor practicing,” said Dawson. “At the end of the season, your total body of work throughout the year is on display. We did not practice or prepare consistently this season, and we got the results we deserved.” The team also defeated the same Colby team on the road by a score of 4-1 slightly less than a month before Saturday’s game, but Dawson added that this too was no excuse.
“You have to go out and compete and play hard no matter who or when you play,” he said. “Whether you beat them or lost to them previously, you have to seize the opportunity.  Just because you beat a team once, it does not mean you are entitled to beating them a second time.”
The Mules opened the scoring at the 3:53 mark of the first period when John Yancheck ’12 made the initial save off a right wing shot before Colby’s Dan Nelson stashed in the rebound to an open net. The score remained the same until 6:33 in the second period, when Karl Burns of the Mules put home a shot from the high slot.
Nick BonDurant ’14 then entered at goalie for the Panthers to replace Yancheck and managed to play 30-plus minutes of shutout hockey. However, despite the efforts of the two net minders to hold Colby to just two goals while in the process turning away a combined 21 shots, the Panthers could not muster enough offense to send the game into OT.
Chaz Svoboda ’11 scored his third of the year for Middlebury on a power play at the 6:24 mark of the third when he netted the rebound from a Mathieu Castonguay ’13 point shot. Middlebury registered five shots in the last 1:38 of the game while scrambling for the tie, but was unable to foil Colby’s Cody McKinney (37 saves) for the tying goal. The Panthers ended the game with a decided advantage in shots, 38-23, but following a common trend of this season were unable to convert on key opportunities.
“It comes down to execution.  We had chances, but people just did not execute when we had chances,” said Dawson. He also added, echoing head coach Bill Beaney’s remarks in preparation for the matchup, “They were more determined than we were.  They were more opportunistic.”
The loss puts the Panthers’ final record at 11-8-6, a full eight wins below last year’s tally of 19-5-4. The team will graduate just three seniors this spring (Svoboda, Bryan Curran ’11 and Ken Suchoski ’11), leaving room for optimism that a revitalized and more experienced men’s hockey squad will take the ice next November. However, Dawson stated that this thinking is dangerous.
“Whether we lose 10 seniors or three seniors, it has nothing to do with next season. We lost only four players from last year’s team, and this year’s team was not as good as last year’s,” said Dawson. “We are far away from where we need to be, and there will be significant changes next season.” He then added, “Across the board, we did not do a good job, from coaches down to the players … We will all need to learn from this season, and come back next year with a better performance.”
Disappointed with this season’s early exit, fans, coaches and players will certainly be waiting to redeem Middlebury men’s hockey next winter.