Courtesy Bowdoin Sports Information

Box Score

BRUNSWICK, Maine - The Middlebury College men's ice hockey team won their fourth consecutive NESCAC Championship, defeating Bowdoin College 4-2 on Sunday afternoon. The Panthers (17-7-3) beat the Polar Bears (16-7-3) for the third straight year in the conference title game, and deal Bowdoin their first loss at Dayton Arena this year (11-1-0). The Panthers earn the NESCAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Bowdoin earned the first power-play of the game, but it was Middlebury who took advantage, as the Panthers' Brett Shirreffs intercepted a pass at center ice and skated in on Polar Bear netminder Chris Rossi, snapping a wrist-shot that slipped through the pads just 4:09 into the game. Moments later, Jamie McKenna had a breakaway chance for the Panthers, but Rossi was able to keep the deficit at one goal thanks to a nice kick save. The Polar Bears' best early chance came courtesy of Bryan Ciborowski, who snapped a wrist shot from the left face off circle that sailed just high of the crossbar. With under five minutes left in the frame, Bowdoin's Mitch Dillon ripped a shot from the left slot that rang off the post, keeping it a 1-0 Middlebury lead after the opening period.

The two netminders traded good saves to open the second stanza, as Ross Cherry made a sliding stop off the stick of Bowdoin's Sebastien Belanger, while Rossi smothered a McKenna shot from between the circles.

Bowdoin increased the offensive pressure, but still couldn't find the back of the net, as Colin MacCormack snapped a shot from the right circle that hit the far post and sailed wide. The Polar Bears earned another power-play midway through the second frame, but the Panthers were again the team to score, as Justin Gaines collected a turnover in the neutral zone, came loose on a breakaway, and beat Rossi stick-side to make it 2-0. Another turnover by Bowdoin set the stage for Middlebury's third goal, as Evgeny Saidachev found Mickey Gilchrist between the circles. Gilchrist banged home the one-timer feed to give the visitors a three-goal advantage.

Shortly after the Panthers scored their third goal, Bowdoin earned a 5x3 power-play chance. The Polar Bears were finally able to take advantage, as Tim McVaugh took a shot from the left face off circle that got past Cherry at 13:16, cutting the deficit to two goals.

After Bowdoin pulled netminder Rossi with 2:28 remaining, Colin Hughes finished off a scrum in front to close the gap to one goal. The Polar Bears pulled Rossi again, but were unable to find the equalizer in the closing moments as McKenna added an empty-netter with just 25 seconds remaining.

Rossi finished with 22 saves for Bowdoin, while Cherry stopped 32 shots for the Panthers. The Middlebury win avenges an earlier loss to the Polar Bears at Dayton Arena this season, and gives the Panthers their seventh title in the last eight years.

2007 NESCAC MEN'S ICE HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP
Quarterfinals - Saturday, Feb. 24 at Higher Seeds
at No. 1 Bowdoin 7, No. 8 Trinity 3
at No. 2 Middlebury 5, No. 7 Williams 1
at No. 3 Colby 5, No. 6 Connecticut College 1
No. 5 Amherst 2, at No. 4 Wesleyan 0

Semifinals - Saturday, March 3 at Bowdoin
at No. 1 Bowdoin 6, No. 5 Amherst 3
vs. No. 2 Middlebury 4, No. 3 Colby 3

Championship - Sunday, March 4 at Bowdoin
No. 2 Middlebury 4, No. 1 Bowdoin 2

2007 NESCAC MEN'S ICE HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP
Quarterfinals - Saturday, February 24
Time TBA at Higher Seeds
No. 8 at No. 1
No. 7 at No. 2
No. 6 at No. 3
No. 5 at No. 4

Semifinals - Saturday, March 3
at Highest Remaining Seed
1:00 p.m./4:00 p.m.

Championship - Sunday, March 4
1:00 p.m.

Format
The top 8 teams in the conference will qualify for the NESCAC Men's Ice Hockey Championship.  First round games will be conducted on Saturday, February 24, 2007 with the semifinals and championship games conducted on Saturday, March 3 and Sunday, March 4, respectively.  The tournament champion will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. 

Format if Men and Women are Playing at the Same Site
Preliminary Round
If both a men's and a women's first round game are being played at the same site, both games shall be played on Saturday with scheduled start times of 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.  In odd years the men's game will be played first and in even years the women's game will be played first.

Semifinal and Championship Round
If both the men's and women's semifinals and finals are being played at the same site, one of the championships will be conducted Friday evening and Saturday evening.  As the men's NCAA championship tournament starts earlier than the women's championship, the men's games will be played on Friday/Saturday (with game times of 4:00 p.m./7:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.) with the women's games played Saturday/Sunday (with game times of 12:30 p.m./3:30 p.m. and 1:00 p.m.).

Seeding
Teams will be seeded based on games scheduled in conjunction with ECAC East. The top four seeds will host quarterfinal games with the one seed drawing the 8th seed, the 7th seed will play at the 2nd seed, the 6th seed will play at the 3rd seed, and the 5th seed will play at the 4th seed. The highest remaining seed after quarterfinal action will host both the semifinal and final rounds.

Pairings
Pairings will be announced Sunday, February 18.

Tie Breaking Procedures
Ties will be broken as follows:

Head-to-head result (if teams play each other more than once during the regular season, the game that appears on the league schedule will be the game that is counted).

If teams tied during the regular season, or there is a 3-way or more tie, the following tie breaking procedure will be used:

• Best record among tying teams, against one another (head-to-head).
• Most conference wins (in games that are part of the conference schedule and count toward league standings).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against top 4 teams (including all teams at the 4th spot).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against top 8 teams (including all teams at the 8th spot).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against conference teams in rank order.
• Comparisons shall be made one team at a time starting with the highest ranked team.
• If the tie remains after comparing results against the highest ranked team, the results against the next team in rank order shall be used. This process is continued until a winner is determined.
• Coin flip (or similar random action involving all tied teams).

Note: In case of ties among three or more schools, the criteria above will be applied in order until a team is (or teams are) separated.  At that point, the process begins anew (returning to the first criteria) with the remaining teams.  The process is continued until the tie is eventually broken.  In cases where only a random action will break the tie of three or more teams, the random action will be applied to all teams involved in the tie.  For example, if three teams are tied and only a random action (pulling names out of a hat) will break the tie, each name will be pulled and seeded in order of being pulled.  Also, in the event that there are two (or more) groups of teams tied at different spots in the standings and the only criteria left that can be used to break those ties is a coin flip/random action, the coin flip/random action used to break the tie of one group (to put teams in rank order) will not affect the tie breaking procedures of the other group(s) of tied teams.