Courtesy Amherst Sports Information

Box Score

AMHERST, Mass. – Top-seeded Amherst College played host to No. 2 Middlebury College this evening in the 2009 NESCAC Championship title game held at Orr Rink. Amherst never trailed during the game, and put in an empty-net score in the final minutes to win their first NESCAC Championship, 5-2. The Lord Jeffs take the NESCAC’s automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Tournament, while Middlebury will await the release of the bracket tomorrow to see if they will receive an at-large bid.

Amherst went on the power play after just four minutes of first period action when Middlebury’s Tucker Donahoe (Canton, Mass.) was sent to the sin bin. The Lord Jeffs wasted no time pouncing on the Panthers, as junior Ted Vickers (Chilliwack, British Columbia) put home a power play score off a feed from senior captain Jeff Landers (Hanover, Mass.).

With 10:07 to play in the first period, Amherst doubled its lead on an amazing play by senior forward Brendan Powers (Walpole, Mass.). Powers stole an errant Middlebury pass and wrapped the puck around the right corner to classmate Joel Covelli (Carlisle, Ontario). Covelli then skated behind Middlebury's net, and found Powers streaking back down the middle for a one-timer.

Middlebury was given a golden chance to cut into Amherst’s lead with five minutes remaining in the first period, as Lord Jeff senior Will Collins (Edina, Minn.) was sent to the penalty box for holding. Just 42 seconds into the penalty kill, Amherst’s nation-leading unit was put to the test when a second Lord Jeff player sent to the penalty box. Middlebury needed just over half-a-minute, before Jamie McKenna (Lake Placid, N.Y.) set up his fellow co-captain Mason Graddock (Stowe, Vt.) for a slap shot that beat Cole Anderson (Sylvan Lake, Alberta) glove side on the 5-on-3.

Neither team scored again in the frame, and at the end of one, the statistics reflected a deadlock as Amherst held just a 14-13 edge in shots on goal.

Amherst opened back up a two-goal advantage just 30 seconds into the second period when Landers and rookie Eddie Effinger (Belleville, Ill.) combined to spring sophomore Luke Arnold (Lincoln, Mass.) down the middle. The sophomore sensation waited until he was on top of Raeder before lifting a shot top-corner to put Amherst ahead 3-1.

The Lord Jeffs went up 4-1 with 14:23 to play in the second period when Vickers scored an amazing behind-the-back, back-handed rebound goal on the power play. Powers and Landers picked up the assists on the score.

Throughout the final minutes of the second period, Anderson made save after save, as Middlebury picked up its pressure for a response to Amherst’s pair of early scores. That response never came for the Panthers, and at the end of two periods Middlebury held a 26-23 advantage in shots on goal, while Amherst still held a 4-1 lead on the scoreboard.

Middlebury grabbed one goal back from Amherst on the power play with just over four minutes remaining in the game. Junior John Sullivan (Delmar, N.Y.) put home the goal off an assist from Michael Kretschmer (Indianapolis, Ind.), cutting Amherst’s lead down to two goals.

With 2:33 remaining, Middlebury called Raeder to bench for an extra skater. The Lord Jeffs held strong, and added an empty-net score from Arnold with just 1:35 showing on the clock. The score cemented the result, putting Amherst back ahead 5-2.

After seeing sophomore goaltender Jonathan La Rose (Boyle, Alberta) pick up a shutout win in last night’s semifinal round, Amherst head coach Jack Arena ’83 turned to Anderson tonight. Anderson and Middlebury senior Doug Raeder (Needham, Mass.) finished the night with 35 saves apiece, as Amherst improved to 21-4-1, and Middlebury dropped to 19-7-1.

2009 NESCAC MEN’S ICE HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP
Quarterfinals - Saturday, Feb. 28 at Higher Seeds
at No. 1 Amherst 4, No. 8 Tufts 1
at No. 2 Middlebury 6, No. 7 Hamilton 2
at No. 3 Williams 3, No. 6 Bowdoin 2 - OT
at No. 4 Trinity 3, No. 5 Connecticut College 1

Semifinals - Friday, March 6 at Amherst
No. 2 Middlebury 4, vs. No. 3 Williams 1
at No. 1 Amherst 3, No. 4 Trinity 0

Championship - Saturday, March 7
at No. 1 Amherst 5, No. 2 Middlebury 2

2009 NESCAC MEN'S ICE HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP
Quarterfinals - Saturday, Feb. 28
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 7
at Highest Remaining Seed
1:00 p.m./4:00 p.m.

Championship - Sunday, March 8
2:00 p.m.

Format
The top eight teams in the conference will qualify for the NESCAC Men's Ice Hockey Championship. First round games will be conducted on Saturday, February 28, 2009 with the semifinals and championship games conducted on Saturday, March 7 and Sunday, March 8, 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 Saturday, February 21.

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.