Courtesy Amherst Sports Information

Box Score

AMHERST, Mass. - Middlebury sophomore forward Anna McNally (St. Paul, Minn.) tallied the game-winning goal at 8:34 of overtime to give the Panthers a 4-3 win against host Amherst in the final of the 2009 NESCAC Women's Ice Hockey Championship on Sunday afternoon at Orr Rink. It is the fifth NESCAC crown for Middlebury and its first since 2006.

McNally carried the puck along the bench-side boards with one defender at her side and two others nipping at her heels, but she somehow managed to break free and slide the puck toward Amherst goaltender Caroline Hu (Cerritos, Calif.) as she fell to the ice. The puck trickled across the goal line and the Middlebury bench cleared, as the Panthers pulled off the 4-3 victory in dramatic fashion.

Middlebury improves to 19-3-4 and earns an automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Tournament, while Amherst falls to 21-5-0 and will hope to receive an at-large bid. The Panthers increased their winning streak to six games are now 14-4 in NESCAC Championship games, marking the best winning percentage in the conference.

The loss snapped four significant streaks for Amherst, including its 50-game unbeaten streak against NESCAC opponents (43-0-7), six-game unbeaten streak against Middlebury (3-0-3) and eight-game overall winning streak. The Jeffs were also attempting to become the first team to win three consecutive NESCAC titles.

The Panthers scored the game’s first goal on a 5-on-3 power-play opportunity. Sophomore Nora Bergman (Concord, Mass.) took a shot from the point and had it blocked by Hu. First-year Maggie Melberg (Woody Creek, Colo.) was there to clean up the rebound, however, as she took advantage of a wide-open net and gave her squada 1-0 lead.

Still on the power-play, Middlebury increased its lead to 2-0 just 57 seconds later when senior captain Randi Dumont (Greene, Maine) lofted a shot from the point. Hu appeared to be screened on the play as the puck made its way to the back of the net, and the visitors suddenly had a two-goal lead with 5:29 to play in the first.

Amherst stormed right back and needed only 70 seconds to cut its deficit in half. After a scramble in front of the Middlebury net, junior tri-captain Kirsten Dier (Appleton, Wis.) was finally able to fend off the crowd of players and poke a shot past sophomore Alexi Bloom (Highland Park, Ill.), marking the game’s third goal in a span of 2:07.

The Jeffs went on another power play with 1:51 to play before the first intermission but could not find the equalizer, as they headed into the locker room trailing 2-1 with nine seconds remaining on their 5-on-4. Amherst put 20 shots on net in the period but could beat Bloom only once, while Middlebury put only four shots on target.

It took Middlebury only 3:14 into the second to bump its lead to 3-1, as the visitors scored their third power-play goal of the game. The Panthers entered the weekend boasting the NESCAC’s best power play conversion rate (21 percent) and put it on display for the fans at Orr Rink. Senior Annmarie Cellino (West Seneca, N.Y.) was credited with the goal, giving her two on the weekend and 11 on the season.

The Jeffs were given another brief 5-on-3 opportunity eight minutes into the second period. The Panthers killed the first penalty but could not fight off the second, as sophomore Megan Curry (Shorewood, Minn.) put home a rebound to make it a 3-2 game at the 7:28 mark. Curry’s goal was her second of the weekend, both of which came in power-play fashion.

The visitors headed into the second intermission with a 3-2 advantage. Bloom racked up 40 saves in the first two periods, as the Jeffs held a convincing 42-13 edge in shots on goal.

Amherst junior Michelle McGann (New Berlin, Wis.) tied things up with her first goal of the weekend. The game stood at 3-3 with 11:10 to play in regulation. McGann's tally was the lone goal of the third period, as the teams headed to the locker room still deadlocked at three goals apiece.

McNally played the role of hero for Middlebury, scoring the game-winner and sending the Panther bench into bedlam. Bloom finished with 52 saves on the day, while Hu stopped 20 shots.

Amherst tied a NESCAC record for goals scored in a tournament (16), while sophomore Courtney Hanlon (Fullerton, CA) tied the record for individual points in a tournament (6).

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

Semifinals - Saturday, March 7 at Highest Remaining Seed
at No. 1 Amherst 6, No. 6 Connecticut College 1
No. 2 Middlebury 4, vs. No. 4 Colby 2

Championship - Sunday, March 8
No. 2 Middlebury 4, at No. 1 Amherst 3 - OT

2009 NESCAC WOMEN'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 Women'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
Seeding will be based on final conference standings of double round robin play. 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 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.