January 12, 2007
PENN 5
College of
New Jersey 2
January 13, 2007
PENN 2
William
Paterson 2 (OT)
NEWS
AND NOTES
Penn opened up 2007 in solid fashion with a tie against TCNJ and a
victory over MACHA rival William Paterson.
The Quakers currently have a
MACHA record
of 1-7-3-1 (10th place) and an overall record of 5-14-3.
Photos of most Penn home games can be found here.
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January 19 @ 5:15pm
Class of 1923 Ice Rink
vs. Seton Hall
January 20 @ 9:45pm
Loucks Ice
Center
vs. Rider
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After going more than a month and a half without a victory, the Quakers started out the New Year strong, notching a win against the College of New Jersey on Friday night. However, the biggest story of the weekend was the Quakers’ tie against a tough William Paterson team on Saturday.
After downing the College of New Jersey, 5-2, on Friday, Penn needed to gain ground in the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey Association standings on Saturday night. But the Quakers were up against a tough league opponent — William Patterson trounced Penn 12-3 on at the Class of 1923 Ice Rink in October.
The game started off very clean with no penalties in the first five minutes, however captain Matt Bessette was called for a hook eight minutes into the game, but a call against the Pioneers one minute later evened things up. Penn had a power play opportunity halfway through the period, but failed to capitalize.
The Quakers grabbed the early momentum late in the first period. Freshman Riley Tagtmeyer raced up the boards with the puck. A Pioneers defenseman stepped up on Tagtmeyer, but he was able to get the puck to sophomore Daniel Tavana for a 2-on-1. Tavana put the puck in the net for his third goal of the season and gave the Quakers a 1-0 lead.
The Pioneers struck back early in the second with a goal from defenseman Dan Moser, his fourth of the season.
The second period was filled with penalties—five on the Quakers and four on the Pioneers. William Paterson was the only team able to capitalize on the opportunities though. With two and a half minutes left in the period, the Pioneers took advantage of a holding penalty on Penn’s Jeff Greenberg. Steve Celantano took a pass from Ian O’Connell and put it past Penn goalie Matt Weyandt to give the Pioneers a 2-1 lead.
The Quakers would not respond until halfway through the third period when Bessette put home his ninth goal of the season, tying the game at two. The game went to overtime, and Penn had a power play opportunity with less than a minute left but could not get anything going. Weyandt, a senior whose play in net continues to keep the Quakers in games, had 49 saves.
The tie was a huge momentum boost for a Penn team that looked at this game as a measuring stick. New coach Brian Gallini wanted Penn to use this game to make a statement, and it did just that.
With the tie, Penn moves within two points of the sixth and final playoff spot in the MACHA. Penn, which currently sits in tenth place, will face the ninth and eighth place teams this weekend. Two wins would guarantee the Quakers move into at least seventh place and give them the potential to take over sixth.
Friday night against the College of New Jersey, Penn dominated from the drop of the puck and never lost control of the game. Senior captain Ned Swanson scored from the point off of a pass from sophomore Tim Sigmund just 26 second into the game.
The Quakers dominated the rest of the period, but could not find the back of the net until Sam Lerer tallied his team-leading 12th goal of the season with three minutes left. It looked like the Quakers would take a 2-0 lead into the locker room. But with three seconds left, the Quakers earned a face-off in the Lions’ zone. Greenberg won the draw back to Bessette who lifted a wrist shot over Lions goalie Zyon Zate’s shoulder.
Penn got goals from Tagtmeyer and another from Lerer in the second period to seal the 5-2 win. Weyandt had 33 saves in the victory.