Box Score
Williamstown, MA -- Coming off of a big four-goal victory last night, the Williams College men's ice hockey team faced off against a strong Wesleyan team (8-3-0) who entered Lansing Chapman Rink hoping to better their five game win streak, and the Ephs prevailed 3-2 in overtime.
The Ephs needed overtime tonight to finish off the Wesleyan University Cardinals. With a heroic effort from senior goalie Ryan Purdy, Williams College men's ice hockey fends off a strong Wesleyan hockey team. Purdy's 49 saves kept the Ephs in the game all the way to overtime when freshman Peter Mistretta was able to get his stick on sophomore Nick Anderson's slap shot just enough to redirect it into the back of the net.
After a high scoring contest here in Williamstown yesterday, today neither team was able to find the back of the net until midway through the first period. Despite Wesleyan's 21 shots on goal in the first period, Ephs senior goalie Ryan Purdy stopped 20 of them.
"Purdy is a talented goalie," head coach Bill Kangas said. "Good teams need great goalies. Any time a team wins a hockey championship, they usually have a really good goalie."
Senior defenseman Patrick Morrissey was the first to find the back of the net this afternoon. Morrissey was set up by junior forward Mark Lyons and sophomore defenseman Paul Steinig.
The score remained 1-0 until late in the first period when the Ephs found themselves a man down after freshman forward Craig Kitto was charged with a five-minute major.
Wesleyan was able to even the score while they were a man up as sophomore forward Keith Buehler fired a slap shot from the right wing in the closing minutes of the first period. Buehler was set up by teammates Geoff Mucha and John Guay.
In spite of the Cardinal's 21 shots in the first period the horn sounded to end the first period with the score tied 1-1.
The Ephs opened the second period still one man down until Wesleyan took their first penalty of the period only seconds in to make it four on four.
Junior defenseman Mike Brofft gave the lead back to the Ephs when his slap shot hit the cross bar and fell into the net behind Wesleyan's junior goaltender Matt Hadge. The goal came directly off of the face off that was won by Evan Dougdale, junior forward for the Ephs.
The Ephs took back to back penalties with the second costing Williams their one goal lead.
The Ephs penalty kill managed to fight off the first Cardinal power play, but as time was running out on Wesleyan's second consecutive man advantage, Nick Craven, Cardinals junior forward scored in similar fashion to Brofft of the Ephs. The goal came right of off a face off. Craven wristed the puck into the top shelf, inches over Purdy's left shoulder.
Despite Wesleyan's constant pressure to close the period, the Ephs stayed strong in their defensive end and closed out the second period, again knotted at 2 goals apiece.
The scoreless third period began with an Ephs power play that was not able to capitalize. Wesleyan had multiple chances to take their first lead of the game early in the third period. The most notable chance being a two on one break with a cross that came from Wesleyan forward Tommy Hartnett but a great effort by Purdy kept Wesleyan's Craven from being able to put it home.
In the last seconds of regulation the Ephs took a bench minor for too many men on the ice giving the Cardinals a man advantage for the remainder of regulation. Strong play by the Ephs penalty kill kept the score even at two and took the game into over time.
"Going into over time we took a penalty late," mentioned Kangas. "But we had a chance, that's all you can ask for. It just took one shot; one shot, one tip and that was the game."
As the Ephs killed the remaining minute of their penalty to start the overtime period, they gained control of the puck in their offensive zone.
The game winning goal came on a redirect of sophomore forward Nick Anderson's slap shot by freshman forward Peter Mistretta that snuck through Hadge's legs for the win.
The Ephs move to 8-1-2 overall and 6-1-1 in the conference after tonight's win. They now have six days off now in order to prepare for a road trip to Skidmore at 7pm on January 13th.
