Ephs overcome early two score deficit, battle Babson to 4-4 OT tie
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass -- The Williams College men's hockey battled back from an early two goal deficit to force overtime against Babson College in their home opener, but was forced to settle for the 4-4 OT decision Saturday. The Ephs remain unbeaten at 2-0-1, while Babson moves to 1-2-1.
Babson came ready to play for the non-conference match up and seized the initiative right out of the gates, as they notched a 17 to 11 first period shot advantage and a 27 to 12 second period advantage en route to getting off 17 more shots then the Ephs in the game.
Despite the uncharacteristic defensive effort, the Williams offense capitalized on their opportunities and ultimately that proved to be the difference. ‘
"We battled to the end, especially to force the overtime. Our guys created a lot of opportunities offensively." noted Eph head coach Bill Kangas, "However, we definitely have a lesson to take away from this game: we need to be more committed to team defense."
The protection of the net itself proved to be one of the bright spots for the Eph defense, as net minder Ryan Purdy's 54 saves were a big reason Williams was able to overcome the early deficit.
Williams' rocky start began 2:15 into the game when Sean Roche got Babson on the board off of a Chris Sabo pass, but it wasn't done as Ryan Smith would add another score 2:38 later to give the visitors at 2-0 advantage less than five minutes into the game.
Zach Miller would convert a Brian Malchoff pass to cut the Eph deficit in half before the period was through and send the two teams into the intermission with the score at 2-1.
The Ephs would answer Babson's early first period scoring burst with a couple of scores of their own. The first came just 1:56 into the period when Eric Rubino exploited a five skaters on five skaters situation to record the unassisted goal. Ben Continit would add an additional score less than a minute later to swing the momentum completely towards the Ephs and give them the 3-2 lead.
But the Williams lead would prove to be short lived, as Babson would tie things up just 2:12 later when an excellent power play set piece ended with a feed to a waiting Mike Hoban whose position on the far post awarded him an easy score. Babson would recapture the lead five minutes later when Cody Carlson converted the ricochet off of a Casey Fazekas slapshot that had found the bar, giving Babson the 4-3 advantage.
The Ephs dug deep and responded once again, knotting the score after Mike Brofft's stick navigated a scrum in front of the Babson net and escorted the puck past Beaver goaltender Andrew Peabody (37 saves).
The two teams battled tooth-and-nail for the remainder of regulation and through the overtime period, but neither team was willing to oblige the other and the game ended with a tie.
The Ephs will look to get back into the win column tomorrow, Nov. 29, when they travel to take on Manhattanville. That game is scheduled to begin at 3:00 PM.
You an view Live State of the Manhattanville game here or watch the pay-to-view webcast here.
