Ephs knock off St. Anslem 2-1
Brian Malchoff '11
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass - The Williams College men's hockey team overcame an early deficit to defeat visiting conference foe St. Anslem College 2-1 Saturday. The Win completes a perfect weekend for the Ephs as they improve to 9-4-2 (7-2-2 Conference), while the Hawks have now lost four straight and fall to 4-8-1 (3-6-1 Conference).
Brian Malchoff and Patrick Morrissey each notched scores for the Ephs as the offense churned out a healthy 44 shots. Defensively, Ryan Purdy got the nod and made his second consecutive start in the Williams net and again put in a quality performance as he turned away 29 of the 30 shots he faced.
"You have to win at home, and its great to come out of the weekend 2-0." Remarked Eph coach Bill Kangas, "I think each team showed that they had played a game in the 24 hours before this one, but we got better as the game went along and finished strong."
The Ephs set the tone early, nearly netting a couple of scores in the games opening minutes, but they simply couldn't get the puck into the back of the net. However, the Hawks battled back and got the early go-ahead score 11:12 into the period when Tom Kerwin hooked up with Paul Snell who slipped it past Purdy to give the Hawks the 1-0 lead.
Despite the score, the Ephs continued to create throughout the period; unfortunately their finishing woes continued and they entered the first intermission down by one.
Malchoff ended the Eph dry spell with just under five minutes remaining in the 2nd period, off of a short feed from Octavian Jordan, to knot it up at one apiece and set up the dramatic final period.
The 3rd period began much as the first had, with the Ephs coming close but not quite pushing through, until, in the 11th minutes, Patrick Morrissey took a Ryan Young pass and beat Hawk goaltender Alex Wyse (42 saves) for his first collegiate goal and the game winner.
The Ephs are now 6-2-2 over their last ten games and are showing great improvement. They will look to make it three straight victories next Friday, January 30th, when they play host to Trinity. That game is scheduled to begin at 7:00 PM.
