Pinning the first loss of the season on second ranked Norwich University on Saturday lifted the Williams College men’s ice hockey team from 9th to 6th in the latest USCHO poll. Norwich entered the contest at 16-0-4.
Bill Kangas’ Eph sextet 12-3-3/10-3-3 NESCAC (1st place) used goals by first year forward Mark Lyons and senior Alex Smigelski to tip second ranked Norwich 2-1. The Ephs held Norwich scoreless on six power play opportunities and benefitted from 48 saves on 49 shots by sophomore netminder Ryan Purdy.
This season in NESCAC play Purdy has a 2.35 goals against average and a .924 save percentage.
Lyons’ tally was his first as an Eph and Smigelski upped his team best total to 16. Smigelski leads NESCAC in goals scored with 12 and is tied with Middlebury’s Martin Drolet for most points with 19.
The schedule does not get any easier for the Ephs as they host perennial power Middlebury on Tuesday night at 7:00 PM in a game that will be featured as a live video webcast here. Middlebury is currently in fifth place in NESCAC with an overall record of 11-4-4 and 7-3-4 in conference play.
After Tuesday’s title the Ephs will be on the road for the
final four contests. This Friday the Ephs will tangle with Babson
and on Saturday they will visit UMass-Boston. On the final weekend
of the season Williams will be at Castleton State on Friday and at
Skidmore on Saturday.
USCHO.com Division III Men's Poll
Minneapolis, Minn./February 8, 2010
Team (First
Place) Record Pts Last Week
1
Oswego
(20) 21-1-0 300 1
2
Norwich
16-1-4 290 2
3 St.
Norbert
17-3-3 254 3
4 St.
Scholastica
16-3-4 244 4
5
Plattsburgh
14-4-4 194 5
6
Williams
12-3-3 182 9
7 Gustavus Adolphus
15-4-2 170 8
8
Elmira
16-4-1 164 6
9
Middlebury
11-4-4 132 10
10
Hamline
14-4-3 119 10
11
Amherst
14-3-3 107 7
12
Adrian
18-3-0 77 12
13
Wentworth
17-2-1 45 15
14 Wis.-River
Falls
14-7-2 39 14
15
Bowdoin
13-5-1 37 NR
Others Receiving Votes: Manhattanville 33, Augsburg 5,
Fredonia 5, Neumann 2, Hamilton 1
