#2. Williams Ephs (17-7-3) 1 #1. Bowdoin Polar Bears (22-3-2) 2
It was over when...: Bowdoin kept the puck in the offensive end and the Ephs weren't able to pull Sean Dougherty (G, So) until 20 seconds remained. The Polar Bears kept Williams off the board and held on, 2-1, for their first official men's NESCAC hockey championship.Bowdoin led off the scoring 11:46 in on the first power play of the game. Ollie Koo (D/F, Jr.) kept a puck in the offensive zone that nearly trickled past the blue line. He then shuffled it over to John McGinnis (F, So.), who fired it across ice to Colin Downey (F/D, Jr.) for the goal.
As they did in the semifinals against Middlebury, Bowdoin took a 2-0 lead in the final minute of the first period. After the Ephs failed to clear a puck from the defensive zone, Koo got it over to Harry Matheson (F, Jr.), who followed up an initial save by Dougherty and flipped a backhand home with 4.9 seconds remaining. The late goal gave the top seeded Polar Bears a significant psychological advantage heading into the locker room. Senior co-captain Tim McGarry (D, Sr.) said, "That was huge; anytime you can get a goal in the last few minutes that's deflating for the other team and uplifts us."
Williams, the least penalized team in the NESCAC and an all around disciplined squad, lost their composure a bit in the second. The Ephs committed five penalties in the period, including a 5 on 3 for 37 seconds in the final five minutes of the frame. The six total penalties in the game were the most for a Bill Kangas' team since a 7 penalty affair against Colby in November and the five sin bin visits were the most in any period for Williams this year.
While the Ephs didn't surrender any goals, the penalties severely hampered any offensive flow and they were outshot for the second straight period, 16-6. By the end of the second, Bowdoin had doubled Williams shot total, 30-15.
With midterms looming, the Bowdoin student body channeled their inner LA Dodger fan and didn't fully fill The Sid until the third period (though the crowd was solid throughout). The Polar Bears took the ice for the final frame to a rousing fan ovation as their standard intro "Lux Aeterna" (the oft remixed "Requiem for a Dream" theme) blared.
Between the second and third, the Bowdoin student announcers warned that a two goal lead is one of the worst in hockey, as one tally cuts the advantage to only one and gives the trailing team momentum. Almost on cue, the Ephs started what Bowdoin coach Terry Meagher called "the surge" and cut the lead in half when Evan Dugdale (F, Sr.) took a deflected Mark Lyons (F, Sr.) slapshot and flicked it past Max Fenkell (F, So.) just 74 seconds into the period.
The Ephs would have several opportunities to tie the game, including a cross bar clang and a power play on a Rob MacGregor (F, Sr.) holding call at 12:27. At the end of the PP, Fenkell made an athletic glove save to keep his team in the lead, which led to a "Fenk-ell" chant from the student section. With the support of an amped up crowd, the Polar Bears closed out the Ephs for a 2-1 final. As coach Meagher said after the game, "When we were trying to close the game down with three or four minutes left, I think the crowd was a huge factor."
After a countdown of the final ten seconds from the 2,300+ fans (see embedded video below), the buzzer sounded and a sea of gloves and sticks flooded the ice. Dressed in his #28. Tim McGarry jersey, Lucien Holdell joined the team on the ice for the awards ceremony. Senior co-captains Mcgarry and Dan Weiniger (F, Sr.) accepted the championship plaque.
This was the third championship game for the Bowdoin senior class, having lost at home to Middlebury in 2010 and having beaten Williams in the vacated title game in 2011. McGarry was keenly aware of the stripped title. "Every day we look up there and you count the banners and you look at the years and there's one missing. It really meant a lot for us to get one and put something up there that's gonna stay and we can come back and look at when we get older. It means a lot." Meagher added, "they'll be keeping this one."
Second team All-NESCAC goalie Sean Dougherty made 36 saves in the loss to close out his breakout sophomore season. Despite the loss, Williams had a solid season, finishing 12th in the March 4th USCHO poll and far exceeding the seventh place finish in the NESCAC predicted from the WordPress blog and Tim Costello of USCHO. As McGarry pointed out, the Bowdoin seniors haven't loss to Williams in their career, going (6-0-2) in the four years. This season, the Polar Bears won all three contests between the two teams, scoring eight and letting up only two goals.
It was quite the weekend for the Polar Bears. Not only did the men beat their arch nemesis Middlebury for the first time in NESCAC playoff history en route to the first official NESCAC men's hockey title, but the lady Polar Bears captured their third (first since 2004) NESCAC women's ice hockey crown at Middlebury on Sunday as well.
Bowdoin now heads to the NCAA tournament, where they will play at home against UMass-Dartmouth at 7PM on Wednesday night. The winner of that game will travel to Utica, NY on Saturday for a Quarterfinal match-up with the Utica Pioneers.
Player of the game: Max Fenkell (G, So.) Fenkell made 23 saves, including some "timely" ones (according to Meagher) in the back end of his first back-to-back starts of the season. Meagher called the goaltending decision "one of the most challenging ones we had to make." Bowdoin's 30th year head man said the decision to play Max over Steve Messina (G, Jr.) came from the student leadership council that he has been running for the past five or six years. "It was a collective leadership council decision and I'm not passing the buck. It was a tough debate, but it was a collaborative decision between the council and the coaches."
Both McGarry and Meagher praised Fenkell's hockey mind. Mcgarry said the sophomore netminder "really understands what we're trying to do as a team defensively and offensively and what the other team is trying to do offensively...he's our third defender out there." Coach called Fenkell a "brilliant, brilliant goaltender; very high hockey IQ, understands systems, picks up things really fast."
Fenkell's 1.50 GAA and .948 save percentage for the weekend earned him NESCAC Player of the Week honors.
Box Score: Williams 1/Bowdoin 2
Williams Recap Bowdoin Recap Bowdoin Orient Article Maine Hockey Journal Article
Portland Press Herald Article
Below are two videos from Sunday's Championship game. The first is from The Bowdoin Orient and features the final seconds of the game and ensuing celebration followed by a collection of video from the game. The second is from Bowdoin Sports Info and features the first goal of the game as well as the view of the celebration from the Press Box.
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