Amherst (15-6-4; 10-4-4 NESCAC)
Offense - 3.06G/GM (3rd)
Defense - 2.00 G/GM (3rd)
PIM - 8.8/GM (6th)
Power Play - 18.1% (5th)
Penalty Kill- 91.2% (1st)
Special Teams Net - +8 (2nd)
Trinity (17-3-5; 12-2-4 NESCAC)
Offense - 3.11 G/GM (1st)
Defense - 1.67 G/GM (2nd)
PIM - 10.7/GM (1st)
Power Play - 20.3% (1st)
Penalty Kill - 87.5% (3rd)
Special Teams Net - +4 (4th)
The Lowdown: Something's gotta give
Well, (insert Clay Davis expletive here ), we had quite the eventful semifinal Saturday. First, Amherst and Wesleyan played the longest game in NESCAC history (91:03) with the only tally notched on a Nick Bondra shot from the point on a PJ Conlon feed in double OT for the 1-0 victory. Mammoths goalie Mike Cullen made 39 saves and has now given up a grand total of zero goals in 151:03 of playoff action this season. On the losing side, NESCAC Player of the Year Tim Sestak made a heroic 65 goals in defeat.
The second game was a veritable smorgasbord of scoring, compared to semifinal one at least, with Ryan Pfeffer lifting Trinity past Hamilton 2-1 with the overtime goal below. Teddy Loughborough stopped 27 of 28 stops and has now let up just one more goal than his counterpart in Sunday's championship.
Sunday will be the fourth playoff matchup between Trinity and Amherst (Trinity has won three of the four) and first since the 2016 finals when Trinity easily handled the then nameless Amherst Purple and White for the title. The Bantams, however, have never won the NESCAC title game as a 1 seed (they were a 2 seed in their two most recent title wins in 2016 and 2017) and the Mammoths are the only NESCAC team Trinity hasn't beaten this season. Amherst downed Trinity 3-2 in December at the site of Sunday's title game and tied 1-1 in Amherst this year. Neither of the goalies likely to play on Sunday played in that December tilt with Giancarlo Ventre making 37 saves for Amherst and Jonah Capriotti making 20 saves in the loss. Mammoths senior Jack Fitzgerald had two goals in that contest. Ventre made 26 saves in the tie while Loughborough had 37 saves in a rare game that the Bantams were outshot (only happened one other time this season, a one goal non-conference loss at Manhattanville). Amherst isn't far behind, as Jack Arena's disciplined defense has only been outshot by opponents three times this season with a 2-1-0 record for the Mammoths in such games.
Fair or not, it appears from the D3hockey.com team's analysis of the NCAA's pairwise rankings (doing it a bit differently than the regional rankings of past season) the NESCAC is only getting one bid in to the NCAA tournament. So that means it's win or the season is done for both teams today. The Bantams haven't missed the NCAA tournament in back-to-back seasons since 2013 and 2014, while Amherst hasn't been since 2015 when they won the NCAA tournament and made it all the way to the Phrozen Phour along with eventual national champion Trinity. As we noted yesterday, the Amherst senior class looks to avenge the 2016 NESCAC title loss to Trinity and avoid being the first Jack Arena senior class since 2008 to not win a NESCAC title.
Should be a fun and exciting, but low scoring affair. It will also be interesting to see how the tired legs from the OTs less than 24 hours ago will affect the play. Keep an eye out for Mark Messier if you are at the game, not sure his connection to any of the programs but he was on site yesterday. Enjoy!
In honor of the title game rematch from three seasons ago, we're going with the 2016 track from Kings of Leon - Waste a Moment
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