This weekend saw lots of action at Watson with both teams coming away with a solid win. Friday we witnessed one of those virtuoso goaltending efforts when Lessard threw a shutout in the Polar Bear's 3-0. This afternoon the Panthers fought back and came away with a 4-2 win. Following a scoreless 1st Midd broke through against Lessard. The puck came out from the left half boards to Bielawski insid ethe blueline; she fed across to Styribicki and her drive from the right point was tipped by Greer at the top of the crease, up beating Lessard inside the stickside post. Less than 2 minutes later the Panthers extended the lead on a mix-up between goalie and D. The puck was thrown to the gloveside of the net from deep in the right wing corner and as Lessard waited for her D to play the puck, her hesitation allow Fluke to swoop in and slide the puck into the net, coming across the crease and in stickside. The Polar Bears got one back late in the period with Kennedy putting the puck into the riht corner to Ludy and Finnerty working taking a pass and feeding back to Kennedy who walked across the slot on her backhand. Midd goalie Pinsent made the first save, but Kennedy grabbed the rebound and got the puck past lefty Pinsent's glove into the net. The 3rd opened with with Bowdoin quickly evening the score. Keenedy came off the bench and intercepted a Midd breakout pass; she put on some speed, stepped around a defender with a cute deke, went to the net and went top shelf from the top of the crease. This sudden turn of fortune called for the Panthers to forego the deer caught in the headlights response and they answered the call. Bowdoin was floating a forward for most of the game and the strategy backfired when Krakower stepped in and picked off a pass intended for the floater just inside of the blue line in the Bowdoin D zone; with play in the zone 4x4 due to the floater, Krakower had space and time to tee a slap shot up and her drive beat Lessard up stickside (note that the collegehockeystats.net scoring gives this goal to Fluke and a 2nd assist to Marrison). The Panther's fourth goal came when Strybicki's drive from inside the blueline was saved by Lessard to her stickside and was under the goalie's pads, but found by Bielawski and rammed home. Nice win for Midd as they had the Polar Bears coming back strong, but were able to counter and come away with a crucial win. The weekend comes to a close with Bowdoin at 7-1 in conference and Middlebury at 7-1-2. Middlebury plays Hamilton at home, a home and home against Williams and Conn College on the road. Bowdoin has 8 NESCAC games left (Hamilton at home and road series against Williams, Trinity and season ending games at Amherst). The Polar Bears appear to control their own destiny and have to give away their current edge on the Panthers which amounts to their two games in hand (ie the two Midd ties-Amherst and Trinity). Lots of hockey left before we need reservations in a particular place, but this is the NESCAC and it is a rare season when things fall into place with so much of the season remaining.
My last time this looked sort of like what was happening.... whatever it is is definitely not traditional.