College Hockey:

This Week in D-III Women’s Hockey: Nov 27,2008

Hello Neumann!

This past weekend the Neumann Knights notched their name into the ECAC West discussion with an impressive sweep of previously eighth ranked Utica. Just a few weeks after Utica asserted their name among the ECAC West elite after splitting with Plattsburgh, Neumann now must be considered a legitimate threat as well after taking down the Pioneers twice.

Neumann head coach Matt Kennedy was pleased that Neumann was finally able to get the monkey off their back against one of the ECAC Wests best.

Utica has been our rival the past few years because weve always been three/four and four/five in the conference, Kennedy said. We had never been able to beat them in league play and we looked at this weekend as a sort of catalyst to find out where we were. Its certainly a great confidence builder after coming out of Oswego with two wins as well.

The Knights topped the Pioneers 2-1 on Friday night behind goals from Jasper Thomson and Diane Peters. Jasper Thomson, along with Toronto Aeros junior teammate Nicole Alexopoulous were the two prized recruits in Neumanns freshmen class this season.

The Toronto Aeros are a Division I factory for womens hockey players, Kennedy said. To get two of their captains no less to come play Division III hockey is huge. They dont know anything except winning because thats all theyve done for the whole career.

Despite getting out shot 24-17, Mel Brunet stood tall between the pipes guiding Neumann to the win making 23 stops. Lynny Gonzales snapped Brunets shut out bid with a little under six minutes to go in the game. However, thats the closest the Pioneers would get and Neumann picked up the two points in the first game of the series.

On the next night, Utica once again out shot Neumann 22-21. However, the results remained the same and Neumann pulled out a 3-1 win for a huge four-point sweep of the Pioneers. Niki Blazenko paced the offense for Neumann with two goals. Holly Williams added the final nail in the coffin with an empty net goal with six seconds remaining in the game.

Becky Heim tallied the lone Utica goal, which initially tied the game up in the second period. However, the Knights proved to be too much and once again rode Mel Brunet to the win. Brunet stopped 21 shots to improve to 4-2 on the season.

Kennedy acknowledged Brunets presence in goal as a major reason why Neumann was able to complete the sweep.

When she [Brunet] is on, you cant beat her, Kennedy said. Shes one of the most technically sound goalies Ive ever seen. The more shots she gets the better she plays usually and were very fortunate to have her. Our success the rest of the season will be geared around how well she plays.

Neumanns biggest difference from last season has been the team depth according to Kennedy.

Last year we were a good team, Kennedy said. However, we were one dimensional and could only count on two or three players to score. We brought in six forwards that can score this year and its made my job tough in trying to pick whos going to be in the line-up each night.

Its a good problem to have though as weve certainly are playing the best team hockey in program history. We believe in ourselves and what were doing here and I think people are starting to turn their heads around the country and notice.

Neumann has come a long way since the beginning of November when the Knights were trounced by R.I.T. 6-1 and 8-2 on consecutive nights. Kennedy attributes the captain leadership as one of the biggest reasons for the turnaround.

The R.I.T. series was certainly a huge ego killer, Kennedy said. We thought we were a little better than we were but now I believe weve come full circle since that series and wish we could have another crack at them because I believe it would be a completely different game.

Next up, Neumann will have another chance to test how far theyve come as they will host second ranked and two-time defending champion Plattsburgh on Dec. 5 and Dec. 6 in Aston, PA.

I hope we continue to play good hockey, Kennedy said. Were going to need to come out with a lot of intensity as we have never taken a point from them before. Itll be important to play a solid first period and keep the penalties down. Well have to work for our bounces, as I firmly believe you dont get them unless you work for them. Hopefully if everything works out we can walk away with a point or two.

Meet the nations new top-ranked team

In the last three USCHO.com polls, weve had three different number one teams in Plattsburgh, Elmira, and now Middlebury. All three of them converged on Plattsburgh, N.Y. and the Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena last weekend for the 2008 Cardinal Classic. Plattsburgh emerged as the champions with a shootout win over Middlebury in the championship game, but it will go down as a tie in the NCAA record books.

Middlebury made the most noise with their opening round victory over the previous number one team, Elmira. The Panthers topped the Soaring Eagles 2-1 behind a tremendous goaltending performance from sophomore Lexi Bloom. Bloom stopped 40 shots to pick up her first victory of the season.

Then in a surprise move to me, Middlebury coach Bill Mandigo gave Bloom the start again on Saturday against Plattsburgh in the finals. It was surprising to me because Mandigo split Bloom and junior goalie Lani Wright all last season regardless of how well or poorly they played.

Lexi earned the start based on practice, Mandigo said. She also played that well on Friday and deserved to play again the next night. She was exceptional in the second period of the Elmira game and really kept us in it. Shes competes all the time and is playing with a lot of confidence right now.

Middlebury got the opening goal of the game with just under two minutes to go in the first period when Annmarie Cellino lit the lamp for the Panthers. Elmiras senior captain Kayla Coady tied things up with a power-play goal 16:34 into the second period. However, thats all the Soaring Eagles got in a period they flat out dominated winning shots 19-5.

Not being able to push another goal across in the second period proved costly as Middlebury tallied what would turn out to be the game winning goal 4:10 in the third. Molly Vitt scored the goal on the power play with assists from Cellino and Nora Bergman.

Allison Cubberley took her first loss of the season and dropped to 5-1-1 on the year while making 20 saves for Elmira.

Middlebury was out shot heavily again the next night but Lexi Bloom stood tall once again for the Panthers and stymied the Cardinals attack for most of the night.

Plattsburgh out shot the Panthers 38-21 but could only manage two goals and the two sides skated to a 2-2 tie through 65 minutes before Plattsburgh won the shootout 1-0.

Danielle Blanchard and Amber Ellis tallied the two Plattsburgh goals while Grace Waters and Nora Bergman scored the two Middlebury goals.

Mandigo was happy with the weekends results considering how many more games Plattsburgh and Elmira had played and it was just Middleburys second and third games.

Its always the case with our league schedule that were behind in games for this tournament, Mandigo said. Its no excuse one way or the other because its just fun to be out and playing on the ice.

Plattsburgh and Elmira are very good teams and we played two really great and competitive games with them. They are always good tests that could have gone either way but Im definitely happy for the kids as they worked hard and played in some different roles than they are used to.

M