ECHA Playoffs
Navy Drops Heartbreaker To Drexel
In Opening Round of ECHA Playoffs
Midshipmen Finish With Impressive 16-Win Season
The look on senior Todd Lohstreter's face said it all. In
Navy's locker room, moments after the Mids' heartbreaking 4-3
loss to Drexel last Friday afternoon in the opening round of the
Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association (ECHA) playoffs,
Lohstreter stood amongst his teammates and struggled to hold
back tears as the realization set in that he and his four fellow
seniors had played their last official game in a Navy jersey.
During the previous two-and-a-half hours, the five firsties
-- Lohstreter, Jon Martha, Nick Hennenfent, Lukin Lain, and Luke
Saladyga -- and the rest of the team had fought their hearts out
but came up one disputed goal short in their quest to reach
Saturday's semi-final round in the ECHA's post-season playoffs
at West Chester's Ice Line arena.
With the loss, Navy ended with a 16-13-1 overall record,
including 11-6-1 in the ECHA regular season.
“We have nothing to be ashamed of,” coach Rick Randazzo
said following Friday's disappointing setback. “We gave it our
best shot and we came up just one goal short. We should all be
proud of the effort we put forth, representing the Naval Academy
and the Navy Hockey program. If a couple of bounces of the puck
had gone our way, we would have been playing Saturday instead of
Drexel.”
One bounce coach Randazzo was referring to accounted for
Drexel's winning goal. With time winding down in the third
period, the Dragons were buzzing around Navy netminder Matthew
Collinsworth. With the puck in the air, Drexel's Steve Ciottoni
knocked it down with his stick and behind Collinsworth.
While one referee waved off the apparent goal because he
thought it was hit with a high stick above the shoulder, the
second referee pointed to the puck inside the net -- the
official signal for a goal. After a brief conference, the two
referees allowed the goal to stand, and Drexel had a 4-3 lead
with 4:17 left to play.
“That was a tough call, and a tough way to end the season,”
Lohstreter said later. “I really thought he hit the puck with a
high stick. But you have to live with the referee's decision, as
painful as it may be.”
The Midshipmen mounted a valiant comeback try in the game's
final four minutes. After Drexel was whistled for a two minute
penalty, and as Navy controlled the puck in the Dragons' end of
the ice, coach Randazzo pulled goaltender Collinsworth for an
extra forward.
With a 6-to-4 player advantage for over a minute, Navy had
several good scoring chances that either sailed just wide or
were stopped by Drexel goalie Dan Angeline. When the scoreboard
clock read 0:00, the Mids had finally run out of chances...and
out of time.
Navy actually spent the entire game playing catch-up.
Just six minutes into the first period, Drexel's Dragons
took a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals just seven seconds apart
from Pat Higgins and Anthony Nordo. The Mids bounced right back
when Saladyga passed the puck to junior J.D. Walker, who fired a
wicked wrist shot from just inside the right face-off circle
past Angeline at 6:55 to trim the deficit to 2-1.
In the second stanza, with Navy on a power play, Martha
passed the puck from the right point to Walker in the left
face-off circle. Walker then slid a cross-ice pass through the
slot to sophomore Jeff Storer, who was perfectly positioned just
outside the crease. Storer accepted the pass and buried a
“one-timer” into the back of the net at 9:09 to tie the game,
2-2.
Drexel once again took a one-goal lead when a shot by Dan
McDonald took a flukey bounce past Collinsworth just 13 seconds
into the third period. Refusing to quit, the Mids got the
equalizer at 3-3 when Lohstreter knocked in a loose puck at
7:33, assisted by Walker.
The two teams battled evenly over the next eight minutes
until Drexel's disputed game winning goal at 15:43.
Goaltender Collinsworth, who kept Navy in the game with
several key saves, finished with 40 stops as the Mids were
outshot 44-24. The spirited youngster ended the year with a
3.27 goals against average and an .897 save percentage.
Brief Points: The Midshipmen
face the USNA Alumni this Saturday, February 22 at 7 p.m. at
Dahlgren Hall...Walker's goal and two assists Friday gave him a
total of 32 goals and 31 assists for the season to lead the team
in scoring with 63 points...Lohstreter's third period tally was
his 26th of the campaign to go with 18 assists for 44 points,
good for second place behind Walker...Lain finished third in
scoring stats for the Mids with 22 goals and 18 assists for 40
points, and junior Kacey Kemmerer was next with 9 goals
and 17 assists for 26 points... Martha's assist was his 16th of
the season to go along with four goals...Storer's pretty power
play tally was his 2nd of the campaign; he also had 13
assists...freshmen goaltenders Whit Abraham and Ryan
Dobie, plebe defenseman Evan Miller, junior Josh
Dupre, and sophomore John Foley made the trip Friday
but were not in the lineup against Drexel ...junior goalie
Jared Wilhelm, who recently celebrated his 21st birthday,
dressed as Collinsworth's back-up...Navy played four forward
lines Friday: Lohstreter, with Walker and Kemmerer; Lain, with
sophomores John Bogdan and Matthew Thomas;
sophomore Jeff Fallat with junior Mike Kessler and
sophomore John Reuland; and sophomores Joe Viola
and Jeff Kausek with freshman Bill Knips...the
Mids also used six defensemen against Drexel...besides
Hennenfent, Martha, Saladyga, and Storer, sophomore Jack
Holthaus and freshman Sam Kunst also saw plenty of
action...in other ECHA playoff action from this past weekend,
sixth place Scranton surprised third place Rhode Island on
Friday afternoon, 4-3...on Saturday evening, first place Towson
stopped Scranton, 8-1, while Drexel defeated West Chester in
overtime, 4-3...in Sunday's championship clash, Drexel defeated
Towson, 3-1, to claim the ECHA crown....West Chester topped
Scranton, 8-4, in the third place game.