PHILADELPHIA, PA (Friday, December 1, 2006) -- Navy's ice hockey team scored 
three consecutive power play goals during an eight-minute span in the second 
period to break open a tight game and went on to defeat Drexel, 6-3, Friday 
night at the Class of '23 Rink in Philadelphia.

With the impressive win, the Midshipmen improved to 10-4-1 overall and 7-2-1 
in the Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association.    Navy currently sits in 
third place in the ECHA standings with 15 points, just one point behind West 
Chester (16) and nine points behind Rhode Island (24).

Drexel dropped to 6-3-0 in the ECHA with Friday night's loss.

Navy got on the scoreboard early, thanks to a power play goal from senior 
Patrick Sullivan at 7:51, assists going to junior Andrew Stoner and 
sophomore defenseman Matt Swezey.  The Mids stretched their lead to 2-0 at 
the 12:46 mark on a power play tally off the stick of sophomore Jeff Martin, 
assisted by Sullivan and sophomore Nolan Anliker.

Drexel struck back before the period ended, picking up an even strength goal 
from P.J. Armstrong at 14:54 and a power play goal from Zac Blazic at 16:05 
to tie the score at 2-2.

Navy came out fired up for the second stanza, and took a 3-2 lead at 5:07 on 
a power play goal from junior Nick Schwob, assists going to senior 
defensemen Jim Doherty and Joe Liles.  The Mids doubled up Drexel at 4-2 
just over a minute later, at 6:17, on an Anliker power play tally, assisted 
by Sullivan and Martin.  Seven minutes later, Navy took a 5-2 advantage on 
yet another power play goal, this one coming from Doherty, assisted by Liles 
and senior Kevin Krmpotich, at 13:16.

In one of the most inexplicable officiating decisions in recent memory, 
Drexel was awarded its third goal when Nick Sandos fired the puck from the 
blue line past Navy netminder Eric Anderson at the 15:12 mark, at least one 
full second AFTER one member of the officiating crew had blown a whistle, 
intending to penalize the Midshipmen for too many men on the ice.  Although 
everyone in the Class of '23 rink heard the whistle blow, referee Jason 
Smith allowed the goal AND still called the too many men infraction on Navy.

Ahead 5-3 entering the third period, the Mids put the game away when Schwob 
recorded his second goal of the night, at the 4:40 mark, assists going to 
senior team captain Jay Alspach and Doherty.

Friday night's victory was even sweeter consider it was Drexel who last year 
defeated Navy 4-3 in overtime in the same Class of '23 rink, then outscored 
the Midshipmen 6-4 in the ECHA playoffs last February at Dahlgren Hall to 
steal away the ECHA championship.

Anderson finished with 28 saves in goal for Navy, while his counterpart Alex 
Gredysa made 33 saves for Drexel, as the Mids outshot the Dragons, 39-31.  
Referee Smith called 32 penalties, totalling 36 minutes for Navy and 41 
penalty minutes for Drexel, including a 10-minute misconduct and a game 
misconduct against Adrian Allatt.  Navy was 5-for-11 on the power play, 
while Drexel was 1-for-14.

Navy is now idle until after the first of the year.  The Midshipmen will 
"host" Delaware on Friday, January 5 at 7:30 p.m. at Piney Orchard Rink in 
Odenton.

BRIEF POINTS: Junior Donald Horner suffered a scary knee injury late in the 
second period as a result from a hit to the knee from Drexel's Jake Davis, 
who was given a 5-minute tripping major penalty from referee Smith for the 
hit....but the tough junior defenseman was back out on the ice and played 
all of his shifts alongside senior Alex Sandroni in the third period, 
although he may be limping a bit Saturday when the Mids march onto Lincoln 
Financial Field for the traditional Army-Navy football clash...while Navy 
doubled the score on Drexel Friday night, there were at least three or four 
times as many Navy fans in the Class of '23 rink than there were Drexel 
fans....likeable forward Aaron Ehrzinger was the extra forward in Friday 
night's lineup and just missed scoring what would have been Navy's seventh 
goal late in the third period....Alspach played every shift and gave his 
usual 100% effort despite battling the flu bug for several days....senior 
defenseman Adam Sheppard was wearing #29 Friday night instead of his usual 
#18.

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