ODENTON, MD (Saturday, January 27, 2007) – Junior Nick Schwob scored with
just under 12 minutes remaining in the third period to lift Navy’s ice
hockey team to a 2-1 Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association (ECHA) victory
over Lehigh Saturday night at Piney Orchard Ice Rink in Odenton.
With the win, the Midshipmen improved to 15-7-1 overall and 10-3-1-0 in the
ECHA, good for a total of 21 points. Navy moved two points ahead of idle
West Virginia in the battle for third place in the league standings. The
Mountaineers play a pair of ECHA games next weekend, at Rutgers and at West
Chester.
Lehigh, meanwhile, fell to 7-10-0-0 in the league, but the Ice Hawks are
still in the hunt for a playoff spot. With a two point edge over Scranton,
Lehigh’s Ice Hawks will qualify for the ECHA playoffs if they defeat Rutgers
Thursday night and if Navy gets past Scranton next Saturday night.
After a scoreless first period Saturday night, the Mids got on the
scoreboard first when freshman Nick Hinkley scored his seventh goal of the
season at 4:41 of the second stanza, with senior defenseman Adam Sheppard
picking up the lone assist.
Lehigh knotted the score at 1-1 in the third period when Rob Rosenhaus put
the puck into the upper right corner of the net at the 3:23 mark.
But Schwob sent the Navy faithful fans home happy when he knocked the puck
past Lehigh goaltender Mitch DePace at 8:11 of the third period. Junior
Donnie Horner recorded the only assist on Schwob’s game winning tally, his
team tying 19th goal of the season.
Navy netminder Eric Anderson registered 24 saves, while DePace finished with
32, as the Mids outshot the Ice Hawks, 34-25
Navy was 0-for-8 on the power play, while Lehigh was 0-for-4.
The Mids face ECHA rival Rutgers Sunday (January 28) at 12 noon at the
Tucker Road Ice Rink in Prince George’s County (see below for directions).
PUCK POINTS: Navy was once again without the services of senior team captain
Jay Alspach (ankle) and junior forward Drew Stoner (shoulder)…Aaron Erzinger
and Eric Smitley dressed and saw ice time…defenseman Adam Shields and
forward Charlie Hymen, who didn’t see a lot of action earlier in the season,
continue to play well for Navy…with Alspach out, the coaches inserted junior
Derek Johnson on the starting line with senior Kevin Krmpotich and junior
Nick Schwob…to get to the Tucker Road Ice Rink from the Annapolis area, take
Route 50 west towards Washington, DC, take the Capital Beltway (495) south
(towards Richmond), take exit 4 west (St. Barnabas Road) towards Oxon Hill,
merge right onto Oxon Hill Road, at the first traffic light, make a left
onto John Hanson Lane, at the next traffic light, make a right (it is
immediately after the left turn) onto St. Barnabas Road, continue through
Bock Road intersection (there will be a church under construction on the
left hand side of the intersection) and make a left onto Tucker Road (it's
about 1-2 blocks past the Bock Road intersection), and the ice rink is down
on the left about a mile.
SCORING SUMMARY
FIRST PERIOD
None
SECOND PERIOD
N – Hinkley 7 (Sheppard) 4:41
THIRD PERIOD
L – Rosenhaus (Mailloux) 3:23
N – Schwob (Horner) 8:11
SAVES
DePace (Lehigh) 11 10 11 - 32
Anderson (NAVY) 10 8 6 - 24
SHOTS
Lehigh 10 8 7 - 25
NAVY 11 11 12 - 34