NEWARK, DEL (Saturday, January 5, 2008) – Sophomore goaltender Eric Anderson anchored a strong defense to lead Navy’s ice hockey team to an impressive 4-2 Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League (ESCHL) triumph over the University of Delaware Saturday night at the Fred Rust Arena in Newark.

With the hard-fought victory, the Midshipmen improved to 7-14-0 overall and 2-12-0 in the prestigious ESCHL.  With their loss, the Blue Hens dropped to 16-5-1 overall and 9-4-1 in the league. Delaware was #7 in the latest American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) rankings released in late December; Navy was not among the ACHA’s top 25 teams.

For the second consecutive night, Navy took a 1-0 lead thanks to a Matt Swezey goal.  Swezey, who was recently converted from a defenseman to a forward, tallied at 12:32 while Delaware’s Andrew Bailey was serving a five-minute major penalty.  Seniors Nick Schwob and Drew Stoner assisted on Swezey’s power play goal, which beat Blue Hen netminder Jimmy Depfer high on his glove side.

Delaware tied the game 1-1 before the first period ended thanks to a disputed Thomas Keough power play tally at the 16:59 mark.  Keough’s goal was allowed even though it appeared the net came off its moorings before the puck had crossed the goal line.

The Mids regained their one-goal lead, 2-1, early in the second stanza when sophomore Keegan Kinkade scored at 4:48.  Schwob had fought hard to carry the puck toward the net and feed it to Kinkade, and as a result picked up the lone assist on the even strength tally.

Navy took its first two-goal lead of the night midway through the second period when junior Charlie Daniel won a face-off in Delaware’s end of the ice and fed the puck back to senior Donnie Horner.  Horner then blasted the puck from the point past Depfer at 12:32 to give the Mids a 3-1 advantage.

Delaware pulled within a goal late in the third period when Ben Rotundo poked a rebound past Anderson at the 15:24 mark after the Navy netminder had made the initial save, trimming the Mids’ lead to 3-2.

But the Mids clinched the victory when junior Nolan Anliker slid the puck into an empty net with just nine seconds left in regulation time after Delaware had pulled Depfer for an extra attacker.  Classmate Jeff Martin assisted on Anliker’s goal, which earned Navy’s Mike Fox the biggest win of his head coaching career thus far.

Anderson’s performance earned him #1 star of the game recognition from the Navy radio broadcasting duo of Josh Martinelli and Jim Guiberson.

Unfortunately, because Delaware’s scorekeeper did not record shots or saves on the game’s official scoresheet, there was no record of exactly how many saves Anderson or Depfer had.

Navy is now idle until next weekend, when the Mids travel to Scranton, PA for a pair of ESCHL games against Scranton’s Ice Royals on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  Both games will begin at 4:30 p.m.

SCORING SUMMARY

NAVY             1          2          1          -           4

Delaware          1          0          1          -           2

First Period

N – Swezey (Schwob, Stoner) 12:32 (pp)

D – Keough (Baumgartner, Sexton) 16:59 (pp)

Second Period

N – Kinkade (Schwob) 4:48

N- Horner (Daniel) 12:32

Third Period

D – Rotundo (Weiner) 15:24

N – Anliker (Martin) 19:51 (en)