ANNAPOLIS, MD (Saturday, February 16, 2008) – Navy’s ice hockey team played one of its best games of the season but came up just short, falling to Penn State, 3-2, Saturday night in the second round of the Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League (ESCHL) playoffs at the McMullen Hockey Arena.

 

Penn State will now meet Delaware tomorrow (Sunday) at 1 p.m. at McMullen Arena for the ESCHL championship.  Delaware defeated Rhode Island Saturday afternoon by a surprisingly lopsided 8-2 margin.

 

All of the game’s scoring Saturday night came in the first period. Penn State (now 30-3-4 and ranked third nationally) took a 2-0 lead thanks to power play goals from junior Lukas DeLorenzo at 4:14 and senior Michael McMullen at 7:41.

 

The Midshipmen (now 16-18-1) bounced back to tie the contest at 2-2 with a pair of even strength goals, the first coming from senior Nick Schwob at 13:21 and the second off the stick of junior Matt Swezey at 15:28.  It was Swezey’s team leading 24th goal of the season, one more than Schwob’s 23 tallies.

 

Penn State’s McMullen scored what proved to be the game winning goal with just 14 seconds left in the first period, again on the power play.  Neither team scored during the game’s final 40 minutes, although an apparent trying goal by the Midshipmen in the third period was disallowed by referee Jason Smith.

 

Navy sophomore goaltender Eric Anderson was superb between the pipes, recording 41 saves, many of them the highlight reel variety.  His counterpart, Penn State’s Nick Signet, stopped 24 of the 26 Navy shots on goal he faced.

 

The Midshipmen are now idle until next Saturday, February 23, when they face Seton Hall at 10 a.m. at the New Jersey Devils’ Prudential Center arena.

 

 

SCORING SUMMARY

Penn State        3          0          0          -           3

NAVY             2          0          0          -           2

 

First Period

PSU – DeLorenzo 21 (Jordan, McMullen) 4:14 (pp)

PSU – McMullen 18 (O’Brien, Jordan) 7:41 (pp)

N – Schwob 23 (Swezey) 13:21

N – Swezey 24 (Wallis, Daniel) 15:28

PSU – McMullen 19 (O’Brien, DeLorenzo) 19:46 (pp)

 

Second Period

None

 

Third Period

None

 

SHOTS

Penn State                    22        11        11        -           44

NAVY                         13        3          10        -           26

 

SAVES

Signet (Penn State)       11        3          10        -           24

Anderson (NAVY)       19        11        11        -           41