ANNAPOLIS, MD (Friday, January 25, 2008) – Senior Nick Schwob and junior Matt Swezey each tallied twice to lead Navy’s ice hockey team to a 5-4 win over West Chester Friday night at the McMullen Hockey Arena.

 

With the non-league victory, the Midshipmen are now 9-17-0, while the Golden Rams fell to 20-6-2.

 

Navy will next face the University of Maryland tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon at 3:20 p.m. at Gardens Ice House in Laurel.

 

West Chester got on the scoreboard early Friday night and threatened to turn the game into a rout, getting goals from Jim Gehring at 1:01 and Steve Jones at 2:27 to take a quick 2-0 lead.

 

The Mids struck back on Schwob’s first goal of the night, assisted by Chandler Brewer and Jon Westerman, at the 5:50 mark of the first period.  But the Golden Rams regained their two-goal advantage before the period ended, thanks to a Pat Johnson power play tally at 11:52.

 

Down 3-1, Navy came out strong in the second stanza and dominated play, outshooting West Chester by a 15-5 margin.  The Mids’ aggressiveness paid off with a pair of Swezey even strength goals, the first coming at 5:27 assisted by Schwob and Donnie Horner, and the second at 18:02 assisted by Matt Keller and Charlie Daniel.

 

The Mids took their first lead of the night early in the third period when Drew Stoner banged home the rebound of a Swezey shot while Navy was on a power play.  Schwob picked up the other assist on Stoner’s goal, which came at 5:30.

 

West Chester pulled even at 4-4 late in the period when Bob MacLaughlin fired a rising shot that beat Navy netminder Eric Anderson over his right shoulder at 15:01.

 

With the game headed toward overtime, the Midshipmen sealed the critical victory when Schwob knocked in a rebound after Stoner had made a strong play and taken an initial shot.  Senior defenseman Adam Shields recorded the other assist on Schwob’s game winning goal which came at 16:19.

 

West Chester pulled goaltender Luis Perez for an extra attacker with 1:30 remaining in regulation time, and actually enjoyed a 6-on-4 advantage for the game’s final 23 seconds after referee Doug Wood whistled Stoner for a holding penalty.  But Anderson and the Navy defense kept the Golden Rams off the scoreboard to preserve the victory and send a large crowd estimated at close to 700 home happy.

 

Anderson finished with 29 saves for the Mids on 33 West Chester shots on goal, while Perez was credited with 38 saves on 43 Navy shots.

 

Puck Points: There may be some changes in the Eastern States Collegiate Hockey League playoffs set for McMullen Arena on Feb. 15-16-17…the three-day format was necessary when it was believed that all six ESCHL teams would qualify for the post-season playoffs…but in an e-mail sent out late Friday by league commissioner Brian Moran, it now appears only the top four teams will qualify for post-season play, reducing the schedule to a two-day format…as it currently stands, Penn State, Rhode Island, and Delaware would easily qualify for the league playoffs, with Navy, Drexel, and Scranton battling for the fourth and final slot…that makes Navy’s two games with Drexel next weekend (Feb. 1 in Philadelphia and Feb. 2 in Annapolis) critical if the Mids want to qualify the playoffs being held in their own building.

 

 

SCORING SUMMARY

West Chester               3          0          1          -           4

NAVY                         1          2          2          -           5

 

First Period

WC – Gehring (Johnson, Bushman) 1:01

WC – Jones (Waite, Longo) 2:27

N – Schwob (Brewer, Westerman) 5:50

WC – Johnson (Bushman, Longo) 11:52 (pp)

 

Second Period

N – Swezey (Schwob, Horner) 5:27

N – Swezey (Keller, Daniel) 18:02

 

Third Period

N – Stoner (Swezey, Schwob) 5:50 (pp)

WC – MacLaughlin (Jones, Lewandowsky) 15:01

N – Schwob (Stoner, Shields) 16:19

 

SAVES

Perez (West Chester)   13        13        12        -           38

Anderson (NAVY)       12        5          12        -           29

 

SHOTS

West Chester               15        5          13        -           33

NAVY                         14        15        14        -           43