After a 24 hour delay, we were finally able to get in our game against the Connecticut College Camels yesterday.  The grounds crew had plowed the 12 inches of snow off of the field on Saturday and were out sweeping it at 5AM on Sunday in order to start the game on time.  We're fortunate to have such a dedicated crew that consisted of some other coaches and department staff who pitched in.   At game time there were flurries in the air, the temperature was hovering in the mid 20's and a stiff wind blowing on Kohn Field.

As predicted and to their credit, the Camels came to play yesterday and showed great emotion throughout the day.  They would end up scoring the first goal of the game on man up and 4 of the first five, at one point leading 4-1.   Our guys started the game off a bit tentative and certainly didn't come out with the same enthusiasm as the Conn team did.   Conn played almost exclusively zone throughout the game and even though we were expecting it and had practiced against it, still took some adjusting as we got into the flow of the game.

The story of the day for us was our dominance at the face of x (well now it's actually a 4x4 inch square) where we went 21-23.  Both Peter Mellen and Dave Campbell (the player) were excellent at controlling the draws and giving us critical possessions.  That was the case when we scored 6 consecutive goals in the 2nd and 3rd quarter to take a 7-4 lead.

Our starting attack unit of Jim Cabrera, Tom Petty and Nick Bastis had a great day shooting the ball.  Jim ended up going 3,1 and gave us a much needed spark on offense.  Tom Petty had a few spectacular goals driving from behind the cage and finished his scoring with our 9th goal of the day which broke an 8-8 tie in the 4th quarter.  On this particular goal Tom was our point attackman on the fast break, he took the feed from Conor Lyons and stuck a shot in the upper corner against the Conn goalie.  This is the second week in a row where Tom has come up with a big goal in the 4th quarter for us, it's always nice to have a young guy step up under pressure.

Alex Palmisano had a good day in the goal for us and had a few critical saves in the second half as Conn was rallying to tie the score or to try and go ahead.  The biggest came with less than 5 seconds in the game when Conn had a great look at the cage and Alex got a foot on the ball.

Again, to their credit the Conn team played their hearts out and executed their game plan.  Their goalie came up with some huge saves and kept them in the game. If they continue to play that way they will turn some heads in the NESCAC this year.

As for the Panthers, we showed a lot of poise by answering Conn's early run, by making plays when we had to during the course of the game and by doing just enough to win, again.

We'll get back to work tomorrow in preparation for Springfield on Wednesday.  An 0-4 team who has lost some tough games to start the season.  They'll be hungry to get their first win.  It should be a great game!