The forecast called for a few snow showers ending in the morning. It snowed fairly heavily from early afternoon all the way through the game. By the end of the game the field was pretty well covered with snow. Both teams handled the conditions reasonably well. There was some slipping and a few errant passes, but it was not unreasonably sloppy.

We played a great defensive first half and possessed the ball well also, giving us a 7-2 halftime lead. John West and Ed Brown did a tremendous job on their two dangerous attackmen. They each got a few points by the end of the game, but neither dodged 6 v. 6 to create any points vs. Brown and West. Our possession time on offense along with some solid man up play was enough to get us the lead and to control the ball most of the first half.

The third quarter was a different story. We could not win a face off; we struggled on a couple of clears (one resulting in a 1 v. 0 goal), had several penalties and had a more difficult time stopping them. They came out fired up and we did not respond. We had not been in the situation this year of facing someone that aggressive and it showed. They went on a 5 goal run to tie the game at 7. We caught a couple of breaks at the end of the quarter. With only 7 seconds or so remaining in the quarter they gained possession of the ball at their end line. The defenseman was apparently trying to throw a pass over the midfield line in the hope of getting off a last shot. However, the ball went directly to our attackman Mike Saraceni at the midfield line. Despite the panicked shouts of "shoot, shoot!" from the stands and the players on the sideline (!) Mike calmly passed the ball to Mark Foster, standing in front of the goal, who scored with one second remaining. Not only was the goal fortunate, now the two face off guys had to come out to face off with one second remaining. This became important as it was convenient to ask the face off guys to check their sticks at the end of the quarter. It turns out the Springfield player had an illegal stick which is a 3 minute, non-releasable penalty. We scored almost immediately, won the ensuing face off and felt very confident in our ability to score man up. Unfortunately, we rushed the next shot in our haste to score, they retained possession and drew a penalty which evened us at 5 and killed the 3 minute penalty.

The 4th Quarter was a more solid, even effort. The victory was sealed late in the game with a nice dodge from Charley Howe who dished up top to Dave Leach who was able to take a couple of steps and then ripped home the clinching goal with around 4 minutes to play. I say clinching since we won, but there was one scare late in the game with a Springfield defenseman standing open in front of the goal, but they were not able to capitalize. A two goal lead is not safe late because of how they were beating us on face offs. They could have scored and then won the face off, gaining possession for the potential tying goal.

Junior Mark Foster was the star of the game for us, netting 6 goals on the day. He is a fantastic shooter and finisher and was able to get his hands free for some shots. He also created his own shot a couple of times which was nice to see for more of an off-ball shooter/finisher.

We play New England College home on Sunday and then off to play Gettysburg Wednesday. It is snowing right now and the forecast is for snow showers every day, so who knows if what the next couple of days will bring!