Middlebury defeated Williams today 11-7 at Williams retaining the Thomsen
Trophy for the 8th straight year.

It was a strange game with us always in control, but never quite pulling
away.  The first half was low scoring with Middlebury leading at halftime
4-1.  We played excellent defense and Eric Krieger played a great game in
the goal.  In addition, in the first half especially, we dominated face
offs.  Our low score in the first half was due to a couple of factors.  One,
was outstanding goaltending by Williams's freshman goalie.  The other was
our inability to adjust early enough to the Williams defensive slide
package.  Williams would slide extremely early and we were almost stubborn
about not moving the ball quickly enough or only making one pass to beat the
double before attempting to jam the ball in the crease.

We were able to have some great possessions in the second half, zipping the
ball much better and generating some excellent opportunities.  However, the
Williams goalie did not always cooperate so we did not blow them out!  We
did build a comfortable lead and were cruising in for an excellent win when
they put in a couple of late goals to make it a little tighter than we would
hope. 

Scoring leaders were Matt Dunn with 3/1, Dave Seeley 2/1, and Holt Hopkins
2/1.  Brian McGregor was excellent facing off with wingmates Scott Goldman,
Greg Bastis, John Rice and Bryan Sanchez.  As I mentioned Krieger played a
very good game in the goal and was also excellent on outlets. 

A downside to the game was that starting Junior defenseman, Sebby Astrada,
hurt his knee and it does not look good.  We expect to lose him for the
year. He has been playing great for us with solid on-ball play and great
clearing and hitting.  He has worked hard physically and brings confidence
to the defense.  However, it is not an issue of whether or not we have
anyone who can replace him, it is just always an awful part of the game and
we all feel terribly for Sebby.

We finish the regular season at home against Bates on Saturday.  They are a
solid team who are well coached by Peter Lasagna, previously the Brown head
coach.  On Sunday a committee will seed the league playoffs.  #2-#7 will
play on Tuesday and #1 will get a bye.  The winners will play a final four
next weekend on Saturday and Sunday at the site of the #1 team.  If the
season ended right now Middlebury and Wesleyan would both be undefeated, the
tie breaking formula is uncertain, so we are just taking care of business
which is all we can do anyway. 

Erin