HARRISVILLE, R.I. (Jan 3.) First year forward Danny Greiner (Columbus, Ohio) scored his first career goal 1:08 into overtime to lift the Nichols College men's ice hockey team to a 3-2 victory over Lebanon Valley College in the consolation game of the Nichols College Bison Hockey Classic Sunday afternoon at the June Rockwell Levy Rink. Nichols extends its unbeaten streak to three games and improves to 6-4-2 overall. The Dutchmen drop to 0-12 on the season.
Nichols twice rallied from one goal down in the first and second periods and were outshot, 13-1, in the final frame, but after Zach Hendrickson (Farmingdale, N.Y.) put a shot on net in the extra session, Bryan Gill (New Hyde Park, N.Y.) fed the puck from behind the net to Greiner low in the left circle. A quick wrister from Greiner slipped past Lebanon Valley netminder Matt Turner (Sheffield, England) low on his glove side.
The Dutchmen got on the scoreboard first as Daniel Dempsey (Norwell, Mass.) fired a wrister from the top of the circle that beat Nichols goaltender Jacob Rinn (Warwick, R.I.) on his blocker side. Spiros Anastas (Mississauga, Ontario) set up the play with a breakout pass through the neutral zone, finding Dempsey on the wing for the goal at 13:29.
Andrew Ella (Schomberg, Ontario) evened the score on the power play less than four minutes later with a one-timer in the slot. Gill passed to Zach Kohn (Hartland, Wis.) in the near corner from the point. Kohn worked the puck behind the net and found Ella in the slot for the goal at 17:04.
Lebanon Valley retook the lead early in the second on Anastas's first goal of the season. Cole Bell (Davenport, Iowa) passed to George Nicholes (Brooklyn, N.Y.), who fired a slapshot from the point. Anastas was at the netfront to tip the puck through Rinn's five-hole for a 2-1 lead at 4:38.
Will Munson (Corona, Calif.) poked in a backdoor pass at 13:30 of the frame to knot things up off a long pass from Kohn. Ella set things up by stealing the puck just outside of the zone and moved in with Kohn, who fired from above the right circle. Munson was set up at the left post to poke it in.
Rinn finished with 34 saves, while Turner made 21. Nichols finished 1-for-5 on the power play while holding Lebanon Valley 0-for-3 with the man advantage.
Nichols is back in action at Manhattanville on Saturday, January 9th. Lebanon Valley travels to Geneseo for a pair of games on January 8 and 9.
Box Score
Championship Game: Wesleyan 5, St. Mary's 3
HARRISVILLE, R.I. (Jan. 3) – The Wesleyan University men's ice hockey team rallied from a three-goal deficit with four third-period goals to defeat St. Mary's University, 5-3, in the Nichols College Bison Hockey Classic championship game Sunday afternoon. Wesleyan saw 12 different players record points on the night as the team draws even on the season at 4-4-0. St. Mary's falls to 1-9-1 on the year.
The teams were knotted, 1-1, after the first, but a two-goal second frame from St. Mary's gave the Cardinals from Minnesota a 3-1 upper hand headed into the third. Ryan White (Grand Island, N.Y.) started off Wesleyan's impressive final frame with his first career goal at 2:15, but it was Tournament Most Valuable Player David Layne's (Flourtown, Pa.) strike five minutes later that got Wesleyan rolling.
Adam Kaiser (Stony Point, N.Y.) stole the puck from a St. Mary's defender and broke into the zone on the right, skating all the way down behind the bet before stopping behind the net. His pass found Layne in the slot where the senior captain roofed the puck over the diving St. Mary's goaltender, Jason Horstman (Fairbault, Minn.).
A.J. Ferraro (New Canaan, Conn.) continued the momentum, and just over five minutes left in the game, gave Wesleyan a 4-3 lead with his third goal of the season. Jeff Beck (Warrington, Pa.) passed across the blue line to Brett Bandazian (Wyckoff, N.J.), who found Ferraro in the right circle for a quick, high wrister that beat Horstman high on his glove side at 14:48.
Geoff Mucha (West Chester, Pa.) added an empty-netter on a long breakout play with Tom Salah (Gloucester, Mass.) in the final minute to ice the game.
St. Mary's opened the scoring just 36 seconds into the title contest as Anthony Bohn (Spring Hill, Fla.) knocked in a rebound at the doorstep. Jeff Miller (Portage, Mich.) passed from the top of the left circle down to Kevin Wentland (Columbia Heights, Minn.), who carried the puck in from the bottom of the circle to the crease before firing. The shot deflected off the pads of Wesleyan netminder Tim Archibald (Wellesley, Mass.) before trickling out to the stick of Bohn.
Wesleyan tied it up on a strong wrist shot from John Guay (North Scituate, R.I.) that completed an end-to-end breakout. Chris McDonald (Hanover, Mass.) collected the puck behind his own net before starting the play, moving it out to Mucha on the left. The pair skated ahead as Mucha quickly snapped it forward to Guay who took it the rest of the way before lifting it over Horstman's glove at 8:40 of the first.
Eric Tenvoorde (St. Cloud, Minn.) potted a rebound off the initial shot from the slot by Chase Marshall (Maple Grove, Minn.) just over a minute into the second to give St. Mary's a 2-1 lead, and then in the eighth minute of the stanza, Wentland edged St. Mary's ahead by two by backhanding in a pass at the near post from Bohn. The pair came in on a rush with both on the left side of the net. As Wentland moved to the right post, Bohn slid the puck across the crease for the freshman to tip in on his backhand at 7:21.
Archibald earned the win with 28 saves, while Horstman stopped 27.
Nichols won the consolation game over Lebanon Valley, 3-2, in overtime.
Wesleyan is back in action at Skidmore on Friday, January 8th. St. Mary's returns to action on Friday at home against Wisconsin Eau-Claire.
Box Score
