Panthers outgun Tommies
Toolbox
By Carleton Laird Rutland Herald - Published: November 29, 2008
MIDDLEBURY — It was a night of goaltending in the 2008 PrimeLink Great Northern Shootout at Kenyon Arena. First Ryan Klingensmith shut out Plattsburgh State in the shootout to help Norwich advance to the championship game. Then Doug Raeder made an incredible save to prevent St. Thomas from tying the game with 45 seconds left as Middlebury went on to win, 5-3.
After the Panthers fought back from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits to take a 4-3 lead, St. Thomas' Alex Arnason found himself alone on the left post with an open net. He fired a waist-high shot and Raeder, who had gone down to make a save and was at the top of the crease, flashed his stick and deflected the puck with the blade off the post and out of harm's way.
"It was a close one for sure," Raeder said. "It squirted out to the side and I was already down so I just out of desperation reached for it."
The Panthers gained control of the puck, came down and Jamie McKenna got an empty-net goal with 10 seconds to go to ice it.
"It was a great confidence builder for us to be down against an experienced team and be able to come back," Middlebury coach Bill Beaney said.
The Tommies scored the only goal of the first period and it came on their first power play. Todd Alexander slid the puck along the blue line to Adam Davis in the center and he ripped a shot past a partially screened Raeder.
St. Thomas made it 2-0 at 8:03 of the second, taking advantage of a change. Rob Johnson came streaking off the bench, took a pass from Davis and broke in alone on Raeder for the easy goal.
The Panthers got one back just 1:32 later as John Sullivan slid a little backhander from behind the net to Chaz Svoboda and he buried it.
St. Thomas seemed to steal the momentum back with a power-play goal at 18:34 as Johnson took the rebound of a Davis drive, shot it, and then grabbed his own rebound to net the score.
But the Tommies took a penalty at 19:35 and the Panthers immediately capitalized. Following the faceoff to the right of St. Thomas goaltender Tyler Chestnut, McKenna slipped a blind backhand in front of the net and Sullivan knocked it home at 19:45.
That late goal seemed to lift Middlebury while St. Thomas appeared to go into a bit of a defensive shell. The Panthers beat the Tommies to most of the loose pucks in the third period and finally tied the game at 7:24.
Sullivan took the puck from the right circle, cut in front and put a backhand on net. Chestnut made the initial save, but Sullivan picked up the rebound and deposited it into the net.
"I thought we were a little hesitant that first period, not playing with the freedom they need to be able to play with," Beaney said. "I think that second period we got a little bit tougher and won some pucks and that third period, we did a couple things different, moved a couple people around and tonight it happened to work."
The Panthers continued to push and when St. Thomas drew a penalty at 15:55, Middlebury called a timeout to make sure the top power-play unit had fresh legs.
It took Middlebury just 31 seconds to take the lead. Michael Kretschmer took a drive from the center blue line that hit Svoboda in the back and dropped onto the stick of Martin Drolet. The freshman gunned the puck through a crowd and into the back of the net.
It was not over yet, however, as Middlebury was penalized at 17:09 and had to kill off two minutes. It was during that shorthanded period that Raeder made his game-saving save.
"We were kinda nervous coming into the tournament with all the hype around it, but we settled down," Sullivan said. "We fought back. It was a real gut-check win for us."
The Panthers will now face Norwich tonight at 7 p.m., looking for their fourth title. The Cadets, who are 3-0 against Middlebury in the 10 previous PrimeLinks, have won the tournament five times. St. Thomas meets Plattsburgh at 4 p.m. in today's consolation round.
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