The St. Michael's men's hockey team played a great 56 minutes of hockey against Amherst College yesterday, but coaches always stress that you need to bring your best for the full 60 for a reason.
Tied at 1-1 on a goal by Paul McAuliffe, his third of the season, the Purple Knights appeared at least headed for overtime when the Mammoths scored three times over the last four minutes of the game to pull out a 4-1 win.
The University of Vermont men's hockey team also learned the hard way that a full 60-minute effort is necessary for success, when the team sleep-skated through the first period, giving up three goals against UConn in a 4-1 loss at Gutterson Fieldhouse last night. The Catamounts looked like a different team over the second and third periods, with a lot more urgency to their game, and Alex Esposito did score on the power play to prevent a shut-out, but the Catamounts are searching for answers in a season that has them mired in the basement of the America hockey east standings at 1-5-1.
The Purple Knights men's basketball team is still searching for its first win of the year after falling to Franklin Pierce 87-73. Levi Holmes III had a strong game for St. Mike's in the loss, pouring in 29 points.
The women of St. Mike's also suffered a loss at the hands of their Franklin Pierce counterparts, a 65-53 setback in New Hampshire. Samantha Delaney recorded a double double with 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Purple Knights.
Back to the men's hardcourt, and the Castleton Spartans got into an old fashioned run and gun with Plymouth State with shots falling through aplenty on both sides. In the end it was the Spartans left standing with a 100-93 victory, with five players scoring in double figures for the Spartans, led by Ben Mrowka's 23 point effort, as the Spartans even their record at 2-2.
On the ice, the Castleton women's hockey team suffered a 3-2 overtime loss against Franklin Pierce when Marissa Massaro scored the game winner just a minute into the extra period, aided by an extra skater, and that was really the Spartan's downfall in this one. Six Castleton players were sent off for penalties during the game, which made it tough for the Spartan offense to get any momentum going.
It was a better result for the Spartan women's basketball team, which won by a razor thin 53-52 margin over Plymouth State on a free throw by Amanda Beatty with less than one second left on the clock in regulation. Beatty's clutch game winner from the charity stripe was one of her team-leading 16 points on the night in the non-conference game, and the Spartans keep their undefeated streak alive, now at 4-0 on the season.
The Middlebury Panther's ran roughshod over Johnson State, forcing 31 turnovers in their 74-27 victory over the Badgers, a game the Middlebury women led at half time by a score of 50-9. The Panthers improve to 3-0 while Johnson State will need to do a memory wipe on this one and look to their next game for their potential first win of the season after an 0-2 start.
In another lopsided rout, some school history was made at Lyndon State as center Mikalya Hodge of Newbury achieved and surpassed the 1,000 point mark for her career, leading the Hornets to a 72-19 rout against Vermont Technical College. Hodge finished her milestone afternoon with 21 points and 15 rebounds as Lyndon State gets its first win of the season against two losses.
Back to men's college hoops, and the Middlebury Panthers are still undefeated on the season, but had to hold off a strong challenge from Johnson State to get their third victory of the year, an 84-77 win at Carter Gym. The Badger's Marqwon Wynn led all scorers with 29 points and after leading by as many as 21 the Badgers closed the gap to nine late in the fourth quarter. But a mammoth effort by Middlebury's Jack Daly helped the Panthers prevail. He finished with 24 points, a career-high 16 rebounds, and eight assists.
To the pros on the ice, and in Dallas, where the Stars have mostly been struggling this year, they met another team that's having trouble finding traction in the Montreal Canadiens, and came away with a 3-1 win. Brendan Gallagher scored first for the Habs but the Stars responded with three unanswered goals by the trio of Devin Shore, Jason Spezza, and Tyler Seguin, all skating together on a line re-shuffling by coach Ken Hitchcock. That name Tyler Seguin sounds familiar to me. Oh, that's right, he used to score goals for the Boston Bruins before he was traded away for a bunch of players, none of whom skate for Boston anymore. Yeah, I know I have to let that one go, except that he's not the first superstar player the Bruins let go for nothing, and sadly, I expect he won't be the last.
