Beaver keep the crown

article courtesy of Matt Mackinder and USCHO

DETROIT — Bemidji State retained its CHA championship with a pulse-pounding 4-2 win over 2004 champion Niagara Sunday evening.

The game, played before a loud half-Bemidji, half-Niagara crowd and an announced 752 at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum, featured the past two champions and the fourth straight finals appearance for Bemidji State.

Tournament MVP Jean-Guy Gervais, BSU's captain, said the win was deserved, and felt different from the Beavers' victory in the tournament last March in Grand Rapids, Minn.

"Last year, I don't want to say we rolled or coasted through the tournament, but when you win 5-0 and 3-0, that's maybe how it looked and felt," Gervais said. "This year, it was the last kick of the can for me, personally, and was a lot tougher road. I wanted to go out there and leave it all on the ice and I felt we as a team did that."

Both goaltenders were sharp as BSU's Layne Sedevie and co-CHA Player of the Year Jeff Van Nynatten from Niagara made the necessary saves early on.

Van Nynatten was solid in stopping Luke Erickson, who was 1-on-1 against Andrew Lackner, and minutes later, Sedevie made a nifty glove save on Randy Harris off a faceoff win by the Purple Eagles.

The first period was scoreless with Niagara outshooting the Beavers, 12-9.

"This game was for a lot of marbles and we responded," Bemidji State coach Tom Serratore said. "Your goaltender in a game like this is your insurance policy and tonight Layne was exactly that. (Niagara) got a couple, but we had to put those in the past."

Sedevie started the second making a huge stop on Matt Caruana. Harris gathered the puck in the corner and fed Caruana at the lip of the crease, but Sedevie was down in the butterfly with his stick on the ice and made the save. Niagara captain Jason Williamson was then left alone in front at 5:28 only to see his shot graze Sedevie and go out of play.

It was Harris again at 7:39, but his blast from the bottom of the left circle went off the crossbar after Sedevie was already down. On a power play one minute later, Sedevie denied Ted Cook and Les Reaney on separate chances.

Van Nynatten gloved a Matt Pope shot at 11:35 as BSU started to build momentum.

That momentum amounted to a goal as Ryan Huddy knocked home a loose puck at 13:37. Van Nynatten juggled Erickson's shot and Huddy crashed the net to tap in the puck into a wide-open net and past an out-of-position Van Nynatten.

Miller made it 2-0 shorthanded at 19:31. Miller took a feed from Jake Bluhm and went in on Van Nynatten, who came out to almost the bottom of the circle. Miller went around the goaltender to stuff the puck into the cage. It appeared to deflect in off NU defenseman Pat Oliveto's skate, but looked like it would have gone in regardless.

Gervais then came in on a two-on-one with Tyler Scofield and beat Van Nynatten short side for a three-zip Bemidji State lead 1:07 into the final period. Andrew Martens started the play with a neutral-zone pass to Scofield, who found Gervais at the bottom of the right circle.

"After the second goal, I started having a mental breakdown," admitted Van Nynatten. "That opened the door for them and they took advantage. You could tell they were kind of waiting for us and wear us down. I just got beat by a better goaltender; Sedevie was the better man."

"That third goal was huge," Serratore said. "Other than that goal, we were nervous until the final buzzer."

Niagara answered 41 seconds later. Tim Madsen's shot was blockered out by Sedevie and the puck came across the crease to Vince Rocco, who beat a sliding Sedevie to ruin the shutout bid at 1:48.

Sedevie kept it 3-1 when he stoned Marc Norrington on a mini break at 10:49.

"I felt good all weekend," said Sedevie. "I faced pressure like this in junior hockey, but never in college. College is a whole different game. But not many people, well, not many teams if you think about it, can say they've won championships and we've won two straight. It was definitely a good weekend all the way around."

At 12:42, Niagara had a 50-second two-man advantage after Bemidji State, with Matt Pope already in the box, was caught with too many men on the ice.

After NU was unable to capitalize, Cook beat Sedevie at 14:54 on another power play from Justin Cross and Sean Bentivoglio. Bentivoglio found Cross at the right post and Cross then saw Cook to Sedevie's right for the tic-tac-toe score. The goal was NU's first power-play goal in four games.

Gervais salted the game away with a goal at 18:13 that started the eruption in the seats directly behind and above the Beavers' bench.

Sedevie finished with 31 saves and Van Nynatten stopped 19.

"To come so far after the season we've had, it's very empty right now," Niagara coach Dave Burkholder said. "But we've got guys with pulled groins, broken hands, feet, you name it. Spring break couldn't have come at a better time. We're a pretty beat up team right now."

With the automatic bid to the NCAA round of 16 and the first team in the nation to earn a berth to the NCAA tournament, Bemidji State knows winning in Detroit is one thing, but heading to regionals is another.

"We'll worry about who we play next later," said Serratore. "We've played enough quality competition this season that we know what to expect."

Last season, the Beavers took eventual champion Denver to overtime before bowing out in the first game of regionals. This year, anything is possible.

"We were down last night in the semis and came back to win," Gervais noted. "We just have to get back to business and be ready to bring it. The good thing is we now have two weeks to prepare and heal up some. We had a taste of this last year and maybe we were content to take Denver to OT, but now, we're excited and ready to get back at it."

CHA All-Tournament Team

F Logan Bittle, Robert Morris
F Ted Cook, Niagara
F Ryan Miller, Bemidji State
D Andrew Lackner, Niagara
D Andrew Martens, Bemidji State
G Layne Sedevie, Bemidji State

MVP: Jean-Guy Gervais, Bemidji State

Lakers win another title

article courtesy of Matt Mackinder and USCHO

DETROIT — Back in 2003, Mercyhurst won its first CHA Tournament and ironically enough, it was in Detroit. The Lakers did it again this afternoon in knocking off Niagara, 6-2, for their fourth consecutive CHA title in front of a sparse crowd at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum.

The two Mercyhurst seniors — captain Samantha Shirley and defenseman Danielle Lansing — won the CHA regular season and postseason titles all four years at Mercyhurst.
"Not too many people can say they've won four straight college hockey championships," Shirley said. "But it was obviously a goal of ours from the beginning of the season to compete in the CHA and now, to win it, is icing on the cake."

Now the Lakers expect to be rewarded with an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament, having gone 20-2-5 since the end of October.

"We faced adversity all season," Mercyhurst coach Mike Sisti said. "We started out losing five of our first eight and since Nov. 1, every game has been a must-win game for us. From that point, we could have gone south very easily, but we learned enough each step to move forward and grow as a team."

Mercyhurst took control of the game with a pair of quick goals in the second period and held off Niagara for a 3-2 lead at the intermission. The Lakers then scored three in the third to ice the game. CHA Player of the Year Valerie Chouinard and Julia Colizza led the way with two goals each among Mercyhurst's first four.

The scoreless first period wasn't without action as Mercyhurst outshot Niagara, 17-3. NU goalie Alison Rutledge made several saves on pile-ups in her crease to keep the Purps in the contest. One of Niagara's three shots came shorthanded and MC goalie Laura Hosier threw out the glove to snag Melanie Mills' drive 7:30 into the first.

"Rutch absolutely gives us a 100 percent chance to win every game," Niagara coach Heather Reinke said. "She's phenomenal. Look at the shots in the first and it was still 0-0. She's a leader on and off the ice and that's why she wears the ‘C.' She carried the team on her back all season."

The Lakers took the lead at 3:19 of the second on a low shot by Chouinard from the bottom of the left circle that beat Rutledge short side.

Colizza made it 2-0 just 44 seconds later. Sherilyn Fraser's shot was stopped by Rutledge, but the rebound lay to the right of Rutledge and Colizza beat the sliding netminder to the puck and tapped it in.

The Purple Eagles responded 17 seconds later as Emily Castonguay scored just her second of the season off a slick feed from Amy Jack in tight on Hosier.

At 8:39, it was Colizza again on a bang-bang play in front. Stefanie Bourbeau centered the puck from the right wing goal line and Colizza jammed it by Rutledge for a 3-1 Mercyhurst advantage.

Niagara pulled to within 3-2 at 12:07 as Charde Hoyle-Levy made a move on Hosier, deked her down to the ice and beat her low. Katie Gray gave Hoyle-Levy a pass at the right faceoff dot to set-up the shorthanded scoring play.

Rutledge was a key factor in keeping the score 3-2 in favor of the Lakers as she stopped 28 shots through 40 minutes. Hosier needed to turn aside just 10.
"The puck was huge tonight," Hosier said. "But we got our opportunities and came through."

Chouinard restored the two-goal advantage at 4:50 of the third just after Niagara killed off a penalty. Bourbeau hit Chouinard from behind the net and Chouinard went backhand over Rutledge's glove. Rutledge got a piece of it, but the puck dropped just over the goal line.

Shirley iced the game at 14:59 when she squeezed the puck past Rutledge on yet another goal crease scrum. Jill Nugent's initial shot hit Rutledge and bounced to Shirley.

Stephanie Jones added an empty-netter for the Lakers at 17:11.
Hosier finished with 17 saves and Rutledge stopped 39.

"I felt good out there and saw everything," said Hosier. "We came into this tournament with lot of pressure and we respected Wayne State and Niagara. We'll see what happens next."

Ranked No. 7 in the PairWise and now with a league title, Mercyhurst
appears a shoo-in for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

"I've always said teams play better with no pressure and that's where we are now," Sisti said. "We'll see wherever we have to go play next, take a deep breath and we'll go there and play some hockey."

"It doesn't matter who we play," Shirley said. "We'll have to keep our speed going and do some research on who we play, but seriously, it doesn't matter who's next. We're going to go out and do what we've been doing."


All-Tournament Team
G - Allison Rutledge (Niagara)
F - Lindsey DiPietro (Wayne State)
F - Stefanie Bourbeau(Mercyhurst)
F - Julia Colizza (Mercyhurst)
D - Erin Toth (Niagara)
D - Danielle Lansing (Mercyhurst)

Most Valuable Player
Valerie Chouinard (Mercyhurst)

Coliseum getting prepped for Tourney

With less than a week to go before the 2006 CHA Tournament, the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum is getting very close to being ready for the onslaught of 8 games in 4 days. Below are some pictures takes just before the Wayne State vs. Air Force game on Friday, March 3rd.

And of course, no trip to the Coliseum would be complete without getting your picture taken by the Bull!

Z's to host CHA Shindig

The annual CHA Shindig will be held at Z’s Villa in Detroit on Friday, March 10th.

The festivities will begin immediately following the last Quarterfinal game at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum.

Z’s is conveniently located at 42 Piquette Street, half way between the Coliseum and the Marriott Renaissance Center (the host hotel of the 2006 CHA Tournament).

Z’s Villa features:

- A private room for the CHA Shindig
-Great food including award winning pizza
-A free shuttle from the Renaissance Center to the Coliseum for Friday’s games, back to Z’s for the Shindig, and then back to the Ren Cen.

For more information, please visit the CHA Tournament thread located on the Fan Forum at uscho.com.

Please click the image (right) for the Shindig flyer!