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| © FGCU Hockey Team 2007. This is an official Florida Gulf Coast University Hockey Team webpage. The FGCU Hockey Team is a proud member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. 20301 Grande Oaks Boulevard, Suite #118, Box #26, Estero, Florida, 33928 E-mail Address: hockey@eagle.fgcu.edu Website Development: eMCee Productions |
| FGCU Hockey Finishes 13th in Nation Eagles Earn Respect in First Trip to D2 Nationals! March 11, 2007 It is finally over! After one of the most memorable and successful seasons in FGCU Hockey history, the six month, forty three game, inaugural Division two season came to a close for the Eagles with a thrilling 6-5 overtime victory over the San Jose State Spartans at the 2007 American College Hockey Association's (ACHA) D2 National Championships in Fort Collins, Colorado. It was a storybook season for the Eagles who found themselves as the new kids on the block amongst some of the country's most recognized, established, and talented college hockey teams. In the climax of the season, the top sixteen Division 2 college hockey teams clashed from March 7-10, 2007 at the Edora Pool & Ice Center in Fort Collins, Colorado, home of the Colorado State University Rams. Florida Gulf Coast University's Hockey Team qualified for the Nationals by way of the Southeast Regionals in mid February, where the team downed both the University of Dayton Flyers and University of Kentucky Wildcats to advance to the limelight as the third seed from the Southeast Region. The Ice Eagles were placed in a pool with the Michigan State Spartans (#2 Central), State University of New York - Stonybook Seawolves (#1 Northeast), and the San Jose State Spartans (#4 West). Many tournament officials as well as local press considered the pool to be the toughest at the championships and in order to advance to the next round; the Eagles would have to finish first in their group. |
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| Mike Lendino battled injury during the home stretch and was unable to play at Nationals. |
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| Zach Messer launches a slapshot at the goaltender from Michigan State. |
| Allan Penney finds himself well covered between two Spartan defenseman. |
| Nic WIlliams celebrates the opening goal of the tournament with his teammates close behind. |
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| Andrew Kobrin makes a stellar save against a SUNY-Stonybrook forward on a breakaway. |
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| Duluth native Nic Williams turned in his best season as an Ice Eagle in 06-07. |
| Tanner Bacik wards off a check from an agressive Stonybrook forward during the match-up. |
| Captain Zach Messer played in his final National Championship with the FGCU Eagles. |
| In the team's first round match-up, the FGCU Eagles would take the perennial powerhouse Spartans from Michigan State University. Before the puck dropped to open up the contest, no one gave the Eagles a chance to win the game as they were the clear underdogs, going up against a much more talented and established team. However, earlier in the season, FGCU managed to upset the Spartans with a 5-1 victory at the Michigan State home arena. The loss was fresh on the minds of the Spartans, and it was absolutely clear from the start of the game to the finish that Michigan State was not going to take the team from Florida lightly again. The game started with intense pressure from the Spartans and the Eagles looked like they were under siege during the opening minutes. The aggressive fore-checking forwards from State were relentless and FGCU struggled to get out of their zone early on. However, the tides change when MSU took a bench penalty for having too many players on the ice sending the Eagles to the powerplay. Nic Williams set-up in the high slot at the top of the circle to the right of the State goaltender and received a cross rink pass from Tyler Mackereth, which he buried with a blistering slapshot to open up the scoring and send FGCU and the out of town crowd into a frenzy. FGCU had taken an early lead on the Spartans and were just as surprised as the rest of the rink. As the game progressed, the Eagles contained State with a solid trap. FGCU was in control of the game until Alex Lymber and Jordan Proudfoot took two penalties 27 seconds apart to put the Eagles down two men against a very tough Spartan powerplay. Michigan State made no mistake in capitalizing with a tick-tack-toe passing play which left Eagle defenders and Andrew Kobrin helpless. The Eagles managed to slip out of the rest of the period with a tie and would head into the locker room with a sense of accomplishment. As both teams regrouped, the Eagles were highly critical of their play in opening minutes and came out hoping to improve with a better period of hockey. FGCU came out of the locker room with a burst of energy and surged into the second period completely dominating the play. The Eagles were hard on the forecheck and were playing solid team defense. The hardwork led to a great goal from Allan Penney after some great cycling down low by linemates Matt Maida and Justin Moore, which put them ahead by a score of 2-1. Shortly after, the Eagles striked again with a powerplay goal from Tanner Bacik and just like that the Cinderella team from Southwest Florida was up on Michigan State by a score of 3-1. The lead sent shockwaves around the arena and fans started flocking to the stands to take in the action and watch the two team battle for the all important first round victory. With the game in hand, FGCU had a late second period breakdown and gave the Spartans just enough to crawl back into the game with two highlight reel goals. The second frame ended with the two teams locked at a score of 3-3. With nothing to lose, the Eagles came out in the third and put in all on the line in hopes of forcing a Michigan State mistake. FGCU had no such luck and actually spent the first part of the period fending off a strong Spartan offensive effort. FGCU finally fell victim to the talented Spartans lineup and surrendered two early third period goals to go down by a score of 5-3 with under nine minutes to play. The Eagles reduced their bench to two lines and it was non-stop action from then on. Pressing the Spartans, FGCU gave everything they had in the final minutes as they tried to battle back into the game. With exactly 2:51 left of the clock, Matt Maida scored an inspiration goal with some hard work to uplift the Eagles spirits and make for an exciting conclusion to the first round match-up. FGCU would assault the Michigan State goaltender with everything they had in the dying minutes and could not solve the Spartan netminder. With less then a minute in the game, the Eagles pulled their goalie for the man advantage and came within inches of tying it up. Bret Galbraith received a pass from Matt Maida on the doorstep with an open net and could not get the shot off and with the last seconds ticking off the clock took the puck around the Spartans net for the wrap around attempt which was stop on the goal line by the Michigan State defenders just as the buzzer sounded to end the game. The Eagles would fall to the Spartans by a score of 5-4 and would give the eventual National Champions a tough first round game. |
| With some glimmers of hope to advance, FGCU took on SUNY Stonybrook in their second game of the round robin. Unfortunately, FGCU was so distraught by the heartbreaking loss the night before, the Eagles gave less than a respectful effort in the first period and were bombarded by the Seawolves offense to squander a 4-0 lead to the very tough team from New York. Although FGCU tried, the deficit was much too much to over come. The Eagles would play Stonybrook to a 1-1 tie in both the second and third periods and would eventually lose the game by a score of 5-1, with the lone goal coming from Brett Galbraith. The defensive breakdowns in the first period would cost FGCU any chance of advancing to the semi-finals and would leave the Fort Myers based team on the outside looking in, wondering what may have been if they had managed to get past Michigan State in the opening game of the tournament. |
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| Matt Maida charges the San Jose net looking to bury a goal early on in the game. |
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| Matt Maida celebrates a short handed goal during the second period of the match-up. |
| Peter Flores has become a leader on and off the ice during his four years as an Eagle. |
| With one final game left in the season, the Eagles were determined to end their season with a win and standing in their way would be the San Jose State Spartans. FGCU would show their true colors in this contest amassing a 5-1 lead in two period of play with goals coming from, Allan Penney (2), Justin Moore, Matt Maida, and Nic Williams. With the commanding lead heading into the final period of the season, FGCU was reminded by San Jose why the Spartans deserved to be there as they stormed back to score four unanswered third period goals to send the game into overtime and make for an exciting start to the final day of action in the round robin. As the Eagles headed into overtime, they took an early and unlikely penalty during the extra session to go down to the Spartans and it seemed inevitable that FGCU would leave their first Division 2 National Championship without a win. The penalty killing pair of Mike Sellitto and Matt Maida has different thoughts in mind. A frustrated Sellitto took to the ice with a sense of purpose and was extremely aggressive forcing a San Jose turnover deep in the Spartans zone. Maida would follow up working the puck down low with Sellitto. In a strange twist of events, Sellitto would throw the puck on net as Maida was screening the Spartans netminder and in a mad scramble in front of the San Jose net, the puck would cross the line and send FGCU to the ice in celebration with their first Division 2 National Championship Tournament victory. |
| Tanner Bacik dressed in what could be his last game ever as an FGCU Eagle against San Jose. |
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| Although the Eagles were happy to win their final game, the team would end the tournament with a sense of disappointment. FGCU can find encouragement in the fact that they only lost to the eventual National Champion Michigan State Spartans by one goal and even managed to take a win from the MSU team earlier in the season. With the team's work done, some individual players from the Eagles roster were voted to partake in the All-Star Skills Competition and Game. FGCU stole the show during the All-Star festivities and captured three of the events during the Skills Competition and had a player named as the first star of the All-Star Game. Brett Galbraith earned Skills Competition victories during the "Skating Agility" and the 'Sickest Move" events. Galbraith won the Agility event with the fastest time as he maneuvered through the course of pylons with the puck and pulled off one of the most entertaining moves during the shootout to win the "Sickest Move" honors. Justin Moore was extremely apprehensive heading into the Skills Competition as he was entered into the "Shooting Accuracy" event. Justin would manage to hit three of the four targets during the initial round and would have to go to a tie breaker with a forward from the University of Miami-Ohio. In the tiebreaker Moore would come out on top to steal the victory and |
| earn the distinction of being called the Most Accurate Shooter in the ACHA Division 2. Finally, during the skills events, goalie Nick Fernandez would win top goaltender honors with some stellar saves during the shootout and 3 on 0 competitions. In the All-Star game, forwards Allan Penney and Matt Maida along with defenseman Tyler Mackereth would take to the ice representing Florida Gulf Coast University and the East Team. With a collection of the best athletes in Division 2 competing in one game, it was sure to produce some great moments and talented plays. At the conclusion of the game the East would win by a score of 9-5 and the Eagles would all help contribute. Tyler Mackereth and Allan Penney would both score goals to add to the victory. Matthew Maida would earn the first star of the All-Star Game with one goal and three assists for a total of four points. It was a great showing by the players from FGCU as they made the entire program proud. With the conclusion of the National Tournament, comes the end of the FGCU Hockey Team's fifth season and first ever in Division 2. The Eagles represented themselves well all season and earned the respect of many teams around the country. Finishing 13th in the country was a great accomplishment for the five year old Eagles, especially with over 145 teams in the league at the Division 2 level. In the off-season, FGCU will look to add some more depth and some physical presence to their roster in hopes of competing for a National Championship again next season. Also, as a reminder, FGCU and the Southwest Florida community will be hosting the 2008 ACHA Division 2 National Championships from March 12 - 15, 2008 at Germain Arena in Fort Myers, Florida. Congratulations to the FGCU Hockey team for a successful 2006-2007 Season! |