|
Duke
Hockey End of Year Honors
Blue Devil Players,
Andy Kleist, Kevin Hatala, Brian
Lake, Jared Smith, and Marco
Perez, were selected to play on the ACCHL All Star team which competed
in Philadelphia
in April against other ACHL DII Conferences.
Andy Kleist was also
named ACCHL Goalie of the Year.
ACCHL
EOS Championship Tournament
The Blue Devil finished
second in a hard contested game against Virginia Tech, the 2009 EOS
Tournament Champions.
Senior Captain Kevin
Hatala, was named to the All Tournament Team.
Duke
Advances to Championship Game
The Blue Devils
continued their winning ways with a 3-1 victory over Georgetown
in the first semi-final game of the ACCHL Championship Tournament,
being held at the Roanoke
Civic Center. The Second Round game was won by
Virginia Tech, with a 9-3 victory over UNC. Duke will face Virginia
Tech for the championship at 2:00 pm.
Duke Clinches Regular
Season Second Place
Finish
The
Blue Devils finished their regular season on a high note, with four
straight league victories sandwiched around a tough loss to an
excellent Penn
State squad.
After the thrilling victory over Georgetown,
the Blue Devils next faced N.C.
State in a battle
of teams in the upper half of the league. NC State jumped to an
early advantage, but a sudden explosion in the second period gave Duke
a two-goal advantage. NC State battled back, scoring a goal with a
two-man advantage to close to 4-3 just before the 2nd period
ended. The third period see-sawed back-and-forth, and ended in a
5-all tie. After a scoreless overtime, a shootout
ensued. Goalie Andy Kleist was perfect once again, stopping both shots
he faced. Senior
Brian Lake
froze the State goalie with a head and shoulder fake and
scored. Then, Captain Kevin Hatala fired a shot over the goalie's
shoulder to clinch the victory.
The
Blue Devils next faced arch-rival UNC. With the support of a massive
crowd, brought to the rink by buses supplied by the Club Sports office,
the Blue Devils were never threatened, and came away with a 4-1
win. The game was hard-hitting and well-played, and the loud
support of the fans helped lift Duke to victory.
After a
non-league loss to Penn
State, the Blue
Devils prepared for Virginia Tech, undefeated in league play and
looking for a perfect league season. Tech scored in the first period to
take a 1-0 lead. For two and half periods, the action ebbed and
flowed, with first one team and then the other seeming to gain the
upper hand. However, neither goalie gave any ground. With
10.8 second left in the game and Kleist on the bench for an extra
skater, Brian
Lake scored to
tie the game at 1 and send it to overtime. The overtime was scoreless,
and Duke's third penalty shootout of the season ensued.
Kleist
saved the first two shots he faced, but the third Tech shooter became
the first to beat Kleist in a shootout this year. Thus, unless
Duke scored, Tech would escape with a victory. Senior Assistant
Captain Jared Smith kept the game alive, with a slick stickhandling
move and a well-placed shot. After Kleist saved four more attempts
and the Tech goalie three, the game was in the hands of Tripp
Parran. Parran calmly faked the goalie to the ice and placed the
puck behind him into the net, allowing the Blue Devils to claim the
victory, second place in the league, and a first round bye in the
playoffs in Roanoke
this weekend.
Duke will play at 2 p.m. Saturday
against the highest-seeded winner of the games on Friday between (1) Georgetown and U. Va. and (2) N.C. State
and UNC. Thanks for all your support this season.
Duke Tops Georgetown
in Thriller
Duke won its
second straight game on January 24th with a thrilling, come from behind
shootout victory over arch-rival Georgetown,
3-2. In a game marred by 23 penalties and an ejection, the Blue
Devils twice battled back from deficits to force overtime, and then
rode Andy Kleist's stellar work to victory.
The first period
was all Georgetown,
as an aggressive forecheck kept Duke bottled up in its own
end. Although the Hoyas scored one power play goal, the Blue
Devils kept it close, thanks to some stellar play from Kleist and hard
work by all six Duke defensemen and a cadre of back-checking forwards.
Coach Selman lit
a fire under the Devils during the first intermission, as Duke stormed
out of the locker room and stepped up the pressure with an active
forecheck of its own. Georgetown
had trouble escaping its own end or mounting any sort of attack, and,
when it did, the Devils' backline was up to the
task. Notwithstanding Duke's strong play, it could not score, and
it looked like the momentum might change, when Georgetown swarmed the Devils' end
during yet another power play. However, a nifty headman pass found
Jay Butler lurking behind the Georgetown
defense. Butler
collected the pass and headed in on goal, only to be hauled down from
behind and awarded a penalty shot. With a clever deke and
excellent patience, Butler
got the Hoyas' netman to commit and deftly tucked the puck behind him
for the tying goal. No further goals were scored in the second
period, which featured several penalties and the ejection of Blue Devil
defenseman Mike Black for his indignant response to being crosschecked
into the boards from behind.
The third period
was a back and forth affair. However, it looked like another
disappointing defeat for Duke when the Hoyas scored a power play goal
to take a 2-1 lead, midway through the period. Then, Duke's
seniors stepped up. Aaron Lerner and Brian Lake
bulled through the Hoyas' defense and drew penalties in rapid
succession. In the ensuing 5 on 3 power play, Mike Lehrhoff tied
the game with a well placed wristshot. Each goalie then made
several stellar saves, sending the game to overtime.
After neither
team scored in the 5-minute overtime stanza, the game came down to a
shootout. Georgetown
went first. As the crafty Hoya freshman flew in on net, Kleist
reacted well and left the Hoya's leading scorer with nothing to shoot
at, as his shot banked harmlessly off the post. After Lake beat
the Georgetown netminder but watched his shot clang off the inside of
the post, Kleist again came up big, leaving another Hoya shooter with
no angle to shoot at and forcing him to go wide. Senior Captain
Kevin Hatala then took center stage, flying in on net and ripping a
shot over the goalie's shoulder and into the back of the net before he
could react. After Kleist again sealed off his net, the Devils
could celebrate a hard fought win against a worthy opponent.
The Devils next
take on N.C.
State on Friday
at 10:15 p.m. at the Triangle Sportsplex.
Canes Cup Wrap-Up
This past weekend was a tough one for the Blue Devils who dropped
2 out of their 3 Canes Cup games. On Friday night, Duke faced Rowan, a
team the Blue Devils knew nothing about. As a result of the
unfamiliarity, Duke was not able to get optimal line match-ups and fell
behind early. The team rallied in the second and third periods, but the
deficit proved too much to overcome, and the Blue Devils lost by a
score of 7-5.
On Saturday night, Duke faced perennially ranked UMBC, confident
that a win over such a strong team would jumpstart a winning streak.
After again falling behind early, the Blue Devils rallied in the second
period, dominating the play but failing to score. Frustrated by the
lack of goals, Duke became deflated and UMBC took control of the game.
When the final horn sounded, Duke had surrendered 11 goals while
scoring none.
Duke did not have much time to dwell on its previous two losses
as the Blue Devils faced Rhode
Island College
less than twelve hours later. Desperately needing a win to right the
ship, Duke’s offense exploded for 11 goals and was able to
outpace Rhode Island’s
8.
Although the Blue Devils surrendered an abnormally high number of
goals this weekend, the team is confident that it was an aberration and
that a few small tweaks on the back check and defensive zone coverage
will have the team playing the staunch defense that has become a staple
of its success over the past few years. The team also feels that it
were plagued by bad bounces; all of Duke’s opponents seemed to
score on every single chance they got. Finally, the team was hampered
somewhat on the defensive end by injuries; both Robbie Curtis, a
high-energy, checking line forward, and Aaron Lerner, a stalwart
defenseman, missed multiple games this weekend with injuries.
The Blue Devils would like to congratulate defenseman Kevin
Hatala, who was named to the All-Tournament Team for the Canes Cup!
The Blue Devils hope that you will come out to support them this
Saturday at the Triangle Sportsplex at 10:15 pm as they face Georgetown, who
beat the Blue Devils 3-1 a few weeks ago in a game that the team truly
felt was within reach.
Fall Semester Wrap-Up
First off, our deepest apologies to all of those who check
DukeHockey.com for the lack of updates on last semester’s games.
We were experiencing severe technical difficulties in terms of
accessing and updating our website which we have only very recently
solved.
This fall, the Blue Devils skated to a 5-6 record, certainly not
up to previous years’ standards, but the record is a bit
misleading because of the high caliber of competition Duke played,
including two games against Florida Gulf Coast, a team considered a
favorite to win the Division 2 National Championship. The Blue Devils
are 3-2 in league play having beaten UVA (twice) and UNC while having
dropped road contests to NC State and Virginia Tech.
In all, this past semester was an up and down one for a Blue
Devil team plagued by inconsistency. Most players would agree that the
team never played a complete, 60 minute hockey game. That being said,
the team was brilliant in flashes, and the shortcomings of the first
half of the season have been identified and will be rectified going
forward. In many ways, the Blue Devils’ early-season struggles
might prove to be a blessing in disguise; the past two years, the team
has coasted through easy wins in the first half of the season only to
struggle in the second half of the season. This year’s Blue Devil
team has already faced adversity and feels the need to prove that it
still is the championship-caliber team of the past few years.
The mid-season break has also allowed a Blue Devil team that
struggled with injuries and other off-ice issues to heal and regroup
for a strong push towards a league championship. The team will also
undoubtedly be helped by returning forward Marc Perez, whose playmaking
abilities will help jumpstart a struggling powerplay, and by returning
netminder Steve Galanis whose talent between the pipes will help ensure
all the Duke netminders stay fresh. Finally, the team will be buoyed by
the return of freshman Robbie Curtis.
The Blue Devils are hoping to hit the ground running in the
second semester as they have a game with rival Georgetown only four days after
classes start, and a Canes Cup title to defend the next week against a
difficult tournament field. After that, they look forward to the heart
of their league schedule and the annual tournament. Go Devils!
|
.jpg)
