WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Pinning the first loss of the season on second-ranked Norwich University on Saturday lifted the Williams College men’s ice hockey team from ninth to sixth in the latest USCHO poll. Norwich entered the contest at 16-0-4.
Bill Kangas’ Eph sextet 12-3-3/10-3-3 NESCAC (first place) used goals by first year forward Mark Lyons and senior Alex Smigelski to tip second-ranked Norwich 2-1. The Ephs held Norwich scoreless on six power play opportunities and benefited from 48 saves on 49 shots by sophomore netminder Ryan Purdy.
This season in NESCAC play Purdy has a 2.35 goals against average and a .924 save percentage.
Lyons’ tally was his first as an Eph and Smigelski upped his team best total to 16. Smigelski leads NESCAC in goals scored with 12 and is tied with Middlebury’s Martin Drolet for most points with 19.
The schedule does not get any easier for the Ephs as they host perennial power Middlebury on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in a game that will be featured as a live video webcast here. Middlebury is currently in fifth place in NESCAC with an overall record of 11-4-4 and 7-3-4 in conference play.
After Tuesday’s game the Ephs will be on the road for the final four contests. This Friday the Ephs will tangle with Babson and on Saturday they will visit the University of Massachusetts at Boston. On the final weekend of the season Williams will be at Castleton State on Friday and at Skidmore on Saturday.
USCHO.com Division III Men's Poll Minneapolis, Minn./February 8, 2010
Team (First Place) Record Pts Last Week 1 Oswego (20) 21-1-0 300 1 2 Norwich 16-1-4 290 2 3 St. Norbert 17-3-3 254 3 4 St. Scholastica 16-3-4 244 4 5 Plattsburgh 14-4-4 194 5 6 Williams 12-3-3 182 9 7 Gustavus Adolphus 15-4-2 170 8 8 Elmira 16-4-1 164 6 9 Middlebury 11-4-4 132 10 10 Hamline 14-4-3 119 10 11 Amherst 14-3-3 107 7 12 Adrian 18-3-0 77 12 13 Wentworth 17-2-1 45 15 14 Wis.-River Falls 14-7-2 39 14 15 Bowdoin 13-5-1 37 NR
