January 11, 2008

Castleton just misses, falls 4-3 to Middlebury

Rutland, VT-The Castleton State College men’s ice hockey had the Middlebury Panthers, ranked 12th in the country, on the ropes well into the third period, but could not pull off the upset. The Panthers found the net with 40 seconds left to play in the game, marking the first time they had led. The Spartans killed off a five-minute major penalty and on the ensuing face-off Tom Maldonado found the back of the net to give the Panthers a 4-3 victory.

Both teams produced a number of opportunities in an evenly played first period. The Spartans had a pair of 2-on-1 chances that were turned away by Panther goalie Ross Cherry. Castleton remained on the attack and broke through first, taking advantage of a 5-on-3 power play. Travis Martell netted his second goal of the season with a wrist shot to take the 1-0 lead. Middlebury evened the game less than one minute later when Chaz Svoboda picked up a loose puck in the Spartan defensive third and scored his third goal of the season.

Stuart Stefan gave Castleton a 2-1 lead less than five minutes into the second period, scoring on a breakaway. Middlebury came right back as Michael Kretschmer flipped the puck up and over Castleton goalie, Jeff Swanson’s right shoulder on a breakaway off a Casey Ftorek assist to tie the game at 2-2. Just over two minutes later, Kirk Buldoc put Castleton up 3-2 with another 5-on-3 power play goal for the Spartans. The Panthers answered on a 5-on-3 power play of their own with Ftorek knocking home the puck as it was laying in the crease to end the second tied at 3-3.

Swanson stopped 25 shots to give the Spartans an opportunity for the upset. Cherry made 15 saves for Middlebury in the win.

Castleton falls to 3-8-1 on the season and returns to action tomorrow when they host Williams for a 4:00 pm face-off. The 12th ranked Panthers improve to 7-2-1 on the season. Middlebury also plays tomorrow as they travel to Skidmore for a 4:00 pm start. [Box Score]

###Spartans###