Wentworth off to fast start in 06
team opens spring with undefeated weekend
ECRHA January 30th, 2006 at 6:00AM January 31st, 2006 2:29AMWhile many people where figuring out what to do with their first weekend without football in 5 months the Leopards were improving their reccord to 9-1 in Division II play this season. The upgraded reccord gives the team a tie for 2nd place in the north with the University at Albany. after starting the weekend with a 16-1 dismantling of the Briarcliffe College Roller Hawks the team awaited their most talked about game of the weekend with the SUNY Brockport Golden Eagles. The wait would prove worth while for the Leopards.
In a fast and physical matchup the Leopards skated to an 8-5 win over the 9th ranked Eagles fueled by a hard faught hat-trick by junior defensemen Kyle Smith. Smith, from upstate NY ice hockey heritage, has quietly established himself as a top scoring defensemen in the ECRHA over the past three seasons and after a slow start in the 05-06 campaign with just 5 goals 5 Assists in the teams first 6 games was ready for a big weekend. his 3 goals being just a sign of things to come.
After handing the Eagles just their 2nd loss of the season and the day the Leopards left for the night in high spirits - maybe too high - as their next matchup against the University at Albany Great Danes would prove to be a rugged and heart stopping affair for Wentworth.
After getting off to a mighty slow start and spotting the Dane's a 3 goal lead after the first period of play the Leopards took the 2nd period as a chance to do some scoring of their own. Alek Vienneau scored the first of 3 on an assist from Smith just 37 secconds into the middle frame and after a goal by defensemen Mark Stanieich, Vienneau would tie the game at 3 just 13 seccond after a failed power play and Forward Nick Legare would put the leopards ahead at 8:16 and the game would stay 4-3 leopards through the 2nd period. The lead wouldn't last however as The Dane's Dave Curtis would score his seccond of the game 3:55 into the final period and Danny Lawless would score the Dane's 5th goal with just 4:01 remaining in the game. Wentworth would not settle for anything less than a win and a 2-0 season series against the Danes and Vienneau would complete a hat-trick of his own with 2:07 remaining to play on an individual effort to tie the game for the 2nd time. Not happy with a tie the leopards would put their power play line out to try to get the game winner and in the final minute of play the move payed off as Smith burried the game winner on a nice feed from Legare to make the game 6-5. The leopards would ward off the rest of the Dane's attack and would finish the game with the win and the tie breaker over conference foe Albany.
After the last two stressfull games the Leopards were hoping for an easy one against the Seawolves from Stony Brook University. Stony Brook, a first year team from long island with a lot of promise would prove to be less than easy. The Seawolves would strike first on a fluky goal by Peter Gugliotta at 7:58 of the first and the Leopards were forced to come back again. Wentworth would not allow the goal to stop them from an undefeated weekend and the 2nd best winning percentage in the league (.900). They would go on to score the next 4 goals and thanks to some spectacular goaltending from Shamus Flemming the Leopards would complete the task.