B-team loss ends DURHC season
ECRHA April 27th, 2004 at 5:00AM April 29th, 2006 5:07PMFor the third time in as many years, the Drexel B-team was the last DURHC team engaged in a playoff run. Unlike the previous two years, the B-team did not make a championship appearance, but it was still an outstanding season, noted by 'final four' appearances in both the ECRHA and PCRHL.
In the ECRHA, the team finished with a 13-5-0 record - good for a third place overall finish during the regular season. In the playoffs, the Dragons helped bounce RIT, en route to the championship bracket where the team lost in the semi's to a tough Delaware team. Eric Lui, Vaughan Piccolo, and John Facas all finished within the top 15 scorers in the league, and both Bill Shipman and Jeff Riley enjoyed top 10 goaltending stats, with Shipman handling the majority of ECRHA games. Senior Eric Lui was the team's representative in the ECRHA DII/B All-star game.
In the PCRHL, the team compiled a 9-6-1 record, but the parity in the league pushed them into a 7th seed heading into the playoffs. Nevertheless, the team defeated West Chester 2 in the first round, lost to Temple 1 in the second round, and then advanced to the loser's bracket where they had a dramatic come-from-behind win against St. Joe's 1 in a true season highlight game. West Chester 2 extracted some revenge by bouncing the Dragons from the playoffs in a tight 5-4 game. The Dragons had a defense-first, balanced offensive attack that was tough for opponents to handle - this lead to everyone contributing on both ends of the court. The team also sent Sean Hoy, Josh Dawson, and Jeff Riley to the PCRHL All-star game (in which the hometown "Eastern Conference" won, 9-7).
All in all, across both leagues, the team had a 25-15-1 record. This is most remarkable due to the fact of how many man-games were lost during the course of the year.
Coach Smith noted,"We lost Sterny halfway through the year, we lost Kachigian in the second half due to injury, and we lost Sherman for the PCRHL playoffs. That's 3 of the 4 guys on the team that are over 6'0". What we were left with was a team that was almost uniformly small in stature but big in heart. These guys took a beating, and literally came within inches of 2 championships again. It was remarkable."
Smith also noted the efforts of certain players along the way. "Hoy was probably our best player overall on the court. He was solid in both ends of the rink, and was key in acclimating alot of the new players. Vaughn, Facas, and Lui were all offensive monsters - that really sparked our offense all season - and heck, Facas and Lui ended up filing in for D for good chunks of the season too! And then we had Oscar, who had the magic touch anywhere around the net. The goaltending was excellent as it has been for the last 3 years. It's a shame that Rilez and Ship are both graduating, because I would have loved to have gone to war with them for the next 10 seasons. And let's not forget the contributions of the guys that were called up to fill some of these roster spots. Kevin Salcedo jumped right into the flow and formed a great line with Hoy in ECRHA play. And Scott Oskin was integral at the end of the PCRHL playoffs. Our D was solid all year with the Axt-Dawson pair...and Kluthie was the heart and soul of the team. It was a blast of a year, and we actually played some pretty damn good hockey too."