Nationals Rewind: Day One

Thursday, April 6: Rivermen beat Duquesne and Hofstra in pool play

GPCIHL May 30th, 2006 at 5:00AM June 13th, 2008 3:01AM

This is part one of a four-article series reviewing the UMSL Rivermen's run to the Division II national championship game at the '06 College Roller Hockey National Championships in Morrisville, N.C.

DAY ONE: THURSDAY, APRIL 6

UMSL 13, Duquesne 2

Duquesne 2-0-0-2

UMSL 1-3-9-13

Shots on Goal

Duquesne 12-9-4 - 25

UMSL 13-12-21 - 46

Pointscoring

Duquesne: Shawn Farrell (2-0-2), Mike Joyce (0-1-1), Tienne Wolf (0-1-1).

UMSL: James Wetton (3-4-7), Doug Purk (0-3-3), Jake Shepard (3-0-3), Zach Stacy (3-0-3), Adam Clarke (1-1-2), Jason Shields (2-0-2), John Angelbeck (0-1-1), Wally Iverson (0-1-1), Ben Lambert (1-0-1), Tim McFarland (0-1-1).

The UMSL Rivermen trudged through a slow start in their Nationals opener April 6 against the Duquesne Roller Dukes, finding themselves on the short end of a 2-1 first-intermission score.

It took almost half the game, but the Rivermen found their legs in time to score 12 unanswered goals in rolling up a thoroughly impressive 13-2 victory.

Ben Lambert broke the seal 4:23 into the first period by converting a Doug Purk rebound, but Duquesne's Shawn Farrell scored a pair of power-play goals to give his team a surprising 2-1 lead after one.

After two nights in a hotel with no hockey, the Rivermen had a touch of rust to knock off. Farrell's goals gave Duquesne conversions on both of its first-period chances, and fifty-goal scorer Mike Joyce hit the goalpost twice in the opening frame as UMSL searched for its groove.

Second-liners Jason Shields and Wally Iverson provided the second-period spark that ignited the UMSL attack.

Shields tied the game 2:03 into the second by crashing the net to poke home his own rebound, and Iverson set up James Wetton for the goal at 7:46 that proved to be the game-winner.

Wetton scored thanks to a brilliant centering pass from Iverson, who chased his own rebound into the corner, gained possesson with his back to the net, spun around, and slid a quick feed to the slot to a waiting Wetton.

The goal gave UMSL a 3-2 lead, and was the first of three goals for the senior captain. Wetton would finish with seven points after a two-goal, three-assist third period.

By the time the final buzzer sounded, it may have been difficult to remember that until Wetton scored his second-period tiebreaker, UMSL had held just one lead, which had lasted less than four minutes out of the 19:46 elapsed.

But the Rivermen offense, second nationally in goals scored, was just working out the kinks.

Just 53 seconds after Wetton's goal, sophomore sniper Zach Stacy gave his team its first two-goal edge of the game with -- you guessed it -- a highlight-reel goal. After being tripped in the open floor, Stacy re-entered the fray behind the net, annoyed at the non-call. He pulled the puck out of traffic in the corner and battled his way through two Dukes to the right-wing post before snapping home a far-side wrister that gave UMSL a 4-2 second-intermission lead.

The fired-up Stacy wasn't finished, scoring his second of back-to-back goals early in the third period.

After a cross-rink outlet pass from Wetton, Stacy carried across center on the right wing, angled across the rink, and snapped a wrister against the grain from the left-wing faceoff circle through Iverson's screen to put the Rivermen ahead 5-2 less than a minute into the third.

It seemed like the backbreaker -- up three goals in the third period, UMSL might play keepaway for the rest of the game.

Not quite. By the time the period was halfway over, the hungry Rivermen had racked up six more.

Wetton scored a spectacular shorthanded goal that made the score 6-2. The nation's top-scoring defenseman won a defensive-zone faceoff to himself, glided across the rink to his left to beat two Duquesne defenders, and burst into the open. As Wetton approached the net, he executed a shoulder-drop pump fake before pulling the puck to his backhand and sliding it past Dukes goaltender Jeff Ley for his second of three goals.

Jake Shepard scored twice in 1:01 to put the game out of reach at 8-2 with 7:48 to play. Twenty seconds later, Wetton finished off his hat trick, and with 6:29 left, Shepard matched Wetton's trifecta, scoring his 52^nd goal of the season. It was Shepard's third goal in a 2:20 span.

Shields' second goal of the game gave the Rivermen an 11-2 lead with 6:02 left. Stacy scored his third of the game exactly a minute later, and Adam Clarke chalked up a power-play marker at 10:28 for UMSL's ninth goal of the period.

The third period was the Rivermen's most impressive of the season.

UMSL outshot Duquesne 21-4 in the third, outscoring the Dukes 9-0. UMSL's tremendous depth paid off, as all ten Rivermen skaters scored at least one point in the contest.

Goaltender Thomas Ames stopped 23 of 25 shots, including several point-blank first-period chances that prevented Duquesne from extending its lead. From top to bottom, it was an impressive start for the Rivermen.

UMSL 5, Hofstra 2

Hofstra 1-0-1--2

UMSL 3-0-2--5

Shots on Goal

Hofstra 5-4-9--18

UMSL 10-12-14--36

Pointscoring

Hofstra: Virone (0-2--2), Koziol (1-0--1), Silagy (1-0--1)

UMSL: Wetton (1-2--3), Clarke (1-1--2), Shepard (2-0--2), Purk (1-0--1)

The Rivermen entered their second round-robin game with confidence -- after all, less than 12 hours earlier they had played their best period of a season full of offensive fireworks.

And early in the game, it appeared that UMSL's potent attack was enjoying the carryover effect. Two quick power plays netted two goals, and just 4:31 in, the Rivermen led 2-0.

A.J. Frey, Hofstra's backup goaltender and club president, was forced into action because starter John Rudenauer was unable to make the trip to Nationals. But Frey, usually a pretty solid defenseman, looked like a standout veteran netminder in this game.

Quite simply, Frey played his guts out, denying 31 of 35 shots against one of the nation's most powerful offensive teams.

On the first shift of the game, Frey stopped a point-blank Zach Stacy backhand before denying Jake Shepard from close range.

Seconds later, Hofstra?s Robert Grogan was penalized for a bodycheck that knocked the helmet off of UMSL's Jason Shields, and the Rivermen capitalized. On the ensuing power play, Shepard scored his fourth goal of the tournament when he tipped James Wetton?s pass past Frey to give UMSL the early lead.

Less than a minute later, Dino Virone was whistled for hooking, and UMSL's deadly power play was given another chance.

The Rivermen made it two-for-two and 2-0 when Doug Purk took Wetton's pass and blasted a low slapshot into the cage from forty feet away, with the help of Shepard's screen.

Minutes later, the beginning of a game-long penalty box parade put the Rivermen in a 3-on-2 disadvantage.

Two skaters versus three is a difficult proposition -- but no other DII team has an elite pair of defensemen like Adam Clarke and James Wetton.

Moments after Wetton had spectacularly killed over ten seconds of penalty time by dodging and weaving the puck through traffic in his own zone, Clarke blocked a Dino Virone wrist shot, retrieved the loose puck, and beat the Hofstra star into the open floor for a breakaway.

Clarke broke in alone and snapped a low wrister that deflected off Frey's blocker before hitting the back of the net to give the Rivermen a 3-0 lead at 8:04 of the first.

Clarke's shortie put the Pride on the ropes, but only briefly.

Twenty-nine seconds later, Hofstra defenseman Chris Silagy ripped a slapshot that found the top corner of the net for a power-play goal that put the Pride on the board and kept them in the game at 3-1.

Thanks in no small part to the goaltending of Frey and Thomas Ames, neither team scored during the second period despite trading power plays that covered 9:06 of the period's first 9:35.

Frey kept the Pride within two goals by denying All-Americans Jake Shepard and James Wetton on clear breakaways. Frey also foiled two UMSL power plays.

Ames was equally brilliant, helping deny two Hofstra power-play opportunities early in the second period, and another that carried over into the third.

Hofstra?s early-third-period power play ended when Shepard stole the puck in the UMSL zone, raced down the left wing, and cut to the net, where he was tripped by diving Hofstra defenseman Joe Dooley, whose desperation poke-check caught Shepard's skates and sent the UMSL sniper flying head-over heels.

On the ensuing power play, Frey stopped three shots before Virone killed the bulk of the remaining penalty time by tying up the puck against the boards in the UMSL zone.

Back at four-on-four, the Pride finally solved Ames 1:03 after Dooley's penalty ended. Adam Koziol made it 3-2 by tapping home Dino Virone's rebound with 7:27 to play.

It wouldn't have been possible without Frey, who stopped Zach Stacy's point-blank backhand with his mask and stoned Doug Purk one-on-one with his pad less than a minute earlier.

Virone, evoking memories of his heroics in the Pride's 7-6 first-round upset of the Rivermen in '05, carried the puck from deep in his own zone and beat three UMSL defenders before letting loose the wrister that produced Koziol?s rebound tap-in.

Hofstra smelled an upset, and was bringing a heavy challenge to the powerful Rivermen.

Frey continued to do his part, stopping James Wetton's stuff-in attempt on the next shift, then making a tough glove save on a Doug Purk wrister with less than 6:00 left.

Hofstra came within inches of tying the game with just over four minutes to play when Charles Nack took a wrist shot from the left-wing boards that deflected off UMSL's Jason Shields and Hofstra's Joe Macedo before coming to rest against the right-wing post, where Ames froze it. The Pride celebrated until the no-goal call was made.

Ames stopped good scoring chances by Dooley and Macedo before Dooley was whistled for hooking Jake Shepard to the floor with just 3:10 to play, giving UMSL a chance to end the upset bid with a power-play conversion.

After Frey stopped four shots in the first half of the power play, Adam Clarke fired a wrist shot from the left-wing circle that Shepard deflected with the shaft of his stick to score his second power-play tip-in goal of the game. Shepard's fifth goal of the day gave UMSL a 4-2 edge with 1:53 left.

Freshman Jason Shields made an excellent hustle play on the ensuing center-ice faceoff, winning the draw and advancing the puck all the way into the Hofstra zone. Shields held the puck along the boards before sending it back to Clarke. The Rivermen held possession for the next thirty seconds, killing valuable time to preserve their two-goal lead before the puck caromed out of play. On the next faceoff, Shields killed another ten seconds in the same fashion.

Moments later, Wetton intercepted a pass 100 feet from the Hofstra goal and sent a wrist shot all the way down into an empty net to finish off the Pride.

The Rivermen were happy to escape with the 5-2 win. Frey stoned the UMSL attack for most of the contest, and the seemingly constant special teams play often resulted in sloppy, halting action.

But UMSL escaped with its second victory of the day -- and with a little bit of revenge for last season's first-round loss.

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Don't forget to check back for new Rivermen Reels highlight videos.

The following are complete, and embedded in their respective player profile pages.

Rivermen Reels No. 1 - Project Purk (Doug Purk)

Rivermen Reels No. 2 - Hall Of Ames (Thomas Ames)

Rivermen Reels No. 3 - Spirit of the STABB (Jake Shepard)

Rivermen Reels No. 4 - Explicit (Ben Lambert)

Rivermen Reels No. 5 - Guiding Force (Adam Clarke)

Rivermen Reels No. 6 - They Call Him Crunchy (Zach Stacy)

Coming soon: Rivermen Reels No. 7 (James Wetton) and No. 8 (Jake Shepard, part two).

Rivermen Reels 9-12 will feature Wally Iverson, Jason Shields, John Angelbeck, and Tim McFarland.