Vegas Fun, Winternationals Done

Congratulations to the University of Central Florida and the University of South Florida for their showing at the NARCH winternationals this past weekend. The 2004 winternationals came to an end on Monday night with a thrilling overtime victory by the Michigan State Spartans beating Central Florida 6-5 in overtime. Its the second time in consecutive years that UCF has taken the silver medal. The tournament started on Friday night for the SCRHA as USF took the floor against a very good Eastern Michigan team. USF came out flat, and the score represented it as they earned their first loss of the season, 5-1. Saturday night was UCF's turn to take the floor, and the came out smoking. Central Florida dominated with an impressive 8-0 victory over Illinois State. Sunday night started out with South Florida battling Neumann college in a must win game for both teams. USF played hard, and earned their first winternationals victory, 4-2. As USF left the floor, UCF entered with a rematch of last years semifinals against Cal Poly SLO. It was a fast paced game that favored the Golden Knights. UCF improved their record to 2-0, beating SLO 6-3. The last games of round robin action saw Central Florida lose to Penn State 5-2, and South Florida beat Cal Poly Pomona 4-1. Mondays action started the championship round. UCF finished in the 6th spot and a quarterfinal matchup with Eastern Michigan. Central Florida built up a 3-0 lead and was able to hang on in the last seconds of the game for a 3-2 victory. South Florida finished in the seventh spot with a quarterfinal matchup with Penn State. PSU lead for 3/4 of the game 2-0, but USF fought back and was able to tie the game with under 2 minuntes left. Six minutes into overtime, Steve Accola scored the game winner to put USF into the semis against Michigan State. The first semifinal matched two nationally ranked teams, Michigan State and South Florida. USF played their hearts out, but came up short as Michigan State advanced to their fourth straight final, 4-2. The second semifinal matched Central Florida against Towson University. Towson scored early to get a 1-0 lead, but it was all Central Florida after that. UCF ran away with the win, 4-1, and advanced to their second final in two years. The final game for the college division was one of the best college games I have ever seen. Michigan State struck first and built a 2-0 lead. Seconds later, Gaspare Lucania recorded his first of 4 goals to make the score 2-1. UCF then gave up a shorthanded goal, but would get one back before the end of the first half to make the score 3-2. The second half would go back and forth. UCF tied it at 3, but MSU went back up on the powerplay 4-3. After a couple of minutes, Lucania scored his third of the game to tie it 4. At this point, both teams started to look tired from the wear of 5 games before this and the intensity level this game was played at. With about 5 minutes left in the game, UCF received a penalty, and Michigan State captilized on it to put them up 5-4. With 2 minutes left in the game and Michigan State on another power play, the game looked like it was pretty much wrapped up. But with 35 seconds to go, Jeff Stepp stole the puck, passed it forward to Brandon Schwultz for a 2 on 1. After a nifty move around the defensemen, he passed it over to Lucania who found nothing but net to tie the score at 5-5. Overtime came, but it didnt last long. In a 8 player scramble for the puck in front of the UCF net, the puck found the back of it and it was over. Final Score: Michigan State 6, Central Florida 5. Congratulations to all the teams who came out to Vegas to compete. For all scores and statistics on winternationals, check out www.narch.com