March 4, 2007

NORTHFIELD, Vt. - The Babson College men's ice hockey team pulled off what many deemed impossible at the outset of the ECAC East Tournament at Norwich on Sunday, as the sixth-seeded Beavers completed a magnificent playoff run with a 5-3 win over second-seeded archrival New England College in the championship game.

With the victory, the upstart Beavers improved to 18-9-1 overall and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament - the program's 13th overall but first since 1993. The conference championship was Babson's first since 1992, and it marked the first time since the inception of the ECAC East in 1998-99 that a team other than Norwich or NEC won the title.

Babson won the conference tourney with wins over three nationally-ranked teams - #14 Skidmore, #4 Norwich, and #13 NEC. The Beavers will now look to continue that streak, as they head to #2 Manhattanville for a National Quarterfinal matchup in the NCAA Division III Tournament this coming Saturday, March 10.

Sophomore Skylar Nipps (Orlando, Fla.) finished with 34 saves in net to earn tournament Most Valuable Player honors, while junior captain John Geverd (Hookset, N.H.) netted the game-winning goal at 16:05 of the third - his third tally of the weekend and fourth of the tourney. First-year Jason Schneider (Littleton, Mass.) added a pair of goals in the win, including an empty-netter in the closing seconds that clinched the victory, and sophomores Brad Baldelli (Northboro, Mass.) and Pat McLaughlin (Berlin, Mass.) each tallied one goal and two assists.

Geverd, Baldelli and first-year defenseman Gabriel Chenard-Poirier (St. Augustine, Quebec) all joined Nipps on the All-Tournament Team.

Coming off their first win over top-seeded Norwich in eight years on Saturday, the Beavers faced another huge hurdle in the championship game, as NEC had knocked Babson out of the previous two conference tourneys. To make things even more difficult, the team was playing without injured starters JT Balben (Wayland, Mass.) and Alex DiPietro (Winthrop, Mass.). Balben had been out since suffering an injury in the final regular season game against Connecticut College, DiPietro, an All-ECAC East selection, suffered a shoulder injury in Saturday's tilt against Norwich.

Despite playing without two of their top players, the Beavers barely skipped a beat early on, as Baldelli scored off Geverd's rebound on the powerplay at 7:48 of the first period. Babson continued to add to its lead in the second period, beginning with a fantastic goal by McLaughlin as he tipped a centering pass from Baldelli off the left shoulder of NEC goalie Ron Baia and into the net at 7:37. Schneider then made it 3-0 Beavers with a spectacular goal with five minutes left in the period, as he came racing in from the left side and then extended around the defense to tuck a nifty shot into the far right corner.

NEC refused to go quietly, getting one goal back on a powerplay score by junior Mike Carmody at 18:08 of the second. The Pilgrims then pulled to within one on a bad break for Babson in the early moments of the third, as junior Mike Venit (Ridley Park, Pa.) got caught defending Carmody without a stick just inside the blue line. The veteran forward made a diving attempt to block the ensuing shot, but Carmody reached past him and scored on a screened wrist shot to make it 3-2 with 14:30 remaining in regulation.

Geverd answered with the biggest goal of the game for Babson, as he took a feed from Baldelli and buried a wrister from the right circle to push the Beavers' lead back to 4-2 with 6:55 left. That play would prove pivotal moments later, when Babson was penalized for having too many men on the ice. The Green and White killed off the penalty successfully, but NEC junior Mickey Serra managed to score before the returning skater could get back into the defensive zone, cutting the Beavers' lead back to one, 4-3, with 3:18 to play.

As was the case on Saturday, the tenacious Babson defense came up big when it mattered most, as Nipps turned away multiple shots in the final two minutes. NEC would pull Baia for the extra skater with 1:24 left, but the Beavers still managed to control the puck and eventually scored again when Schneider tallied the empty-netter with 28.2 seconds on the clock. That would put the game away for Babson, which improved to 8-0-1 in its last 10 contests.

"This is a great tribute to Babson College," said head coach Jamie Rice '90, now in his third year at the helm of the program. "[Our players] love their school and play with a lot of pride, and it showed this weekend. This is just a great moment for Babson."

Nipps was superb over the weekend for the Beavers, making 66 saves on 70 shots in the two victories to collect MVP honors. Between the first goal of the game by Norwich on Saturday and NEC's first goal on Sunday, the sophomore goaltender went 98 consecutive minutes without allowing a score.

Now heading to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 14 years, Babson will receive a bye in the play-in round and will advance to the National Quarterfinals at Manhattanville this Saturday. The winner of that game will earn a trip to the National Semifinals in Superior, Wisconsin, where they will face either Fredonia, Middlebury, or UMass-Dartmouth on March 17. The National Championship game will take place the following day, also at Wisconsin-Superior.