Skidmore vs. Suffolk Box

Williams vs. Potsdam Box

Saratoga Springs, N.Y.--  The Skidmore College hockey team advanced to the Skidmore Invitational championship game with a 2-1 win over Suffolk University Saturday at the Saratoga Springs City Rink.  The Thoroughbreds (1-2) will face Williams College a 3-2 winner over Potsdam on Sunday at 4 p.m.  The Rams (1-6) will play Potsdam in the consolation game at 1 p.m.

After a scoreless first period, Matt Czerkowicz (Blackstone, Mass./Kent) gave Skidmore a 1-0 lead with his first goal of the season at 5:01 of the second. The power-play goal was set-up by Alex Mykolenko (Kharkov, Ukraine/Northwood) and Nick Dupuis (Holyoke, Mass./Springfield Falcons).

Suffolk tied the game at 10:33 when Niles Moore poked home a power-play goal from Paul Weisser and Mitch Sabo. 

The Thoroughbreds made it 2-1 at 14:50 of the second when  Brett Bandazian (Wyckoff, N.J./Baystate Breakers) took a long breakout pass from Joe Melnyk (Rotterdam, N.Y./CD Selects) and fed Chris Webb (Holliston, Mass./New England Huskies) who converted for the eventual game-winner.

Suffolk had a pair of good opportunities in the third.  John Rocchio missed on a breakaway with 2:07 to play, but drew a penalty.  The Thoroughbreds killed the Ram power player with freshman goalie Andrew Ross (McKinney, Texas/Boston Bulldogs) making two saves.

Ross finished with 29 saves for the win.  Suffolk goalie Jeff Rose had 36 saves.

In the other semifinal, Williams forward Brett Haraguchi scored on a bad bounce with 31 seconds to play to give the Ephs the 3-2 win over Potsdam (2-4-3).  Williams (3-0) took a quick 2-0 lead on first period goals by Alex Smigelski (3:41) and Ryan Young (4:06).   The Bears battled back to tie it in the second period on goals by Sy Nutkevitch at 6:17 and Fraser Smith at 7:35.

With the game heading toward overtime, Haraguchi's shot deflected to the far corner past Potsdam's Tervor O'Neill for the game-winner. 

O'Neil had 19 saves, while Williams goalie Marc Pulde stopped 38 shots.

Scoring Summary

Team            1    2    3    F
Suffolk (1-6)        0    1    0    1
Skidmore     (1-2)    0    2    0    2

1st Period: None
2nd Period: 1. Skidmore: Matt Czerkowicz (Alex Mykolenko, Nick Dupuis) pp 5:01; 2. Suffolk: Niles Moore (Paul Weisser, Mitch Sabo) pp 10:33; 3. Skidmore: Chris Webb (Brett Bandazian, Joe Melnyk), 14:50.
3rd Period: None

Goalies: Suffolk (Jeff Rose, 38 shots, 36 saves); Skidmore (Andrew Ross, 30 shots, 29 saves)