Mammoths blank Middlebury 6-0 to conclude semester

By Press release submission

Dec 13, 2022

The Amherst College men's hockey team struck for four power-play goals Saturday afternoon en route to a 6-0 conference win over rival Middlebury at Orr Rink.

The Mammoths improved to 6-1-1 overall with the shutout, 5-0-0 in conference play, and sit atop the NESCAC standings. Middlebury slipped to 1-7-0 overall, and 1-4-0 in conference play.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

* The two teams skated to a scoreless first period, with each side having scoring opportunities. Amherst goalie Connor Leslie made a pair of key saves. He padded away a wrister from Chris Garbe followed by a laser off the stick of Jin Lee from between the circles to keep the game scoreless.

* After a scoreless first period, Amherst took a 1-0 lead with its first power-play goal with 11:27 remaining in the second period. Joey Verkerke kept the puck in the Middlebury zone, punching it past a Panther forward to Ben Kuzma, who picked it up along the left boards and circled the top of the circle into the slot. While getting hooked, Kuzma got off a shot which was blocked. The puck caromed back to Verkerke, who took a stride before snapping a shot on goal. Stationed in front of the keeper, Connor Merrill was there to re-direct the puck into the bottom right corner of the goal for the lead.

* The Mammoths made it 2-0 with 4:12 remaining in the period, taking advantage of another power-play opportunity. Josh Burke controlled the puck inside the blue line, two a couple of strides toward the goal in the slot, and fired a shot that Zach Murray got his blade on, re-directing the rubber into the lower left-hand corner of the goal.

* Amherst made it 3-0 in the closing seconds of the stanza. Murray won a puck back in the neutral zone and slid a pass to Josh Burke as Burke crossed the blue line. Just inside the top of the right circle, Burke let loose with a shot that beat Middlebury goalie Adam Wisco past the right pad and into the lower left corner of the goal with 19 ticks left on the clock.

* The Mammoths added three more goals in the third period, two more coming on the power play, and finished 4 of 8 on the specialty unit in the game. Tyler Borque scored the final two goals for Amherst, while Greg McGunigle added the other.

BY THE NUMBERS:

* First-years Murray and Burke each finished with 1 goal and 2 assists in the win. Bourque had 2 goals. Leslie finished with 19 saves for his first shutout of the season.

* Amherst finished with a 39-19 shot advantage in the contest.

* There were 16 penalties in the game, 10 whistled on Middlebury and 6 on the Mammoths.