New York, NY -- The hockey team placed second in its pool in last week's American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division II National Championships.
Playing in arguably the toughest pool in the tournament, NYU accumulated a record of 1-1-1 in round robin play.
Last year, NYU went 0-3 in round robin play. This year, the players, "just wanted to place better for the school," forward Ben Maniere said.
The pre-tournament rankings placed NYU ninth overall in the field. In the same pool as NYU were the fourth-ranked Michigan State Spartans and the sixth-ranked Indiana Hoosiers, who hosted the championships and were runners up last year. Rounding out the pool was the University of Utah, perceived by one coach as perhaps the toughest team in the pool.
In its opening round match, NYU fell to the eventual winner of the pool, Michigan State, by a score of 7-3. Quickly falling behind 1-0, NYU answered with two goals from centers Dan Perry and Bryan Schleppy. Michigan State then scored five unanswered goals, putting the game out of reach. Perry had two goals in the game.
NYU tied Indiana University 5-5 in the second game, even though Bryan Grant of Indiana scored a hat trick. NYU started flat and Indiana jumped out to a 3-0 lead.
But defenseman Sebastien Bilodeau sparked the NYU offense, scoring two power play goals and assisting on another by captain Jesse Belcher-Timme, helping NYU tie the game going into the third period.
Grant opened up the scoring in the third period, but NYU defenseman Ryan Hughes scored two goals, the last one to put NYU ahead 5-4 with 2:25 left in regulation.But once again, Grant answered with a heartbreaking goal with 1:13 left in regulation.
Neither team scored in the overtime session, leaving the game tied at 5-5. NYU goalie Jay Lee was especially fantastic with 49 saves in the game.
In the third game, NYU fell behind early once again, this time to the University of Utah. Down 2-0, Bilodeau's scoring again helped spark the NYU offense. Along with the Bilodeau goal, Eric Lazar, Mitch Katz and Perry also scored. Utah scored a late goal to bring the final score to 4-3 in NYU's favor.
NYU placed third, despite fielding only two lines for each game, to tie Indiana (1-0-2) in the championships.
Forward Maniere and defenseman Ryan Hughes were both named All-Tournament Honorable Mentions for their performances.