By Brittany Burke and Kenny Barto
The CCSU club hockey team made history by grabbing the number two spot at the ACHA Division II national tournament the first weekend of spring break.
Moving through pool play, the Blue Devils defeated Michigan State University on Wednesday, March 17 and Ohio State University on Thursday, March 18, where they locked up their position in the semifinals. They fell to the San Jose State Spartans on Friday. CCSU faced University of Maryland-Baltimore County Saturday morning, but let the championship escape their grasp when Davenport outscored CCSU 3-1 with two streaks of four unanswered goals.
Despite losing the final to Davenport University, this year’s CCSU team made it farther than any other team in CCSU history.
“This is the best team in Central history,” said Head Coach Ben Adams. “There’s only one way to go from here.”
CCSU vs. Davenport Panthers (Finals)
Davenport swept all of their games, winning five in a row to give them their third ACHA Division II title in three years including the 12-4 victory over CCSU.
“This is a team that wins national championships,” said Adams. “It’s tough when you don’t bury your opportunities and you give them second chances.”
The Blue Devils struggled with the high-powered offense of Davenport for the entire game, but had the game tied at the end of the first period thanks to another great performance by freshman Ryan Stanley, who scored nine goals in the tournament.
“This gives me some confidence going forward,” he said. “It’s definitely rewarding because of all the work I put in during the off season.”
CCSU could not keep up with Davenport in the second period, however. The Panthers scored four goals in a row before Thomas Carroll scored on a slap shot from the point with 1:31 left to go in the period. Davenport quickly answered with 11 seconds to go to put the score at 7-3.
Davenport continued to pile on the goals, and with the score at 11-4, the game got out of hand. Goalie Greg Coco froze a Davenport shot with just over three minutes remaining when Panthers defenseman Adam Gillikin got too close for comfort. Blue Devils enforcer Carroll shoved Gillikin away, and both players eventually dropped gloves and fought until all three referees were able to pull them apart.
CCSU’s Rob DiClemente was thrown out for unsportsmanlike-conduct, and both Gillikin and Caroll were thrown out for fighting.
“This is a game that runs on pure emotions,” said coach Adams. “I don’t condone it by any means, but I understand where [Carroll] was coming from.”
Davenport added one more score in the last minute to give them the 12-4 victory.
Even with the loss, two CCSU players brought home individual awards due to strong performances in the tournament. Dabkowski received second team all-tournament honors with three goals and seven assists. Stanley received first team all-tournament with his nine goal, six assist performance; he fell just short in the voting for tournament MVP. The Blue Devils received the title of runner-up for the entire ACHA Division II, which consists of over 180 teams coast-to-coast.
CCSU vs. University of Maryland Baltimore County (Semifinals)
The national championship game was CCSU’s second game in the same day, having faced the University of Maryland-Baltimore County at 8:15 that morning.
“I haven’t played two in one day since pee-wee or bantam,” said Dabkowski. “But, this is what the 7 a.m. practices are for, so we’re ready.”
The Blue Devils came out strong against UMBC, who received the number one ranking based on their pool play performance.
Within the first eight and a half minutes, CCSU scored three goals, one by Butler and one by DiClemente with Stanley assisting on both. Stanley scored the third goal on the power play, assisted by Carroll and DiClemente.
CCSU led 3-0 at the end of the first, and continued to build their momentum. Stanley scored his second of the game with 14 minutes remaining, which was CCSU’s only goal of the period. Coco had no problems with the early morning start, and continued to shut out the UMBC offense through the second period.
UMBC finally buried one of their opportunities early in the second period, and followed up with another four minutes later to bring the game closer to 4-2. CCSU would not roll over, however, as Brett Holmes scored on a beautiful back-door pass from Dabkowski with seven minutes left in the period.
Three minutes later, Stanley scored, and hats rained down from the CCSU crowd for the second time in the tournament.
“Stanley is a horse,” said coach Adams. “He’s blown everyone else out of the water in scoring, and he’s just been great for us.”
With the scoreboard reading 6-2, Carroll forced a turnover in the defensive zone, and passed to Dabkowski at center ice, who started a breakaway giving CCSU their seventh of the game.
“[Stanley and Dabkowski] have been strong all tournament,” said coach Adams. “Those were the guys that we needed to step up, and they definitely did.”
Dabkowski ended his senior season as the goal and points leader with 24 and 47, while the injured DiClemente lead the team in assists at 33. CCSU ended the season ranked fourth SECHL with a 15-11-2 regular season record, scoring a team total of 335 points.
Pool Play vs. Michigan State University
CCSU came out of pool play 2 for 3, which cemented their position in the semifinals; they won against both Michigan State University and Ohio State University, but lost to San Jose State.
During the first day of the tournament, CCSU defeated Michigan State Spartans 9-7. They came out strong against the MSU, scoring with less than two minutes taken off the clock from Stanley, his first of three in the game, assisted by Dabkowski and Jeff Pease.
CCSU managed to score twice more in the first to give them the 3-1 advantage heading into the locker room. Their second goal came from senior Erich Stoneman with help from Matt Williams and Jonathan Knobloch, followed by an unassisted glove side goal made by Stanley with 53 seconds left to play.
During the second MSU goalie Nick Kuelske allowed for three additional unanswered goals before he was taken out of the game with the score at 6-1.
The final goal of the second for CCSU came from Knobloch and Stoneman with less than a minute to play.
With the five-goal lead CCSU came out in the third flat. They managed to step it up, with two more goals at 15:51 and 14:46 from Dabkowski with the assists from Stanley and Carroll; the second came from Ryan Paglinco and Eric Blewett. MSU came back with four unanswered goals, three coming off a power play.
“It was a mix of comfort and penalties that got us to the final score,” said Adams. “A win is a win as ugly as it gets, but they hung together. They stayed together as a group and even when it was going bad they still managed to find a way to win.”
vs. Ohio State
The Blue Devils entered the game versus Buckeyes looking to carry over the momentum from the win against MSU. With 17:24 left to play Dabkowski scored the one and only CCSU first period goal from Stanley and Pease.
“First time CCSU hockey has ever made it to the semifinals so now after this game we can say we’re one of the top four teams in the country and not many players at any league get to say that at any point in time in their career…and that’s awesome,” said Dabkowski after Thursday’s game.
CCSU managed to outshoot OSU, even though they spent extra time in the box.
Early on in the second CCSU’s Pease put the Blue Devils up by one with a goal from Stanley and Dabkowski. They briefly lost the lead when OSU scored back-to-back with 3:58 and 3:32 left to play, but the Blue Devils came back strong and 25 seconds later Blewett scored from Carroll and Dane Anderson to tie it up at three beginning the third.
CCSU had the four-line attack that they have been honing since the beginning of the second half of the season. Players from every line were stepping up and making the plays, especially in front of Coco. He shut out the Buckeyes in the third, while his team sealed the win with two more goals.
At the end of the third, co-captain Mike DiClemente took a hit on the boards and left the game immediately. His arm was broken in two places.
“The boys did all the work. I just kind of pushed the right buttons you know, I just pushed buttons and hoped they were the right ones,” said Adams. “They laid it on the line, and they played it as a team and that’s all you could ask for.”
vs. San Jose State University
The last day of pool play brought a west-coast opponent in the San Jose State Spartans, and also brought some bad news.
In the game the night before, co-captain Mike DiClemente took a hit on the boards and left the game immediately with a broken arm. Robert DiClemente honored his brother by wearing his jersey, and scored in the second period.
“It was with his brother’s move too,” said coach Adams. “It was bittersweet because [Rob] is upset, but it was a nice goal.”
CCSU lost 4-2, with senior Matt Williams adding the other goal. The Blue Devils offense was out of sync, but they were able to rest up their key players going into the semifinal game.
