GENEVA, N.Y.—The No. 11/13 Hobart College hockey team earned a spot in the ECAC West tournament championship game with a 5-1 victory over No. 4 seed Elmira tonight in The Cooler. It was the ninth straight win for the top-seeded Statesmen.
Hobart improves to 20-6-0 overall, tying the 2005-06 Statesmen for second-most wins in a season. Only the 2008-09 Hobart hockey team has more wins in a single season than this year’s Statesmen.
Hobart will host No. 2 seed Neumann in the ECAC West tournament championship game on Saturday, March 7 in The Cooler at 7:30 p.m. The Knights topped No. 3 seed Nazareth 8-4 in tonight’s other semifinal game.
Senior Tommaso Traversa (Torino, Italy) and sophomore Bobby Sokol (Belle Vernon, Pa.) each notched two goals in tonight’s victory. Sophomore Carl Belizario (Dorva, Quebec) chipped in two assists. First-year goaltender Frank Oplinger (Sewickley, Pa.) turned aside 26 of the 27 shots he faced.
After a delayed start due to broken glass in warmups, Michael Collins put the Soaring Eagles (12-12-3) on the board first at 11:28 in the first period. His power-play goal came off assists from Carter Shinkaruk and Liam Burtt. With 1:47 left in the first, senior Sean Rudy (Long Sault, Ontario) capitalized on a power-play for Hobart to tie things up. He one-time a pass from classmate Ryan Michel (Camillus, N.Y.) from the blue line and scored back door. Junior Bo Webster (Aurora, Ontario) also earned an assist on the play.
Just 2:11 into the second, Sokol notched his first goal of the night when his shot trickled over the goal line after passes from sophomore Nick Bingaman (Paradise Valley, Ariz.) and first-year Tyler Wolf (Napersville, Ill.). Traversa notched back-to-back goals in the third period to extend Hobart’s lead to 4-1. Both of his goals came on Statesmen power-plays. The first was at 2:58 into the period off assists from senior Robert Sovik (Prague, Czech Republic) and Belizario. His second at 8:26 came from Belizario and senior Bronson Kovacs (Sault Ste Marie, Ontario). With 1:28 remaining, Sokol chipped in his second goal of the night, this one he tipped in right in front on a power play. Sophomore Jon Neal (Encinitas, Calif.) and junior Mac Olson (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) logged the assists.
The Statesmen finished with a 60-27 advantage in shots. Hobart went 4-for-8 on the power play, while Elmira finished 1-for-3. Sal Magliocco played all 60 minutes in goal for the Soaring Eagles and made 55 saves.
