Georgetown Hockey

Georgetown 5, NC State 3 (ACCHL Semi-Final).

On Saturday afternoon, February 23, 2008, at the Roanoke Civic Center, the
Georgetown Hoyas faced-off against the Wolfpack of North Carolina State
University in the semi-finals of the 2008 ACCHL Championship Tournament.

It was a close, hard-fought game for the entire 60 minutes. NC State led
1-0 at the end of the first period. In the first four minutes of the
second period, Brendan Surma (Jr-Pittsburgh, PA) blasted a powerful
one-timer past the Wolfpack goalie on a power play to tie the game at 1-1,
assisted by a nice crossing pass from Dave Glynn (Sr-Stoughton, MA). A few
minutes later, NC State scored on a power play of its own to regain the
lead, 2-1.

About midway through the second period, Georgetown turned up the intensity
and the momentum started to swing in favor of the Hoyas. In a
lightning-like attack, Georgetown scored twice within 12 seconds to take a
3-2 lead. At the 12:16 mark, Dave Glynn scored on a rebound, assisted by
Peter Black (Jr-Bethesda, MD) and Conor Hickton (Sr-Pittsburgh, PA).
Merely 12 seconds later, Hugh Manahan (Jr-Skillman, NJ) scored on another
rebound, assisted by Ryan Murphy (Jr-Clifton Park, NJ), to give the Hoyas
their first lead of the game, 3-2. Three minutes later, however, the
Wolfpack answered on a power play to knot the score 3-3 heading into the
final period of action.

The third period belonged to the Hoyas, who outskated, outhustled, and
outscored the Wolfpack 2-0 to notch the victory. In the first five minutes
of the final period, Conor Hickton maneuvered from behind the net on a
Georgetown power play, found a small opening between the Wolfpack goalie
and the left post, and somehow shot the puck across the goal line to give
the Hoyas a 4-3 lead.

With 10:58 remaining in the final period, the Wolfpack had a golden
opportunity to tie the game when the Hoyas were assessed a double minor
penalty and were shorthanded for 4 minutes. During this critical stretch,
the Hoyas' defense and penalty killers were outstanding and held the
Wolfpack at bay. The Hoyas' penalty killing defense featured all-around
solid play from Hugh Manahan (Jr-Skillman, NJ), Dan Lechner
(Soph-N.Potomac, MD), Charlie Beller (Fr-Chappaqua, NY), Brendan Surma
(Jr-Pittsburgh, PA), Dave Glynn, Conor Hickton, Rick Cella (Sr-Long Valley,
NJ), and Eric Estey (Sr-Toronto, Canada). Hoya goaltender extraordinaire,
Greg Graham (Soph-Downingtown, PA), who was solid the entire game, made two
sensational saves during this critical period.

Finally, at the 17:18 mark in the third period, numbers 17 and 18 of the
Hoyas teamed up for the game clincher. Dan Lechner (#18) stole the puck in
the Wolfpack zone and fired a shot on goal. The shot was rebounded by Hugh
Manahan (#17), who fired a wrister past the Wolfpack goalie and into the
back of the net to seal the victory for the Hoyas. This gave the Hoyas the
lift they needed to advance into the Championship Game the following day
against the Blue Devils of Duke University.