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Men's Ice Hockey Season Review
Please stay in your seats until the ride comes to a complete
stop. Yes, it was that kind of season for the Holy Cross
men’s ice hockey team. The Crusaders battled through
a tough month of January, finished the season third in the
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and hosted a quarterfinal
tournament match-up at the Hart Center for the second consecutive
year.
At the halfway point of the season, the Crusaders were 8-7-0
and needed a strong second half to keep pace with the rest
of the MAAC teams. They did just that. Holy Cross picked
up two victories during a three-game homestand to start the
second half of the season. Captain Brandon Doria ’03 (Bayonne,
N.J.) notched a third-period goal to break a 3-3 tie against
Iona and snapped a six-game losing skid. The offense came
in waves three nights later, as the team defeated Sacred
Heart, 7-1. Seven players had multiple point games for the
Purple, who next traveled to Erie, Pa., to take on the second
place Mercyhurst Lakers. Unfortunately for the Crusaders,
Mercyhurst scored a pair of third-period goals to rally to
a 3-2 win. The next few games found the ’Saders struggling
to find their offense, dropping contests to Sacred Heart
(1-3) and Brown (2-4). The team was sabotaged by another
late surge on Jan. 24, against Merrimack. Leading 2-1 entering
the third period, Jonas Tomiuck ’05 (Wainfleet,
Ontario) scored his second goal of the night at the 1:34
mark in the third, but the Warriors battled back and scored
five unanswered goals—including four in the final 4:08
of the game—to escape with a 6-3 win over Holy Cross.
The Purple began the month of February still reeling from
the defeat and dropped both ends of a home-and-home series
to the Black Knights of Army. The losses dropped the Crusaders
to 8-8 in the MAAC and into sixth place in the league standings.
However, the team once again showed resiliency, beginning
to turnaround with a two-game sweep of American International.
In the first game, forward Andrew McKay ’05 (Bellefeuille,
Quebec) highlighted a three-goal surge in the third period,
scoring the game-winner in a 5-3 triumph. The Crusaders returned
home to host the Yellow Jackets the following evening and
put on quite a show for the fans. Holy Cross had its best
offensive production of the season, scoring a season-high
eight goals, highlighted by a hat trick and three assists
from Greg Kealey ’04 (Nepean, Ontario). Kealey
received honorable mention accolades later in the month,
receiving the Ice Hockey Collegiate Commissioner’s Association
(IHCCA) National College Player of the Month award; he joined
teammate Tony Quesada ’06 (South Freeport, Maine)
as the only two Crusaders to achieve this recognition. The
team then shuffled off to Buffalo, where the Crusaders beat
Canisius, 2-1, in the first game and skated to a 1-1 tie
with the Golden Griffins the following evening.
In a battle with Quinnipiac the next weekend, the team rallied
from a 3-0 deficit after one period to score the next six
goals and upset the Bobcats, 6-4, knocking them out of first
place in the conference. Tyler McGregor ’06 (Ajax,
Ontario) and J.R. Walker ’04 (Fairbault, Minn.)
led the Crusader scoring effort with two goals and one assist
each, while Tomiuck chipped in with three assists. The story
of the game for Holy Cross, was the emergence of goaltender Ben
Conway ’06 (South Hadley, Mass.), who entered after
the first period and stopped 17-of-18 shots by the Bobcats
in the final two periods, picking up the first win of his
collegiate career. The Crusaders’ momentum carried into
the second game in Hamden, Conn., but was not enough to give
the team the sweep, as they fell in overtime, 4-3.
The ’Saders dropped a tightly contested game to Mercyhurst,
2-1, at the Hart Center rink the following week but rebounded
with a 3-0 win at Fairfield. Entering the last weekend of
play, the Crusaders controlled their own fate for the MAAC
Tournament with two games against Bentley.
Senior Night at the Hart Center was an emotionally charged
evening, with Head Coach Paul Pearl ’89 honoring
six members of the class of 2003—Captain Doria, assistant
captain Tim Bernstein (Sharon, Mass.), assistant captain Chris
Smith (East Greenwich, R.I.), forward Mark Spiers (Latham,
N.Y.), forward John Bombard (Port Jefferson, N.Y.)
and defenseman Joel Robbins (Lynn, Mass.)—in a pre-game
ceremony. The night was extremely special for the team as
Bombard, who is currently undergoing cancer treatment at
home in New York, returned to campus with his family for
the first time since he was diagnosed. Holy Cross rallied
for a 6-4 win over Bentley, behind two goals from Blair
Bartlett ’06 (Dryden, Ontario), including the game-winner.
That was enough to clinch third place in the MAAC and home
ice for the quarterfinal round of the playoffs. The Crusaders
finished off the regular season on a sour note, dropping
a 2-1 decision to Bentley—but, more importantly, they
lost a solid defenseman in R.J. Irving ’04 (Marlboro,
Mass.), who suffered a broken leg in the second period.
Third-seeded Holy Cross opened the MAAC Quarterfinals against
sixth-seeded Army in front of a near capacity crowd at the
Hart Center rink on March 15. The game was tight throughout.
The Black Knights tied the game at two, with 4:02 remaining,
but McGregor came right back and scored what proved to be
the game-winner at the 1:54 mark. It was the first victory
for the Crusaders in the MAAC Tournament since the 1999 MAAC
championship game. The game also marked the 135th career
game for Crusader captain Doria, breaking the school record
for most games played in a career, which had been previously
held by Kyle Milotte ’88.
Next, the Crusaders traveled to West Point, N.Y., to compete
in the semifinal round of the MAAC Tournament and face second-seeded
Quinnipiac. At the tournament banquet, three Crusaders were
honored. Doria was named MAAC Offensive Player of the Year,
while McGregor was named MAAC Co-Offensive Rookie of the
Year. Assistant captain Bernstein was also named to the MAAC
All-Academic Team. In the semifinal match-up, the Bobcats
proved to be too much for the team, handing the Crusaders
a 3-0 loss. The roller-coaster season ended on a high note
for Crusader fans however, with much to look forward to next
year.
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