Play Ball
Insights about local and national sports.
NCAA semifinal notes & quotes
- Plattsburgh State outshot Middlebury 19-9 over the last two periods of Friday’s 4-1 loss
in the NCAA Division III Women’s Ice Hockey Championship semifinals but was outscored 3-1 in that span, including an empty-netter.
- Middlebury was able to hold Teal Gove, Division III’s leading scorer, without a point. Gove had a combined six goals in Plattsburgh’s previous three playoff games.
- Gustavus Adolphus must hate 4-3 overtime games. That was the score in the Golden Gusties’ loss to Elmira in Friday’s second semifinal. They also lost 4-3 in overtime in last year’s national semifinals and in the third-place game against Plattsburgh.
Middlebury coach Bill Mandigo: “I thought the kids played hard. I thought they battled all over the ice. I thought our goalie played pretty well; she made some key saves and held her ground in front of the net. That’s a big win for our team and our program.”
Teal Gove on going down 2-0 early in the second: “Yeah, it was definitely frustrating, but the whole game we just kept telling ourselves, ‘We’ve been down two goals before; we’ve always been able to come back.’ So regardless of the score, we were going to just keep playing our best, do what we normally do. And we stayed positive the entire time.”
Plattsburgh coach Kevin Houle: “I thought the second period we started to generate some more offense. We were still giving up too many quality chances, I thought, but we were starting to spend some time in their zone and create some chances, and, I thought, wear them down a bit.”
Houle: “I feel bad for all of our kids, obviously, but especially for Teal. She’s been a phenomenal player, phenomenal person. I’m honored to have had the opportunity to coach her for four years. Kids like Teal don’t come along every day.”
Write a comment
You need to login to post comments!
