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Crusaders Sweep Weekend
Holy Cross 4 Uconn 1
Holy Cross 9 WPI 5
By: Justin Martin
On Saturday afternoon the Crusaders embarked on a roughly one hour adventure to UConn to play their first game of the new semester. The bus was scheduled to leave the Hart Center at 5 o’clock sharp, however those lucky fans that were present at 4:30 were treated to an abs and biceps workout compliments of Kevin “Terrell Owens” Connolly. Nevertheless, the Crusaders had their work cut out for them as UConn stomped on the Crusaders in the first semester. The Crusaders clearly felt that they owed UConn more than one.
The Crusaders took to the ice a little rusty, however, they were able to match UConn’s play and managed to come away from the period up by one goal, thanks to a Connolly goal, aided by his esteemed line-mates, Andrew “Dots” Doherty and Justin “JMart” Martin. Feeling as though the first period should have seen more goals come at the sticks of the boys in purple, the Crusaders struck early in the second period. The infamous “White Line” struck again as Doherty scored on a text book play set up by both his line-mates. Only two minutes passed when Will Buxton felt he wanted a piece of the action. Buxton placed the puck right next to the peanut butter on the top shelf off of a blocked Connolly rip. The Crusaders then took a costly penalty resulting in a UConn goal from Kireyezyk, which narrowed the Crusader’s lead to 2, which held until the end of the period. Determined not to give up and allow UConn to stage a comeback, the Crusaders solidified the win with Doherty’s second goal of the game. Connolly was awarded with the helper, tallying his fourth point of the game. The Crusaders understood that this was a big victory and received help not just from those who made it on the score sheet, however the win could not have been possible without the efforts of Pete “PB” Bartline and the efforts of the hard working “Red Line” consisting of Ryan “Mad Dog” Gardner, “Handsome Chris” Heimers, and Matt O’Leary. The Crusaders would then attempt to continue their winning ways the following day in a home match up against cross-town rivals WPI.
The Crusaders arrived at the Hart Center to play in front of a sold out crowd against the WPI Engineers. It didn’t take long for the Crusaders to get on the board as they scored three times within the first ten minutes of the game. The boys in purple had their scoring started by Joe “The Show” Mantovani, coming from Buxton and Paul “Abs all day” Riley. The hot “White Line” continued their streak as Connolly and Doherty scored within the same shifts, assists being credited to Martin and Coleman. The Crusaders then decided to take a Sunday skate that resulted in two WPI goals from Roy and Elbag, while red hot Buxton managed to squeeze a goal in before the end of the period. Unfortunately for the Crusaders bad mistakes continued into the second period. Though Riley on a play from Buxton and Ayres was able to strike first, the Engineers stormed back on goals from Culver and Brindall before the close of the period. The Crusaders entered the third period with an, anything but comfortable, one goal lead. Determined to extend their win streak to two games in 2006, Buxton opened the period with his second goal on an assist from Riley. Only two minutes after that Justin “Can’t hit water if he fell out of a boat” Martin finally broke his unprecedented scoring slump by making no mistakes and blasting a slap shot home into an empty right side of the net from 5 feet away. Justin would like to take this opportunity to thank his most skillful line-mates Connolly and Doherty for their assistance on the goal. Brindall from WPI struck again as he narrowed the Crusader’s lead back to two goals. Will Buxton then put the proverbial icing on the cake as he netted an empty net goal to complete his hat-trick. The scoring did not end there. Ryan Gardner, inspired by his new nickname, “Mad Dog”, created after Ryan’s style of play, netted a goal, helped by Dave “Legit” Ayers, and Heimers to solidify the victory.
Goalie Peter Bartline '05 (left) and Crusader Captains Joe Mantovani '05 (middle) and Brian Coleman '05 are all smiles and hope to lead their team to another NECHA title.