December 4, 2007

Scoreboard
Fri. 11/30/07	1	2	3	OT	F
Georgia Tech	2	1	2	-	5
Middle Ten. State	1	1	4	-	6
Sat. 12/1/07	1	2	3	OT	F
Georgia Tech	0	0	0	-	0
Richmond	2	1	0	-	3
Sun. 12/2/07	1	2	3	OT	F
Georgia Tech	0	1	3	-	4
South Florida	1	0	0	-	1

The Georgia Tech Hockey Club sponsored and hosted the 2nd annual Holiday Tournament over the past weekend at the Cooler in Alpharetta. Hockey Clubs from Middle Tennessee State (MTSU), University of Richmond and University of South Florida (USF) joined in the round robin tournament with teams and spectators donating toys and money to the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. MTSU won the tourney going 3-0 with University of Richmond coming in second.

Georgia Tech had an opportunity to take it all, but lost the opening game to the tournament winner MTSU 6-5. Tech knew they were going to step up to win against quality teams, but, due to injuries, the bench was only 14 strong and went down to 13 in the 3rd period when Tom Porter was injured that knocked him out of the game and the tournament.They had opportunities to put the game away early, but defense was suspect and let goalie Maxx Lucas "alone" on numerous occasions. Tech opened the scoring on a "garbage" goal in front of the net by Michael Midgette just 5 minutes into the game. Tech added another goal six minutes later in the first on a nice goal by Jeremy Spafard with assists to Whitney Yiu and B.J. Stapleton. The 2-0 lead held up until late in the first period when MTSU got their first goal. Play remained even for the first half of the 2nd period when MTSU scored a power play goal to tie the score at 2-2. Tech fought off a 5-3 disadvantage at the seven minute mark to keep things even and then scored an unassisted goal by Dale Sharpe with just 23 seconds left in period 2 to take a 3-2 lead. But after an ice cut, MTSU came on strong scoring two goals within a minute of each other to take the 4-3 lead. The Jackets rebounded and scored 40 second later on a great goal by Marcus Lostracco (assists to Michael Midgette and Grant Weaver) to tie the score again. MTSU took the lead for good with two more goals (one on a power play and one on a defensive lapse that allowed a 4-1 break). Tech did manage their final goal on a 5-3 power play with time winding down as B.J. Stapleton scored unassisted from the blue line.

Saturday night's game against Richmond saw a marked improvement in the defense, but the more skilled and longer benched Spiders took a 3-0 victory. Tech down to just 8 forwards and 5 defensive played extremely well, but could not manage any offense in the shutout win for Richmond. Maxx Lucas made 42 saves in the contest.

Sunday saw hard work and determination payoff as they beat USF 4-1 in the final game of the tourney. USF got their only goal just 1 minute and 45 seconds left in the first period to take a 1-0 lead. Andy DeCherico scored late in period two on a rebound from a shot from the point by B.J. Stapleton (the other assist went to Grant Weaver) which tied the score at 1-1. The tie score remained going into period three, but Grant Weaver shot from the point from a quick pass by Drew Baker just 15 seconds into the period for 2-1 lead. Dale Sharpe scored two goals late in the game (both assists from Whitney Yiu) to make the final score 4-1. Maxx Lucas had an easier time with shots on goal. Averaging 43 per game, USF got just 22 shots off as Lucas got 21 saves.

This ends the first half of the season and the team will take 5 weeks off before resuming play on Jan 11th at the Cooler