The Observer, February 24, 2006
Volume XXXVIII, Issue 18
Walls, Pawlowski lead hockey to first-ever playoff victory
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The Case hockey team was not content with just making the playoffs. Playing as the lowest seed last weekend, the Spartans defeated the third seed and took the top seed to overtime, only to lose on a scramble where the puck ended up in the net.
The win in the first game came against Penn State Behrend, the team Case had beaten the week before to assure a spot in the playoffs. In the teams' two meetings during the regular season, Case went 1-0-1.
Before the game, Behrend was presented a banner for winning the College Hockey East (CHE) North Division, which is also the division Case is in. The banner presentation fired up the Spartans as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. Both goals were scored by last week's conference player of the week, Dan Pawlowski. Lampell and Jim Lowe each had an assist.
In the second period Behrend scored to get within 2-1. Case answered, though, with a goal scored by Zach Lampell, assisted by Lowe.
Case took a 3-1, lead into the third period, but the week before, Behrend scored four times in the third period. Despite Behrend's scoring onslaught in that previous game, goalie Rob Walls was still sure that the team would win.
"Going into the third period it was 3-1 so I was confident," Walls said. "I felt like we had the game won as long as we did not let up. I remembered what had happened the weekend before, and knew that they were able to come back, but I was playing well and knew that if I kept playing that way, we were going to win."
Case made the game 4-1 on another goal by Pawlowski, who netted his second hat trick in a row versus Behrend. Lampell got the assist.
PSB scored again to get the game to 4-2, but that was the end of the scoring.
Walls cited a number of reasons why he felt that the team was able to play so well against Behrend.
"We had Behrend's number because our first few lines were more talented than theirs, and their goaltending is horrible," Walls said.
"Our first line of Pawlowski, Lowe, and Lampell was better than any of their lines, and they did not have an answer," he added. "I don't want to sound arrogant, but I felt that superior goaltending also played a role."
It likely is not arrogance as his teammates all credited much of the team's success to his goalkeeping. In the Behrend playoff game he allowed just two goals on 40 shots.
"Rob Walls is my hero. Rob played fantastic during both of our playoff games, stopping everything he should have, and didn't let up any rebounds, which certainly kept Behrend's good chances to a minimum," Pat Sullivan said.
He played very well in the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) game as well, allowing four goals on 58 total shots.
After beating PSB, the team was able to take some time to appreciate the win in the team's first ever playoff appearance.
"I think we all were enjoying the moment," Pawlowski said. "It was Case's first playoff win in its first playoff appearance. But we didn't play our best game against Behrend, and we were all thinking that we were going to need a better effort Sunday against IUP if we were going to have a chance."
Going into the IUP game two days later, the team was missing some players.
"During that last game, our roster was severely depleted," Sullivan said. "Several players were injured, and for a few others, the stress of Case's academics had caught up with them and did not permit them to make the trip on Sunday. If we had our full team against IUP, that game would have played out much differently."
The team took the lead in the first period on Pawlowski's fourth goal of the playoffs, assisted by Jon Jou.
The second period belonged to IUP, though. They scored three goals to make the score 3-1, in favor of IUP, going into the third period.
The third period saw Case claw its way back. A goal by Jim Lowe, assisted by Pawlowski, brought the game to within one.
Then some new scorers got involved. Dave Joyce tied the game at 3-3 on a goal assisted by Tim Tocci. The score remained tied, forcing a five-minute sudden death overtime period during which IUP scored to secure a 4-3 victory.
Pawlowski said the team was disappointed but content with its performance against such a good opponent.
"They're going to nationals after the conference playoffs and are expected to do pretty well there," Pawlowski said. "So to take a team of that caliber to overtime is certainly gratifying, especially when most people in the league weren't giving us a chance to even keep the score respectable. That being said, we definitely had our opportunities to score during the closing minutes of regulation and in overtime, so we had a good shot to keep playing next weekend."
Steve Kreuzer was also disappointed with the outcome, especially how it ended.
"We had played such a solid game and everyone had played so hard that to lose it on a play that basically boiled down to a scramble was disappointing," Kreuzer said. "It was tough because it wasn't like they beat us with clearly superior play, it was more the fatigue beginning to set in after a long game."
He said that the overtime system that CHE uses is a good choice, even though he thinks that a shootout would have favored Case.
"I'm all for the sudden-death overtime format," Kreuzer said. "You see it in the NHL creating the most suspenseful and exciting games, and I wouldn't want it any other way in the CHE. I think everyone would agree that having the entire season rest on a shootout would have been unfair, even though with Walls in net we would have [won]."
Many of the core team members are returning next year, so expectations will be high. But after a strong showing this year, there is no reason to think the team won't just keep getting better.
