Nick Schwob and Matt Swezey each tallied twice to lead Navy’s ice hockey team to a 5-4 win over West Chester Jan. 25 at the McMullen Hockey Arena. Ranked #9 in the latest American Collegiate Hockey Association poll, West Chester fell to 20-6-2 overall. The win marked Navy’s first triumph over West Chester since a thrilling overtime victory in the 2005 playoffs.
The Mids also won Jan. 26, beating Maryland 8-5. The Mids improved to 11-17 overall, and are 5-3 since the holiday break.
West Chester got on the scoreboard early and threatened to turn the game into a rout, getting goals from Jim Gehring at 1:01 and Steve Jones at 2:27 to take a quick 2-0 lead. The Mids struck back on Schwob’s first goal of the night, assisted by Chandler Brewer and Jon Westerman, at the 5:50 mark of the first period. But the Golden Rams regained their two-goal advantage before the period ended, thanks to a Pat Johnson power play tally at 11:52.
Down 3-1, Navy came out strong in the second stanza and dominated play, outshooting West Chester by a 15-5 margin. The Mids’ aggressiveness paid off with a pair of Swezey even strength goals, the first coming at 5:27 assisted by Schwob and Donnie Horner, and the second at 18:02 assisted by Matt Keller and Charlie Daniel.
The Mids took their first lead of the night early in the third period when Drew Stoner banged home the rebound of a Swezey shot while Navy was on a power play. Schwob picked up the other assist on Stoner’s goal, which came at 5:30.
West Chester pulled even at 4-4 late in the period when Bob MacLaughlin fired a rising shot that beat Navy netminder Eric Anderson over his right shoulder at 15:01.
With the game headed toward overtime, the Midshipmen sealed the critical victory when Schwob knocked in a rebound after Stoner had made a strong play and taken an initial shot. Senior defenseman Adam Shields recorded the other assist on Schwob’s game winning goal which came at 16:19.
West Chester pulled goaltender Luis Perez for an extra attacker with 1:30 remaining in regulation time, and actually enjoyed a 6-on-4 advantage for the game’s final 23 seconds after referee Doug Wood whistled Stoner for a holding penalty. But Anderson and the Navy defense kept the Golden Rams off the scoreboard to preserve the victory and send a large crowd estimated at close to 700 home happy.
Anderson finished with 29 saves for the Mids on 33 West Chester shots on goal, while Perez was credited with 38 saves on 43 Navy shots.
On Jan. 26 the Mids traveled to Laurel and beat Maryland 8-5. Sophomore Patrick Heitman was the story of the game, recording a 4-point day with a 3-goal ‘hat-trick’ and 1-assist.
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