After a work- and, if we’re being honest, loss-induced hiatus from game recapping (it was just too painful to relive the horrors of the club’s second trip to Atlanta which saw Vanderbilt lose 9-5 to Florida and 6-5 to Georgia), the VU hockey club writing staff is back in action and happy to report that the Commodores locked up their seventh and eighth wins of the season this past weekend, both versus Louisville, to improve to 8-2. Before spirited home crowds at the Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville, TN, the club surmounted both on- and off-ice obstacles leading up to and through the weekend to secure a 6-2 win Friday and an 8-4 win Saturday versus its DII neighbor from the North.

Pulling Together The Line-Up

A hard-working weekend started two days prior to Friday when the Commodores found themselves cobbling together their line-up amidst a handful of variables, the biggest being fraternity commitments. “Several of the boys were closing out pledging,” said senior captain Matt Kaminsky who, as a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, is sympathetic to the dilemma of juggling Greek life with hockey. “It’s part of our club’s culture and charter to support guys enjoying all sorts of clubs and experiences at Vandy. Recognizing this, we need players to step up when others are out of the line-up, in some cases for the first time in a specific position or on a certain line, and deliver the ‘W.’ Fortunately, our boys did just that with two solid performances.”

Leading the charge on Friday was a seemingly possessed sophomore winger Kyle Stachowiak. Prior to the weekend, “Gadget” (as fans and teammates call him) had logged a relatively quiet start to the season per his standards (i.e., his freshman campaign where he scored seven goals). That all changed Friday when Gadget netted two goals including the eventual game winner.

“He had another gear on Friday,” said head coach Thomas Bernstein. “It wasn’t just that he was faster than he normally is, which he was. Kyle was also extremely strong on the puck. They just couldn’t knock him off his game, whether he was crashing the net, cutting through the zone, or setting up his line-mates.”

Asked what sparked the breakout performance, Stachowiak offered a few theories. “I ate two spicy black bean burgers for dinner prior to the skate which delivered 34% of my daily protein requirement.” One of two vegetarians on the team, Stachowiak concluded that “this intense nourishment, combined with a last-minute viewing of the 1999 hockey classic ‘Mystery, Alaska’ starring Russell Crowe, just amped my freak meter up to 11. I was ready to rock.”

Rosenfield Wired and a “Geno” for Reno

Saturday’s game followed a similar script compared to Friday as the Cardinals jumped out to an early 1-0 lead. The Commodores recaptured the momentum on the shoulders of sophomore forward Eliot Rosenfield who rifled home his fourth goal of the year.

“That first goal they scored was a real shot to the jaw,” said Rosenfield. “We didn’t panic though, our guys pulled together and kept the pressure on for the full 60 minutes. That was a good hockey team we played out there so I think we can all be proud of the effort.”

Also leading the charge was first year law student and team gloomy gus Cory Reno. All totaled on the weekend, Reno tallied two “genos” and four “apples” for a total of six “pintos.” Asked to evaluate his performance, Reno answered with his trademark response, “Ehh.” He elaborated, “I kinda sucked. But not as much as the last few weeks.” Coach Bernstein disagreed with Reno’s personal assessment stating, “I gauge Cory’s play by the number of times I see him smile on the bench. I know it’s a good game when his number of smiles top our total goals scored, and I know it’s a really good game when they exceed our number of penalty minutes. On Saturday, Cory’s cheeriness was off the charts. Infectious positivity.”

Back In Action This Weekend

The Frozen Commodores will take the ice once again this weekend versus a winless Georgia State Panthers squad that is laboring through its program’s inaugural season. The teams will face-off at the Centennial Sportsplex at 10:15pm on Friday and 7:00pm on Saturday. Admission will be free for students and kids under 18 and $3 for adults. We hope to see you at the rink for a weekend of terrific hockey action as Vandy goes for double-digit wins in 2011/12!

Game Information
Date & Time: Friday, November 4th, 2011, at 10:15pm CT
Location: Centennial Sportsplex – Nashville, TN
Attendance: 140

	1	2	3	F		&#9733	Brenden Oliver (G): 37 saves
VU	4	1	1	6		&#9733&#9733	Kyle Stachowiak (LW): 2 goals
UL	1	0	1	2		&#9733&#9733&#9733	Ryan Blatt (D): Defensive standout

First Period Scoring Summary
Time:	Team:	Scoring Detail:	VU:	UL:
18:00	UL	Kuypers – Gettelfinger	0	1
8:23	VU	Reno (3) – Zauderer, McCann	1	1
8:02	VU	Zauderer (4) – McCann, Reno	2	1
7:30	VU	Stachowiak (1) – Trepanier	3	1
5:42	VU	Kaminsky (8) – Grisko	4	1

Second Period Scoring Summary
Time:	Team:	Scoring Detail:	VU:	UL:
15:27	VU	McLaughlin (6) – Grisko	5	1

Third Period Scoring Summary
Time:	Team:	Scoring Detail:	VU:	UL:
16:00	VU	Stachowiak (2) – Leeser	6	1
9:03	UL	Van Holtz – Devido, Martinell	6	2

Game Information
Date & Time: Saturday, November 5th, 2011, at 8:15pm CT
Location: Centennial Sportsplex – Nashville, TN
Attendance: 60

	1	2	3	F		&#9733	Mike Gangemi (G): 42 saves
VU	2	3	3	8		&#9733&#9733	Eliot Rosenfield (RW): 2 goals
UL	1	2	1	4		&#9733&#9733&#9733	Cory Reno (RW): 1 goal, 3 assists

First Period Scoring Summary
Time:	Team:	Scoring Detail:	VU:	UL:
7:29	UL	Shacklette – Swiergosz	0	1
3:17	VU	Rosenfield (4) – Weekes, Stachowiak	1	1
0:30	VU	Johnston (1) – Leeser	2	1

Second Period Scoring Summary
Time:	Team:	Scoring Detail:	VU:	UL:
19:10	UL	Valvano – Van Holtz	2	2
17:50	VU	Weekes (2) – Reno	3	2
15:40	VU	Reno (4) – Kaminsky, McCann	4	2
0:30	UL	Boyce – Van Holtz	4	3
0:04	VU	Rosenfield (5) – Trepanier, Weekes	5	3

Third Period Scoring Summary
Time:	Team:	Scoring Detail:	VU:	UL:
12:55	VU	Leeser (4) – Abelman, Johnston	6	3
11:01	VU	Kaminsky (9) – Reno	7	3
3:19	VU	McCann (4) – Kaminsky, Reno	8	3
0:21	UL	Swiergosz – Martinell	8	4

Article by Eric Single

The Vanderbilt club ice hockey team used a furious second-period rally to cancel an early 4-0 deficit and come away with a weekend sweep of Louisville in a 6-5 victory on Saturday night at the Dr. Thomas F. Frist Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville.

The Commodores, who also won the first game of the series on Friday night by a score of 6-5, scored five goals on 23 shots in the second period on Saturday by turning up the pressure in close around Louisville goaltender Nick Nuss, who had made several sprawling saves in the first 20 minutes to help the Cardinals jump ahead.

Read the full article at InsideVandy.com

*  The team report on the weekend will be published later today.

One word, “Wow,” captured what was by all accounts one of the most exciting weekends of the season for the Vanderbilt Commodores Hockey Club.  Following a pair of hard fought, evenly matched games against the University of Louisville Cardinals – a 7-6 OT win on Friday and a 4-4 tie on Saturday – the boys from Nashville were left bruised, battered, and ready for a break from both the classroom and the ice rink.

“All I want to do is go home right now and watch a movie,” said freshman David Crowe during the return trip to campus Saturday evening.  “I’m done.”

Late Night Thrills

The weekend started with a midnight clash against the ACHA DII Cardinals hockey club, a young but talented group that, per their coach, has struggled to stay healthy amidst a down year record-wise.  Heading into the meeting, the Commodores were not sure what to expect as Louisville had yet to play any of the teams on VU’s schedule.

“Looking at their record, we were perhaps more confident than we should have been,” said coach Thomas Bernstein.  “We found out pretty quickly that we were in for a battle.”

Friday and Saturday followed similar scripts.  Vanderbilt would score to go ahead, sometimes by two.  Louisville would claw back, often netting equalizers within seconds of going down on the scoreboard.

The physical play was non-stop from midnight Friday to the last whistle Saturday, headlined by the dominating style of junior defenseman Nathan Tardiff.  Tardiff was a veritable tank on the ice, destroying opponents on defense and barreling through people on offense.  It got to the point where the Cardinals actively chose to tone down their otherwise aggressive style of play in the interest of game strategy.

“Nathan would drop them and they’d turn the puck over, or they’d try to hit him and they’d bounce right off of his shoulders,” described Bernstein.  “The guy was just unbelievable, it was like watching Scott Stevens circa the 1995 Devils out there.”

The other thread that remained constant throughout the weekend was the play of Louisville’s goaltender.  The netminder stopped nearly everything, and when he did not the post and crossbar took care of the rest.  The Commodores hit 8 posts and a crossbar over the two games.

“We just couldn’t couldn’t get the puck to find the right spots,” said freshmen winger Jack Delehey.  “That guy was unbelievable in net plus we just didn’t have any luck.  Pretty frustrating.”

Zauderer The Killerer

Delehey wasn’t entirely correct with his assessment of the club’s luck when, after skating to a 6-6 tie in regulation on Friday night, freshman Jordan Zauderer pinched in from the left point, circled around the net, and wrapped in a sudden death winner with 23.6 seconds left in the extra session.  The scene that followed was equal parts joy and relief as the Commodores launched out of the bench to meet the night’s hero, thankful to avoid a shootout.

Zauderer followed that performance with a different type of dagger on Saturday, this time in the form of a mammoth hip check in front of the Commodores bench.  Midway through the third period, Zauderer sized up one of the bigger guys on Louisville and went in for the defensive stop.  Next thing the team knew, the 140135-lb. freshman had put the Cardinal player completely in the Vanderbilt bench, back first.

“I looked down and thought he was dead,” said Bernstein.  Thankfully, the player’s ego was more injured than his body and everyone skated away unharmed.

A Tie?

Unfortunately and fortunately for the ‘Dores, Saturday’s game ended in a 4-4 tie after regulation which, according to ACHA rules, should never happen. It turns out that the rink moved the game’s 6pm start time to 5:30pm (to accommodate a free skate) and failed to inform either team so there was no time for the requisite shootout.  The word “fortunately” is used because a shootout would have inevitably tilted the game in favor of Louisville and its brick wall of a goaltender.

Said sophomore goalie Mackie Anderson, who performed admirably in net following a three month game layoff, “Honestly, I’m not sure we would have pulled out the W.”

The Weekend Scoresheet

The weekend’s scoring leaders included senior Matt Maggiore who, with 2 goals and an assist, played his most inspired hockey of the season.  The Bunny contributed 3 goals and 2 assists while junior Scotty McLaughlin contributed a goal and 3 assists.  Six others, including sophomore Chris Sperandio, freshman Kyle Stachowiak, junior Tom Trepanier, Tardiff, and Zauderer, each scored a goal.

With that, the book is now closed on a great semester which saw the Commodores hold onto the final spot in the ACHA Men’s DIII South Top 15 Rankings.  Thanks to all for your support of the club and please be sure to join us back in Nashville next semester as we round out the season with seven straight home games.

From your friends at VU Hockey, take care and please have a merry Christmas, a wonderful holiday season, a happy new year in 2011!

* Photos from the weekend are posted on the Photos page.