By Sarah DeWolfe | Staff Writer
Despite the Salve Regina Men’s Hockey team receiving its highest ever ranking from two different D3 online hockey polls going into this year’s tournament, they couldn’t complete their championship run when they fell to Nichols College in the semifinals last weekend. The team was recognized as 4th in the nation, and the number one seed going into the CCC tournament.
Just weeks before, Salve had shut out the Bison in both of their back to back meetings (4-0, 2-0) but could not hold them off in the second round of the tournament. Coming into Seahawk territory as the five seed, Nichols pulled off the upset thanks to three unanswered goals and a 3-1 lead going into the final period. The Bison shot for 20%, making 5 of their 25 attempts. The Seahawks managed to go on a scoring run of their own with three goals in six minutes to tie the game at 4 apiece.
Freshman Paul Boutoussov (above) had two goals in Salve’s 5-4 semifinals loss against Nichols. Photo by Rob McGulnness.
After the Bison found the back of the net once more in the third period, Salve made a last ditch effort to get into the championship match by pulling their goalie Blake Wojtala, but it was to no avail as Nichols hung on for the win. Freshman Paul Boutoussov notched two goals for Salve in the 5-4 loss. This game also saw the most goals let up by the Seahawks all season.
In the first round of the playoffs, Salve hosted Western New England whom they played twice at the beginning of the season. They had lost the first meeting 3-2 in overtime, but came back strong in their home opener returning the favor in a 3-2 win.
This time facing them in a tourney atmosphere, the Seahawks ruled out another close call by netting an impressive eight goals while only allowing one from the Golden Bears, shutting them out in the final two periods.
After scoring three goals, they responded to the Bears’ only goal by netting five more, with four coming in the third period and three from powerplays. They took advantage of penalties and went 4 for 7 on powerplays, including sophomore Jack Billings and freshman John McLean who each had two goals.
Billings set a new program record for assists in a single season with 26, passing the previous record by two. Senior Pat Thompson also edged out an old record, setting the new program record for career games played with 103. Wojtala, with one season left to play, still holds the record for saves in a season with 777, which he set last year as a sophomore. This season also saw the highest winning percentage in the history of Salve Men’s Hockey, as first year head coach Zech Klann proved himself with a .778%.
Junior Blake Wojtala had a year as he closed out the season with the Goaltender of the Year title. Photo by Rob McGullness.
These accolades didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the league. Blake Wojtala was named CCC Goaltender of the Year and led the conference in save percentage (.938) and ranks fourth in save percentage in all of Division III. He also boasts the league’s lowest goals against average at 1.94.
In his first year at Salve, Klann was honored as CCC Coach of the Year. This comes as little surprise since he led the team to their highest national ranking and gained attention throughout the division after beating teams like UMass Boston in their second consecutive Codfish Bowl Tournament Championship. Wojtala and Billings were selected onto the AllCCC First Team, freshman Vincenzo Renda was named to the Second Team, and freshman Danny Eruzione and Junior Nick Cyr were named to the Third Team.
The Seahawks end their season with a 20-5-2 record overall and 14-2-2 in their conference. Thankfully, their season isn’t over yet. The Seahawks found out yesterday that they received an at large bid into the NCAA Division III Tournament. Not only are they in, but they are automatically sent to the quarterfinals where they will have a bye before they play the winner of the Nichols College vs. Fitchburg State first round match-up. As the hosts, Salve will play in the quarterfinals showdown on March 17th.
