March 8, 1999
by Jim Mullins
Assistant Director
Sports Information

#1 UMass Dartmouth and #2 Fitchburg State to vie
for 1999 ECAC Northeast ice hockey championship

(Dartmouth, MA) -- For the fourth time in the last five years, the ECAC Division III ice hockey championship will be decided by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Fitchburg State College. The two teams will square off in the ECAC Northeast ice hockey championship game Wednesday night, March 10, at Hetland Arena in New Bedford. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Top-seeded UMass Dartmouth (20-4-3 overall) advanced to its fifth consecutive ECAC ice hockey championship game with a 4-0 semi-final victory over sixth-seeded New Hampshire College last Saturday night at Hetland Arena. Second-seeded Fitchburg State College (19-5-3 overall) moved into the championship game for the first time since 1996-97 with a 6-4 victory over third-seeded St. Michael's College on Saturday.

Jamie DiBona (Weymouth, MA) and Jim Egan (Billerica, MA) led the scoring effort for UMass-Dartmouth against New Hampshire College with a goal and an assist each, while Louis Weimann (Burlington, VT) was outstanding in goal, recording 43 saves to earn the shutout victory. Fitchburg State was paced by Kevin Lizotte (Fitchburg, MA), who dished out 5 assists in the Falcons win over St. Michael's College and goalie Nick Gangemi (Tewksbury, MA), who racked up 26 saves for the win.

Competing for the first time in the new ECAC Northeast format this season, Coach John Rolli's Corsairs and Coach Dean Fuller's Falcons were the top two teams in the ECAC Northeast pre-season poll last November. UMass Dartmouth topped the poll with 13 first-place votes and Fitchburg State was ranked second with three first-place votes. The ECAC North-Central-South was realigned into the ECAC Northeast prior to the 1998-99 season.

Four months after the pre-season poll, the two teams finished the regular season tied for first place at 14-1-2 with UMass Dartmouth getting the top seed and home ice in the title game by virtue of a 6-3 win over third-place Wentworth Institute. Both teams finished with identical 14-1-2 records to share the first ECAC Northeast regular season championship.

The Corsairs are the two-time defending champions of the ECAC North-Central-South, having won the tournament in 1996-97 with a 6-3 championship game win over Fitchburg State and again last year with a 4-2 win at St. Michael's College.

UMass Dartmouth and Fitchburg State are long-standing fixtures in the ECAC ice hockey championship tournament. For three straight years the two teams met in the ECAC North-Central-South championship game with UMass Dartmouth coming away with the championship in 1994-95 and 1996-97, while the Falcons took home their last ECAC championship with a 2-1 overtime win over the Corsairs at Hetland Arena at the end of the 1995-96 season.

If Wednesday night's championship game is anything like the last four meetings between these two teams, it should be a very close and exciting game. The last four games between these two teams have gone into overtime with UMass Dartmouth winning twice, including a 5-4 ECAC semi-final win at Fitchburg State last season. In the two meetings this season, both games ended in 3-3 overtime ties.

The first game between the Corsairs and Falcons was their ECAC Northeast regular season game, played Dec. 2 at Fitchburg State. The Falcons took a 2-0 lead after the first period, but the Corsairs tied the game, 2-2, on goals by Chris O'Reilly (Belmont, MA) and Shawn Alles (Brockton, MA). UMass Dartmouth's Chris Carboneau (Falmouth, MA) gave the Corsairs a 3-2 lead with less than eight minutes to play, but the Falcons got the game-tying goal from Tony Cinquegrano (Hingham, MA) on a power play with less than three minutes to play. Ryan Sloper (Billerica, MA) stopped 37 shots in goal for the Corsairs, while Gangemi came up with 28 saves for the Falcons.

The result of the second regular season meeting was the same as the first with the Corsairs holding a lead in the third period only to have the Falcons come back with a late goal to tie the game. First period goals by Tom Brown (Framingham, MA) and Gerald Turcotte (Woonsocket, RI) gave the Corsairs a 2-1 first period lead with Sean Young's (Waltham, MA) third period power play goal giving UMass Dartmouth a 3-1 lead. Bob Rumley's (Billerica, MA) goal for Fitchburg State at 13:32 closed the gap to 3-2. Jeff DuRoss (Weymouth, MA) tied the game with 1:29 remaining, sending the game into overtime. Neither team could produce the game-winner in the extra session. Sloper made 30 saves and Gangemi made 32 for Fitchburg State College.

The Corsairs' top scorer during the regular season was DiBona, who was the sixth leading scorer in the ECAC Northeast with 18 goals and 19 assists for 37 points. In 27 games this season, DiBona led the Corsairs in scoring (25-26-51), followed by Egan (18-23-41) and Alles(15-22-37). In goal, Sloper was 10-2-3 with a shutout and a 3.57 goals against average and a .888 saves percentage. Including his shutout victory over New Hampshire College, Weimann was 9-2 with a shutout and a 2.34 goals against average and a .920 saves percentage.

DuRoss is the Falcons' leading scorer with 30 goals and 33 assists for 63 points, finishing in a tie for second ECAC Northeast scoring at 20-24-44. Lizotte is Fitchburg State's second leading scorer with 22 goals and 36 assists for 58 points followed by Gary Stone (Millville, MA) at 11-31-42. Gangemi was 12-0-2 in the ECAC Northeast and 16-2-3 overall with a 2.71 goals against average.

Fitchburg State topped the ECAC Northeast in scoring with 109 goals in 17 games, while the Corsairs were third with 95 goals. On the other end of the ice, however, the Corsairs were second in goals allowed with only 37, while Fitchburg State was third, allowing 46 goals in 17 games.

Immediately following the championship game, individual awards will be presented to players on the championship team. The ECAC Northeast championship trophy will be presented to victorious team and addition to the game Most Valuable Player Award, an ECAC Northeast All-Tournament team will also be announced after the game.