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NCAA - Final five not in the cards

Greater-Trail players out of U.S. College hockey picture

Despite pushing their opponents to three game finales, four Greater Trail NCAA university hockey players came up short in their quest for a spot in the final-five in U.S. college puck action last week.

Kevin Limbert of Fruitvale played his final game on the blue line for the Yale Bulldogs against Harvard Sunday. After winning their first match, 3-2 in overtime in a best-of-three series, Yale dropped their second match again in OT, 4-3. With high hopes of knocking off number-three ranked Harvard in the third and deciding match, the Bulldogs faltered. Tied 1-1 after the first period, Yale gave up four unanswered goals in the second that led to an 8-2 loss.

In his four years at Yale, the former Beaver Valley Nitehawk and Trail Smoke Eater played in 137 games, scoring 25 goals and 25 assists for 54 points. In his most productive season 2010-11, the defenceman totalled 10-11-21 in 36 games as his team advanced to the final-five tournament only to lose to eventual national champion Minnesota-Duluth.

Similar to Limbert’s fate was that of Quinnipiac Bobcats’ Connor and Kellen Jones of Montrose.

Quinnipiac faced off against Colgate in a best of three on the weekend, and after dropping their first match 4-2, the Bobcats tied the series with a 4-2 win Saturday. However, Colgate would take the rubber match 4-0 on Sunday, ending the Jones’ season.

Connor led the Bobcats in scoring this year, netting 13 goals and 28 assists for 41 points in 37 games, while Kellen finished third with 14-22-36.

In NCAA Women’s hockey, Fruitvale’s Ella Matteucci and her Clarkson University team had a great season, finishing third in the ECAC, but ended up losing two out  of three games to Quinnipiac in the playoffs.