COLUMBIA, SC - Three hundred sixty-five days after being eliminated on opening night from the 2011 DIII South Regional Tournament and six months after anguishing over the sudden death of a teammate, the Alabama Frozen Tide has realized its dream.
The team is going to the ACHA DIII National Tournament next month for the first time. Along with Florida Gulf Coast, Central Florida and Loyola-Maryland, the Tide will represent the South Region in Vineland, N.J.
With them there in spirit will be David Mosier, who’s number 71 was embroidered onto their jerseys after he passed away in August, just as he has been every step of their journey.
The Tide’s biggest step, of course, was this afternoon’s 5-3 victory against Richmond, which netted Alabama the second of two nationals berths available to the top two teams at this weekend’s regional in Columbia, S.C. Loyola-Maryland earned the other.
“It’s pretty special,” said head coach Mike Quennville, choking up. “We tried to hold the guys together through the things we went through. It’s special for the seniors who have had two players pass away. It sure is sweet.”
With Alabama seemingly comfortably ahead 4-1 in the third period, Richmond set the hearts of the Alabama faithful in the stands to thumping when Michael Besserman scored at the 8:34 mark to cut the Alabama advantage to 4-2.
But Mark Wysock, as he has done so many times in his four years with the Frozen Tide, intercepted a cross-ice pass deep in the Richmond zone and cleanly beat the Spider’s goalie Jack Merrimam from short range to slam the door on Richmond’s comeback hopes. “A huge goal for us,” said Quennville.
Tucker Blanton of Richmond closed out the scoring with 2:23 remaining.
Ahead 3-0 at the end of the first period, the Frozen Tide surrendered a goal 5:30 into the second when Blanton took a pass on the right wing, navigated past an Alabama defenseman and beat goalie Sean Vinson upstairs.
But instead of firing up the Spiders, the goal seemed to ignite the Tide. Less than a minute after a timeout called by Alabama head coach Mike Quennville, the Frozen Tide’s Ryan Vinson unloaded his second goal of the night, both on wrist shots from the point, to restore his team’s three-goal margin.
Of the timeout, Quennville said, “We wanted them to play our game plan. Wanted to calm everybody down and get back to the game plan. They came at us strong. Our guys weren’t taking them seriously. They didn’t think they could come back.”
Richmond goalie Merriman was solid throughout the period, thwarting the Tide’s Wysock in particular several times with glove saves. Four of the five Alabama goals were scored on power plays
Matt Hayes opened the scoring at the 4:41 mark of the first period with a low wrist shot from the point that beat Merriman low on his glove side.
Zach Dailey, the Frozen Tide’s leading scorer, made it 2-0 midway through the period when he took a pass in the Richmond defensive zone, toe-dragged the puck around a defender and whipped it past Merriman.
Vinson got the third goal with 1:15 remaining in the period on another shot from the point.
Goalie Sean Vinson wasn’t seriously tested in the opening 20 minutes. Merriman, meanwhile, came up big when Alex Dubrinsky took a goal-mouth pass and fired from short range. Merriman dove across the crease to rob Dubrinsky.
Saturday
Loyola-Maryland 5, South Florida 2
Alabama 5, Richmond 3
