Beav's Tie Championship Series, 1-1, Advance to Championship

Neville Island, PA -- Fightin' Beavs tie the WPACHRL championship series at 1-1 with a 5-4 win over Duquesne to advance to the final game of the series.

Beaver opened the scoring in last nights contest just four minutes into the game on a goal by freshman defenseman Brendan Rossi, assisted by Devin Baker.  Duquesne quickly tied the game, 1-1, at the 8:36 mark, but the Beavs answered three minutes later as sophomore, Jason Schwartz netted his first goal of the game, assisted by Josh Kelly.  As the first period was winding down, the last thirty seconds were intense as Beaver took a two goal lead off of the stick of Dom Rossi, giving the Beavs a 3-1 lead.  In the closing seconds of the first, Duquesne would answer the Beaver rally with a goal of their own, setting the score at 3-2 at the end of the period.

Duquesne, seemed to have all the momentum heading into the second period, scoring an early goal to tie the game at 3-3.  But the Beaver defense tightened up and both teams remained scoreless for the remainder of the period. 

With the championship on the line, Duquesne with the 1-0 lead in the best of three series, both teams played their best hockey of the season in the final fiftenn minutes of the game.  Just twenty seconds into the third period, Schwartz netted his second goal of the game giving Beaver a 4-3 advantage.  At the 7:50 mark he would earn the hat trick, scoring his third goal of the game to give the Beavs their second two goal advantage of the night.  The Dukes scored with a little over three minutes to play, but the Fightin' Beavs would hang on for the win and force game three.

With the series tied at 1-1, the third and final game of the championship series will be played tonight at RMU Island Sports Complex at 8:30 p.m.  A win tonight would secure the second straight WPACHRL championship for Penn State Beaver.