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March 2, 2008
Tribunes fall in title game
Check out photo galleries from the tournament
CANTON - The MCC hockey team saw its season come to an end Sunday, falling 6-1 to powerful Minot State University-Bottineau 6-1 in the NJCAA national championship game.
The Lumberjacks won their second straight national title, both of them over the Tribunes. Monroe finishes its season 19-5-2.
A tough bounce of the puck gave Bottineau the lead just 3:07 into the game. Mitch Jore sent a shot toward MCC netminder Danny Kuntz (Rochester, NY/Churchville-Chili) and the puck took a funny hop and found the net.
The Lumberjacks made it 2-0 at the 9:23 mark of the first, as tourney MVP Tyson Friesen scored on a perfect pass from Brennan Holloway.
The Tribunes had a great chance on a power play early in the second period. Andy Orsini (Irondequoit, NY/Irondequoit) fed Tom Pappa (Oswego, NY/Oswego) with a perfect pass on a 2-on-1, but Bottineau goalie Cody Didychuk made a glove save.
The Lumberjacks made it 3-0 midway through the second and kept that lead until late in the period. With the man advantage, Pappa one-timed a nice pass from Taylor Hill (Geneseo, NY/Geneseo) into an open net to cut the lead to 3-1.
But Bottineau didn't let the momentum shift too far in Monroe's favor. The Lumberjacks scored even strength, power play, and short-handed goals in the third period to ice the game.
Kuntz played well in the net for the Tribunes, stopping 43 shots. Bottineau outshot Monroe 49-29 on the game. Pappa and Orsini were named to the All-Tournament team for MCC.
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