Calvin Ice Hockey Team Advances to ACHA DIII National Championship Game

March 5, 2004

ACHA DIVISION CLUB ICE HOCKEY NATIONAL TOURNAMENT

SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- The Calvin club ice hockey team will play for a national
championship on Saturday night. Under the direction of head coach Mike
Petrusma, the top-seeded Knights recorded a come-from-behind 5-2 victory over
second-seeded Arizona State Friday afternoon to advance to the championship
final of the 16-team ACHA Division III National Tournament at the Alltell Ice
Den -- the practice facility of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Calvin (28-1) will face the University of Georgia in the championship game
Saturday night at 9:15 p.m. (ET) in a rematch of last year's consolation game
which Calvin won 6-3 at the ACHA Division III Nationals in Muskegon. Georgia
defeated Indiana University of Pennsylvania 4-2 in Friday's other semifinal
game.

The championship game will be broadcast via RealAudio on the Calvin web site
at: WWW.Calvin.edu/sports with Bryan Plug calling the play-by-play.

Calvin is assured of at least a second place national finish. Calvin's
previous best national finish is third, achieved by its 1992-93 and 2002-2003
teams.

Friday's semifinal contest against the host Sun Devils of Arizona State was in
sharp contrast to Calvin's semifinal game a year ago when the Knights wasted a
4-1 lead in eventually losing to host Muskegon Community College. Against
Arizona State, it was Calvin falling behind 1-0 in the opening minutes as the
Sun Devils appeared ready to continue the momentum that had allowed them to
score 10 goals in a tournament opening win over Robert Morris College on
Thursday.

Calvin answered less than two minutes later however as sophomore Nick VerKuyl
(Whitby, ON) scored on a feed from freshman Craig Baker (Strathroy, ON) to tie
the game at one. "That was a huge goal for us," said Petrusma. "Arizona State
is a high-flying team with a lot of offensive skill. When we got that goal
right back, it gave us a huge momentum lift."

Moments later, Calvin received an even bigger lift as junior Jason Koole of
Tri-unity Christian High School ripped in a shot on an assist from freshman Jon
VanderHoek (St. Thoms, ON), giving the Knights a 2-1 lead and all of the
momentum. "I think that goal really stunned Arizona State," said Petrusma. "I
don't think they were counting on us coming back that quickly. Once we got
that momentum, we never let it go."

Sophomore forward Max Sieplinga (Grand Rapids Christian HS) would allow the
Knights to take a 3-1 lead after one period of play as he scored a late first
period goal on an assist from sophomore defensiveman Dan Veeneman (Grand Rapids
Christian HS) with VerKuyl also drawing an assist on the play. The goal by
Sieplinga was his team-leading 47th of the year.

Arizon State battled back with a goal in the second period to cut the lead in
half but junior Dan Schrik (Brantford, ON) then stepped up midway through the
final period of play with an unassisted goal to give the Knights a 4-2 lead.
The goal was the third in tournament play for Schrik. Koole then added his
team-leading fourth goal of the tournament in the closing seconds with a shot
into an empty Arizona State net.

Calvin freshman goaltender Gregory Clark (LaPorte, IN) picked up 25 saves in
between the pipes to collect his 28th victory of the year.

"We've got a very difficult matchup tomorrow night but we're thrilled with the
opportunity to play for a national championship," said Petrusma of Calvin's
Saturday night matchup against the University of Georgia. "If we can continue
to play strong displined hockey, we'll give ourselves a good chance to win."

Petrusma also cited the lessons learned from last year's semifinal defeat to
Muskegon Community College as keys to Friday's victory over Arizona State.
"That loss (to Muskegon Community College) provided a lot of lessons for our
guys," said Petrusma. "We wasted a three-goal lead in that game because we
started 'playing not to lose' intead of 'playing to win.' Tonight, we played
to win and that made a huge difference. We hope to continue that same
mentality tomorrow night."

Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Fri Mar 5 21:36:32 2004