For the second consecutive year, the Middlebury men’s and women’s hockey teams were skating for national championships on the same March evening. Middlebury Magazine was on hand for the men’s title game at the College’s Chip Kenyon Arena, while closely monitoring the women’s efforts 300 miles away in Elmira, New York. What follows is a chronological account of the evening (Matt Jennings):

6:45 Fans continue to stream into The Chip for the 7:00 start. The concession stand is doing a brisk business selling hot dogs and miniature pizzas. The Midd student who bears a flowing Panther banner on a mast takes a warm-up lap—trailed by a gaggle of youngsters, Pied Piper-style—around the concourse.

6:52 Middlebury takes the ice, and the crowd erupts. St. Thomas, clad in purple, follows seconds later, and a contingent of Tommie fans from Minnesota attempt to add their voices to the din in the arena.

6:57 The starting lineups are announced; all but one Panther starter is a freshman or sophomore.

7:00 The puck drops on the 2005 national title game.

7:01 Freshman goalie Ross Cherry ’08 makes his first save at the 19:12 mark.

7:02 First “You wear purple” chant emanates from the Middlebury student section.

7:14 The roof almost lifts off The Chip as Middlebury gets on the scoreboard first, when Mickey Gilchrist ’08 slips the puck past the St. Thomas goalie with 10:35 left in the first period.

7:27 2–0, Panthers. Patrick Nugent ’05 blasts home a power-play goal with 3:18 left in the opening period.

7:33 Intermission. The line at the concession stand is at least 30 people deep. Official attendance is announced as 2,165.

7:49 At the start of the second period, the public address announcer informs the crowd that the Middlebury women’s team has evened the score with Elmira in the second period of the national title game. Three hundred miles away from the action in Elmira, 2,000+ Middlebury fans in The Chip erupt.

8:01 Forward Levi Doria ’05 delivers a hard check on a Tommie, propelling the player into the boards right in front of the Panther student section. A young man with his face painted blue and white bellows: “Levi Doria, you’re my hero!”

8:06 With 9:00 left in the second period, John Sales ’07 nets an unassisted goal, and Middlebury leads 3–0.

8:12 Fans start the first “Wave” of the evening, a sure sign that things are going well. 8:21 In the Zamboni room just off the ice, Butch Atkins readies his rig for his second intermission run.

8:25 The first nail enters the coffin. With just five seconds left in the second period, John Sales rockets home his second goal of the game, giving Middlebury a 4–0 lead.

8:41 The Middlebury women have taken a 3–2 lead in upstate New York, and the score is announced to the delight of the partisan crowd. 8:46 In the press box, Director of Athletic Communications Brad Nadeau opens his laptop and starts to bring up championship stats that he had researched earlier in the day. After rattling off a few, he simply gestures at the screen for his final fact: three of Middlebury’s six championships have come by shutout. Apparently, he doesn’t want to jinx the freshman netminder by saying this out loud.

8:54 5–0, Panthers. Darwin Hunt ’07 nets a short-handed goal, with an assist from Brian Phinney ’05. The crowd goes wild, but no one is more excited than the cluster of fans sporting Hunt sweaters in the section behind the Middlebury bench.

8:56 News from Elmira. After Middlebury had taken a 4–2 lead, Elmira sliced the margin in half with five remaining.

9:02 A phone rings in the press box. Nadeau answers. Silence for a few seconds, then “It’s over?” He smiles.

9:04 The home crowd learns that the women have won in Elmira. Pandemonium.

9:12 With 1:00 remaining in the men’s national title game, the fans in The Chip stand in unison and start cheering and clapping. On the Middlebury bench, players begin to hug, and Bill Beaney cracks his first smile of the evening.

9:13 The horn sounds. Mickey Gilchrist leaps into the arms of his classmate Ross Cherry, and soon the rest of the team piles on in front of the Panther net. Cherry has secured the shut out and the Middlebury men’s hockey team has captured its seventh national championship.

9:21 More than three-quarters of the fans remain for the awards ceremony. Senior captains Brian Phinney, Levi Doria, and Patrick Nugent receive the 2005 trophy and, as the rest of the team gathers behind them and Queen’s “We Are the Champions” blares from the sound system, they begin a slow skate around the ice.

9:31 Just outside the Middlebury locker room, a group of former Panthers congratulate Beaney. Last year’s captain, John Dawson ’04, grabs the Middlebury coach in a bearhug.

9:46 Cherry, Sales, Phinney, and Beaney file into the press room. Beaney looks stoic, but pleased; Cherry appears stunned; Sales is all smiles; and Phinney has tears welling in his eyes and streaming down his cheeks.

10:01 As the press conference wraps up, some 300 fans patiently wait for players to ascend the stairs to the athletic complex’s main level. Some wait for autographs, others to offer their well wishes. All are intent on celebrating the Panthers' seventh national title.