The University’s men’s hockey club team was defeated by the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s (ACHA) No. 4 ranked Rowan University Profs on Friday, Dec. 6 in their fourth match up at home. The men were coming off a huge win in a tournament held by Liberty University two weekends ago, and with ambition, attempted to keep their winning streak alive.
MU was outmanned 14:21 due to injuries but they were determined to not go down without a fight. Eleven seconds into the game, the Profs scored on their first shot on goal to gain an early 1-0 lead. The Hawks retailiated with a score of their own as sophomore center, Kyle Blazier, scored an unassisted goal to put MU on the board and tie the game at 1-1.
The momentum did not stop there as the Hawks forechecked and kept the puck moving towards the net. A bad bounce by the Hawks led Rowan to score their second goal of the game. MU rallied and attacked the net every chance they had, but they just could not get bounces to go their way. Rowan cashed in on a few more goals to end the first period at 5-1.
In the second period, MU decided to change their game plan as they started out very defensively minded with lots of backchecking. This tactic seemed to work for the first five minutes of the period, until Rowan got lucky with a deflection shot that swept right past MU goaltender Stephen Bonora to make the game 6-1.
Even though they were down, the Hawks were not quite out. With two minutes left in the second period, the Hawks made a goalie change and brought in graduate student, Chris Liljstrand. In his first action of the day, he was able to make a nearly impossible glove save on Rowan.
“Chris came into the game and really settled thing down from the back end,” MU junior center Steven Romano stated. “He made several nice saves to start the third period.”
With Liljstrand still in the game, the Hawks came out onto the ice for the third and final period of play. Within the first 15 seconds, MU was able to make two shots on net. MU freshman defensemen Davin Moskal scored off a wristshot to bring the game within 10 at 12-2 in the Profs’ favor.
The Hawks continued their scoring streak as senior Jake Romba took on a three players to put a shot in the net bringing the game to 12-3. From then on, the Hawks firing squad were silenced and fell to Rowan, 14-3.
This matchup was one of the cleanest games for MU this season as they were only whistled for three penalties. “Staying out of the penalty box is something our team has been working on since the start of the season. Luckily we have had a pretty good penalty kill unit so that when we do take penalties the other team doesn’t score,” sophomore Eric Luetters said.
The team will compete next on Friday, Dec. 13 as they take on Temple University at home.
