The Keene State College men’s ice hockey team had themselves a tough weekend. They dropped three games in a row to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Boston University (BU) and New York University (NYU).
Friday night, they faced off against UMass Amherst, who they had played the previous weekend. They previously had beaten the Minutemen by a final score of 3-1, but unfortunately this game wouldn’t end in the Owls’ favor.
UMass struck quick and grabbed a 1-0 lead about five minutes into the game. The second period featured a lot of physical play. The Owls had three power-plays in the second period, but couldn’t convert on any of them.
In the final frame, the Owls started upping the intensity. Unfortunately, UMass managed to convert a penalty shot goal behind KSC keeper Carlin Testa (22 saves) to double their lead. Keene managed to get on the board with about two minutes remaining, when Kyle Carignan redirected home a Derek Clark slap-shot. The game would end with the Owls falling 2-1.
Crae Messer/ Managing Executive Editor
Saturday night, the Owls took the ice against BU. The Terriers scored the first three goals of the game. A late second period push brought the Owls within one going into the third period.
Lucas Poulin scored the first goal of the game when he buried a wraparound attempt with about three minutes left in the second period. About one minute later, Clark rifled a shot on net that was tipped in by Carignan.
In the third period, Clark scored a goal of his own and sent the Keene fans wild. Unfortunately, BU scored two quick goals to go up 5-3. Tucker Johnson set up Chris O’Hara for a goal to trim the deficit to one. BU scored what would prove to be the winning goal late in the third period to go up 6-4. Andrew Pierce scored a late goal, but the Owls ran out of gas and lost 6-5.
On Sunday, the Owls traveled to New York City to play against NYU. The Owls had beaten NYU earlier in the season by a score of 5-3.
The Owls started off on the right foot when captain Kurt Mitchell scored his sixth goal of the season. NYU came right back and evened the score less than two minutes later. NYU got another goal with 30 seconds left in the first to go up 2-1 after one period.
In the second period, NYU scored another goal early to go up 3-1. Nick DeCristoforo scored to bring the Owls within one halfway through the period and that’s the way the score stood for the majority of the game.
The third period featured some fast-paced action and lots of chances, but it took until the final 90 seconds for the Owls to find the back of the net. Mitchell buried his second goal of the game to even the score with 1:15 remaining. The lead was short-lived as NYU scored the game-winner with 30 seconds left in the game.
The Owls will have their next home game and senior night on Feb. 11 against the University of Vermont at Keene Ice. Come down to support your senior Owls in the final home game of the season.
Austin Sanidas can be contacted at Asanidas@kscequinox.com
