Keene State Men’s Ice Hockey team lost 5-6 in a Friday night overtime match against the University of Southern Maine on Jan. 23.
Keene State entered the game with a season record of 5-10, having lost the previous week’s game in a shutout against Vermont State. Southern Maine’s season record going into the game was 8-7 overall, and the team was coming off a win against UMass Dartmouth the previous week.
The Owls got off to a good start, with first-year defender Kaleb MacAulay scoring the first goal of the game and of his collegiate career just a minute into the game. Three minutes later, sophomore forward Chase Carney made the second goal of the game off a feed from fellow sophomore and defender Sean McBride, giving KSC a 2-0 lead.
The Southern Maine Huskies quickly responded, with sophomore forward Gavin Simopoulos putting their first score on the board twelve minutes into the first. Simopoulos went on to tie the game about minutes into the second, and a minute later, sophomore forward Owen Arend scored again for the Huskies, putting them in the lead.
Throughout the second, Southern Maine led 5-3, but even down by two, the Owls continued to show some fight. Carney scored his second goal of the evening, making it a one score game. Sophomore forward Luke Festa, with six minutes left, scored the tying point to help the Owls extend the game into overtime. Junior goalie Ethan Swanson made 15 saves as well to give KSC a shot to win the game in overtime.
Though the Huskies controlled the action within the 4-on-4 overtime, the Owls managed to stop three of the shots, but could not stop the fourth. Senior forward John Hagan gave Southern Maine the win and two points in the standings. KSC earned one point in the standings from this game, so it was not a total loss.
Keene State moves on to play at Babson the following day, then back home to play against New England College. Southern Maine will play against Western Connecticut the following day.
Nathan Eliopoulos can be contacted at
neliopoulos@kscequinox.com
