By Brittany Burke
The CCSU Blue Devils club hockey team fell short in the match against University of Massachusetts by a score of 8-6 at home late Saturday night.
The Blue Devils were able to control most of the first period, scoring three goals and taking the lead 3-2. They scored early, the first goal coming from senior forward Matt Williams, less than three minutes into the first period.
That first goal seemed to give added momentum to the CCSU who were already coming off of a win of 3-2 against Bryant College on Friday Oct. 16. They were able to build to upon that goal with two more, one coming off of a power play as UMass player, Brian Dragunas was in the box for cross checking.
At the change of the periods CCSU started to fall out of step. The Blue Devils began to lose control about half way through the period despite the fact that they were able to come out and score only 24 seconds in.
CCSU was able to increase their lead to a three point deficit at 5-3 but with the point increase also came an increase in penalties.
In the second period alone CCSU and UMass doubled the amount of penalties to six apiece as opposed the three penalties each team received in the first. It was hard for the teams to find any real flow in game play due to the stop and go nature of all the penalties.
“It’s tough to get into a flow, it’s tough to role the lines when you’re in the box constantly playing man down,” said Head Coach Ben Adams.
The penalties began to control the game, from both sides of the puck.
Early in the second period a UMass player was given 10 minutes in the box for game misconduct along with a teammate who was put in for two minutes for cross checking. At any given time you could look to the penalty box and find two or three players serving their penalties.
CCSU were also racking up their fair share of penalties. They had calls for too many men on the ice, roughing and contact to the head late into the second.
While the teams were battling the whistle blows from the referees the Blue Devils also had to also begin fighting the dominant play of the UMass who began to up their game.
Despite the fact that sophomore forward Jeff Pease scored his second goal at the top of the second and captain Joe Dabkowski, scored his first at 7:59 the team still lost their lead.
With 2:55 left in the second period UMass tied up the game with three goals in less than five minutes. It looked like the two teams were going to go into the locker room in for their between period break tied, but with 6.4 seconds left UMass scored again, upping their goals in the second alone to four and increasing their lead (6-5).
“I think killing so many penalties puts a lot of strain on the guys and it does take a lot out of you. But that definitely hurt our chances for a third period push,” said Coach Adams of the amount of penalties occurring in the game.
UMass continued to skate strong scoring two more goals in the third period and keeping penalties to a minimum.
Things began to look up for the Blue Devils when senior Mike Diclemente scored an unassisted power play goal with 7:14 left but it wasn’t enough to win the game.
As a result of the loss the team realized there are still some critical things that they need to work on in order to make it all the way. They need to improve upon the defense, making sure to clear the puck from in front of the net and then blocking the shots that are taken against them.
“It’s going to be a tough hill climb. I think they have the talent to do it as long as they put everything together and play a full sixty minutes,” said Coach Adams.
The Blue Devils are at their home rink for the next three games beginning with the University of Maine on Oct. 23 at 9:35 p.m.
