By Brittany Burke
The CCSU club hockey team debuted on its new home ice in Simsbury Friday, prevailing 4-1 over the Merrimack Warriors.
CCSU defeated Merrimack twice last season, holding them to one goal in a 8-1 triumph in the first match of the 2009-2010 season, only to shut them out seven weeks later. CCSU opened up the 2010-2011 season in similar fashion, holding the Pioneers to a lone goal in the second period.
“It was a good win. we got a lot of young guys on the team this year so the first game of the season we were just looking to work hard and do the little things right and hopefully pull out the win,” said returning captain Tom Carroll.
CCSU set the tempo for the match early in the first period with a goal 16 seconds into the game from sophomore, Jonathan Knobloch. Less than three and a half minutes later Knobloch found the net again on a power play goal, giving the Blue Devils the early two point advantage, with a lot of time still left to play.
Knobloch steadily began to emerge as a strong offensive player last season, and played an explosive part in the team’s second place nationals run. With major goal generators gone, Knobloch and teammate Ryan Stanley are being looked to as the new offensive leaders.
“Those are two key guys that we need to unfortunately step up every game,” said Head Coach Ben Adams. “We can’t afford to have them take a night off but then again I’d like to see hopefully some more offense from some other lines too.”
The third goal of the period came from Stanley, who like Knobloch had a productive national tournament, after joining the team in the second semester. Stanley managed a the goal with 3:40 left to play in the first, giving the Blue Devils a comfortable lead entering the first intermission.
“Everyone really needs to step up not just us two and tonight it looked like everyone did, we all did our part,” Knobloch said of his new found role.
Despite losing half of the team and gaining 16 new players, old habits seem to die hard for the Blue Devils. Last season, CCSU was plagued with the ability to score multiple goals in a brief amount of time before going into hibernation. The problem followed the Blue Devils through the national run and appeared once again in the season opener.
The second period wasn’t as productive for the Blue Devils, as they sat back, feeling comfortable with the lead that had been set. A goal made by Merrimack with 6:52 to play in the period kept the Warriors alive.
“I’d like to see a little bit more intensity they took the foot off the gas pedal a little bit in the second period I’d like to see them put it down and play a complete sixty minutes,” Adams said.
Offensively CCSU was generating the opportunities to score, but the players weren’t making the connection with the net for the finish. It was apparent that the lines were still trying to find chemistry with one another stylistically. Passes and puck protection needed to be heightened, as they lacked the fluidity of last season’s veteran team, but an improvement will come the more ice time the players have together.
“It’s a good start, it was ugly at times but that’s just hopefully the cobwebs of not playing a competitive game in over three months,” Adams said. “I would’ve liked to see them bury more opportunities, their goalie played very well so did ours the one we let up was a complete fluke goal right off of the defensemen’s foot really nothing you can do about those so all in all I‘m happy but it could’ve been better.”
CCSU’s final goal came with 8:02 to play in the third, it was apparent that the team had the win, as Merrimack scrambled to pull its goalie with 7:44 left in a last effort to score with the extra man.
Goalie, Ross Mocko shut out the Warriors in the final period. Mocko will split time in the net with Greg Coco, who played the majority of the second semester.
“Mocko came in this year; he definitely worked on his game. He looks a lot better. He moves much better I think he’s seeing the puck a lot better so, I think Coco’s gonna have to step it up again,” Adams said.
CCSU will be back in Simsbury on Oct. 15 against Bentley at 7 p.m.