By Brittany Burke

A 6-5 defeat of the second ranked William Paterson Pioneers kicked off the second half of the 2010 season for the CCSU men’s ice hockey club.

Following the last ranking period at the start of the season’s break, CCSU was ranked 10 in the Northeast region, making the must win a major upset for the Blue Devils.

“I think it’s a very good win not just in the ranking…they’re a very good team you know they beat us 9-4 down there and it was a little closer than I would have liked but they fought hard and were able to get it done,” said Head Coach Ben Adams.

The new semester has brought on some roster changes for the Blue Devils with the addition of four new players and the loss of five.

Even with a new line up in place the Blue Devils did not skip a beat coming off the break by gaining the quick 1-0 lead over the Pioneers. With goalie, Greg Coco in net, CCSU took the lead and never gave it up.

“We had two weeks of practice which helped and everyone was getting in and we just came in mentally prepared and everyone’s psyched up and I think that just helped us out,” said Jon Knobloch. We had a good win by the green line, [Dan] Vasquez and Ian [Schwalenberg] and our new guy [Andrew] Coronna and everyone just went out and did their thing and we just came out with a win.”

The pinnacle of the play for the Blue Devils came early in the second with CCSU playing the man advantage. As the Pioneers tried to kill a five minute penalty with its backup goalie in net, CCSU capitalized on the opportunity, extending its lead by two goals.

Following the three on five advantage Blue Devil Kevin Paglinco took a shot from Vasquez and connected for CCSU’s second goal of the night. Thirty-one seconds later and with a minute left in the power play co-captain, Tom Carroll produced the second power play goal of the night with the assists from Ryan Stanley and Matt Siracusa.

“I’m sure he’s kicking himself for giving us the opportunity,” said Adams of the Pioneer’s goalie who caused the penalty, “but that’s hockey we took advantage of the opportunity to take the lead.”

Despite the strong power play, the Pioneers countered with two additional goals, tying the game at three.

CCSU’s power play was the proven difference maker against a defensively strong Pioneer team. With William Paterson playing to the disadvantage CCSU capitalized twice to take the lead at the end of the second.

Less than a minute into the third CCSU’s top line struck again with Knobloch netting his second goal of the night. The score was kept close as Stanley skated the puck up the ice and netted the sixth and final CCSU goal of the night from Dillon.

“Stanley has been playing great as he has all year so he just gave me a pass on that second one and the first one Dils [Tim Dillon] won the faceoff and I just crashed it in,” said Knobloch.

In a rush to close the one goal gap William Patterson pulled its goalie, but as the time ran out so was the chance to create a comeback.

“It was a good game, they’re not going to hold it in and they’re gonna keep coming and I just liked the way that our boys always stayed focused,” said Adams. “They had the lead and they never let it go and they actually played fairly well in our defensive zone then our power play was on.”

The next night the Blue Devils fell to third ranked Montclair State, 6-1. The team heads back to Simsbury to take on Marist, Jan. 21 with a 9:15 p.m. puck drop.