By the players' account, the men's hockey team did not deserve a single point for its two-game road trip to New York this weekend.
The Bears were outshot by both St. Lawrence University and No. 8 Clarkson University. They made costly penalties during their comeback bids. They started games lethargically, falling in three-goal holes in both matches. Though the Bears fell to Clarkson 4-2 on Saturday, they were able to bring home a point after clawing back to a 4-4 tie against St. Lawrence after a fluke goal reinvigorated the team on Friday.
With the Bears (1-3-3 overall, 1-2-3 Eastern College Athletic Conference) down 3-0 in the second period, assistant captain Jeff Prough '08 scored a short-handed goal with a little help from a bad hop.
With the Saints applying pressure, Prough cleared the puck from the Bears' hash marks, launching it toward the St. Lawrence net, where the puck took a bad bounce.
Goaltender Alex Petizian "played it like a shortstop and it hopped between his legs," said captain Sean Hurley '08. "I was going in for a line change and everyone started celebrating."
"It was a huge turning point," Eric Slais '09 said. "We were just getting outplayed and it seems like we were at the point of giving up and that ... sparked everyone on the team and everyone started playing."
After Prough's goal at the 14:45 mark, Sean McMonagle '10 cut the deficit to 3-2 with 15 seconds left in the period, thanks to what Slais described as a "breakdown of the St. Lawrence defense." But the Saints regained their two-goal advantage off a power-play tally 3:22 into the third period.
The Bears answered right away. Twenty-seven seconds after the Saints' goal, David Brownschidle '11 scored his first career goal after knocking in a rebound off a Slais shot.
Fifty-one seconds after that, McMonagle tied the score with his second goal of the game, taking an Aaron Volpatti '10 pass in the center of the slot and firing it over Petizian's shoulder.
"His second goal was really nice," Slais said. "He got a pass from Volpatti and came out and shelled it. The water bottle flew up and everything."
But Brown couldn't find the back of the net for the rest of the game, and goalie Dan Rosen '10 made one overtime save for a total of 42 on the game.
After playing St. Lawrence in Canton, N.Y., Friday night, the Bears traveled to Potsdam, N.Y., to play Clarkson Saturday night, but they could not carry over the momentum from the Saints game, again falling behind 3-0 in the second period.
The Golden Knights scored off a rebound 5:31 into the second period, after a scoreless first period. About 11 minutes later, they added two goals in a span of 33 seconds, with the first coming off a power play.
Chris Poli '08 made it a 3-1 game just 16 seconds into the third period, scoring on a power play, but Clarkson tallied three minutes later to regain its three-goal advantage. Prough scored on the power play at 12:29, but the Bears could not get any closer.
The Clarkson game was especially frustrating, Hurley said, because the Bears started out just as slowly as they did against St. Lawrence.
"I think again we sat back and tried to feel out how good they were going to be and we knew they were going to be good," he said. "We had to come out and set the pace, (but) we got ourself in a 3-0 hole."
But Hurley added that he didn't think the No. 8 Golden Knights played as well as their ranking would suggest, and he is looking forward to the rematch in Meehan Auditorium on Feb. 15.
Overall, Hurley and Slais share one feeling about the team after coming out with one point on their road trip: They are a very lucky team.
"We definitely should have beat (St. Lawrence) and we should've got both points," Hurley said. "But we played badly enough that we didn't deserve any points, so we were lucky to get one."
Hurley said he does not feel that there is anything wrong with the team's philosophy or fundamentals. The only thing it needs to work on, he said, is coming out with more energy in the opening minutes. Though the team has been finishing games strongly this year, it has started most of them slowly.
"We've got to end that soon if we want to right the ship," Slais said.
The Bears next play at the University of New Hampshire on Saturday night, taking a break from their ECAC schedule.
