The University of Delaware D1 Men’s hockey team salvaged a split on Saturday against the New York University Violets, after a sudden-death third period on Friday night that ultimately resulted in the team’s loss.
The Blue Hens started off Friday night’s game as the underdogs. NYU scored the lone goal of the first period, followed by two more within 10 minutes of the second period putting them in the lead 3-0. Chris Mazzella put one on the scoreboard for Delaware with a goal at 11:09 off of Colin Emerich and Michael Nisky. Brian Ostrander received passes from Nisky and captain Michael Zidansek to score another goal only a minute and a half after Mazzella. Nisky and Mazzella opened another scoring opportunity, allowing Jake DeFares to tie the game 3-3 12 minutes into the second period.
The game fell apart for Delaware in the third period. Starting thirty seconds in and continuing through to the end of regulation, NYU scored 5 more goals. The Blue Hens were unable to keep up, ending the game with a final score of 8-3.
“We had a lack of effort and attention to detail on the defensive end. We lost energy and got behind. When you give the other team as many chances as we did, you know that it’s going to lead to bad things happening,”- Colin Emerich
On Saturday, both teams came back ready to fight, but Delaware came back stronger. Brian Ostrander wasted no time scoring an unassisted goal 6 minutes into the period. The Violets answered back with their own goal, tying the game. Colin Emerich, capitalizing off of Nisky and Zidansek’s passes, had his own response, putting Delaware in the lead again. The Violets challenged back, tying the game yet again 2-2 as the second period ended.
Colin Emerich placed the Blue Hens back in the lead with his second goal of the night with assistance from Nisky and Zidansek 8:43 into the second period. With less than two minutes left in the second period, DeFares put another one on the scoreboard with help from Nisky and Zidansek.
In the third period, the Blue Hens were looking to put the game away and avoid any mistakes from the night before. Five minutes into the third period, Pierce Lamberton took advantage of passes from Kevin Felice and Harrison Good to score the 5th goal of the evening, advancing the Delaware lead. NYU tried to catch up with a goal of their own just 35 seconds after Lamberton’s, but it wasn’t before long that UD scored again. The sixth goal of the game was generated by Mazzella, scoring off of Nisky and Cam Piorkowski. Michael Nisky finally put goal seven past the Violet’s goalie off of DeFares. The final score was 7-3 Delaware.
When asked his thoughts about the game, Jake DeFares said, “I think on Friday we went into the game expecting to win and that is the worst mindset you can have going into a hockey game. We didn’t just lose on Friday night, we got outworked and outclassed by a team that we know we are better than. Obviously, this season hasn’t gone the way we wanted it to and that game hit us the hardest. I’m proud of the way we responded on Saturday night and I hope we can carry that momentum into our two games this coming weekend.”
We came into the game knowing what we had to do, which was to play a full 60 minutes. Even when NYU scored, we kept working. Saturday night really showed how good this team can be.” – Dylan Pasley
The team will take on New York University again this weekend at the Violet’s home ice arena. Keep up with us on social media!
Twitter: @udhockey
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Facebook: University of Delaware Men’s Division 1 Ice Hockey
Written by: DF
