It was another intense weekend for the University of Delaware D1 Men’s Hockey team as they traveled to New York to match up against the New York University Violets for the second weekend in a row. The team was able to successfully put away game one on Friday night but was unable to maintain the win streak for the weekend, losing in overtime on Saturday.
Delaware 7 – NYU 2
Game one was intense, with both teams coming off of the high energy of the weekend prior. The Violets found themselves chasing the puck the whole game. The first goal came 6 minutes into the second period when Michael Nisky cashed in on passes from Chris Mazzella and Colin Emerich. Nisky, still on a roll, scored his second goal of the night only a few minutes later off of Mazzella again, and help from Ian Anderson. Only a mere 43 seconds later, Jake DeFares generated a goal of his own after capitalizing on a Nisky/Anderson pass line.
Once the team got the ball rolling, it was easy for them to keep it moving. Another 43 seconds later, Mike Redgate put the fourth goal of the night on the board when passes from Kevin Felice and Harrison Chuma opened the opportunity for Redgate to put one past NYU’s goalie. Chris Mazzella finished out the second period by advancing the Delaware lead 5-0 off of assists from Nisky and Emerich.
The Violets struggled to keep up, scoring their first goal 4:33 into the third period. Gavin Hulser, with some help from Ben Bergman and Jake Nimeh, was able to cruise through NYU defenders and furthered the lead 6-1. NYU tried a second time to make the pulverization a little less harsh, but the Hulser-Bergman-Nimeh dream team scored the 7th and final goal. The final score was 7-2.
Harrison Chuma stated, “It was a great team win. We were firing on all cylinders from the D-zone through the offensive zone. The power-plays ignited our offense, and then we put [NYU] away from there and didn’t give them breathing room. In reference to his assist of the night, he said, “On Skip’s (Mike Redgate) goal, I took a shot from the point and Skip had a nice tip in.”
Delaware 3 – NYU 4 (OT)
For game two, NYU came back ready to put up a fight to salvage a split, the same spot that the Blue Hens found themselves in just last Saturday in Newark. In period one, NYU set the tone for the game with a goal 5 minutes in. Delaware didn’t respond until Colin Emerich scored two goals in the second period. The first was assisted by Hulser and Anderson, the second by the power duo Nisky and Mazzella. NYU came back and tied the game in the last three seconds of the second period. It was obvious that this game was going to be a lot tighter than the night before. In the third period, NYU took the lead with a goal 8:59 into the period. When it looked like they were going to take an easy win for the night, with only two seconds left in regulation, Chris Mazzella did what he does best and tied the game, throwing both teams into a heated overtime. Unfortunately, NYU scored 3 minutes into OT,  breaking the tie and winning the game, 4-3.
Lamberton commented on the game,  “We really let their team hang around. We were the better team, but we just didn’t come out ready to play our strongest and it beat us in the end.”
This Friday, the team will be back for their last home game of the season and will be celebrating their seniors! Join us one last time at the Fred Rust Ice Arena for their 7 pm game against Rutgers University.
