The Blue Hens played ESCHL rivals Rutgers this weekend. On Friday, October 24, 2014, they were able to beat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 5-2. The Scarlet Knights would get their revenge the next day, beating the Blue Hens in overtime.
The first game went the Blue Hens way when they welcomed the Scarlet Knights into the Fred Rust arena. Their first goal came at the end of an early power play. John Redgate won the puck behind Rutgers net and he found defender Gabriel Colona crashing the net. Colona fired the shot and put the Blue Hens up only five minutes into the game.
About ten minutes later, the Blue Hens second line would break through. Marcello DeAngelis made a nice pass on the rush to Sophomore Vincent Zingarelli who scored to make the game 2-0 heading into the first intermission.
The physical game picked up in the second period. In one shift, Shane Mullin managed to get three solid hits on the Scarlet Knights. The physical game allowed the Blue Hens to maintain the momentum, which eventually led to a goal. With only two minutes left in the second, DeAngelis started another rush. He passed to Zingarelli again who fired a shot. Leo Skehan was able to pick up the rebound and give the Blue Hens the 3-0 lead going into the third period.
The third period was more chippy then the first two. While there were only three penalties in the first two periods, there were five in third.
The scoring was back and forth. Ted Udelsman scored Rutgers first goal about ten minutes into the third. About a minute later, forward Joe Bastone scored for the Blue Hens to make it a three-goal game again. 14:13 into the period, Ted Udelsman scored yet again to make the game 4-2.
Rutgers gave up a big penalty late in the third period. Coach Rocky decided to send out the second line that had managed to already score two goals. Zingarelli fired a shot that went off the pad of Rutgers goalie Conner Lam onto the stick of UD Captain Steven Braun. Braun fired a bazooka from the top of the circle that would give the Blue Hens the 5-2 lead with only four minutes left in the game. That score would remain the same for the rest of the game.
The next day, the Blue Hens traveled to the Rutgers ProSkate arena. The Blue Hens had a four game winning streak heading into the game and their confidence was running high.
It took awhile before either team scored. About 15 minutes into the first period, John Redgate won the puck off a turnover in the neutral zone. He gave the puck to Max Freeman, who was able to score off the broken play.
With only two minutes left in the first period, David Stickle picked up a tripping minor on Rutgers. During the power play, Brancaccio fired a shot from the blue line that was deflected in by Freeman to give the Blue Hens the 2-0 lead going into the first intermission.
Early into the second period, the Blue Hens seemed to get their third goal of the game, but it was called off sides. To make matters worse, Rutgers managed to score about 13 minutes into the period. Rutgers managed 15 shots in the period, but Blue Hens goalie Patrick Rochefort managed to preserve the 2-1 lead heading into the third.
The third period did not start off well for the Blue Hens. 6:49 into the third, Ted Udelsman scored his third goal against Delaware this weekend to tie the game at 2-2.
Late in the third period, Kevin Crehan got a major after boarding Blue Hen defender Gabriel Colona. On the man advantage, the Blue Hens hit the post twice, but were unable to put the puck into the net. At 17:25 of the 3rd, they went back on the power play. The Blue Hens power play struggled and the game was 2-2 at the end of regulation.
Nine seconds into overtime, Rutgers made the Blue Hens pay for not cashing in on their power play opportunities. Andrew Koslov picked up his tenth assist of the season, as Kevin Fitch was able to beat Rochefort to win the game for Rutgers in overtime 3-2.
The Blue Hens hit the road this weekend for a pair of games versus ESCHL and longtime rival the University of Rhode Island Rams. URI currently sits at #7 in the country and is coming off of a weekend split with #22 Syracuse. The puck drops at 7PM on both Friday and Saturday nights; and each game is available via fasthockey.com.
