Written By: Analisa Vizzoni
It was a very exciting weekend for University of Delaware Ice Hockey! The Blue Hens battled West Chester University, and swept the series! Friday night, the team played at home dressed in camouflage jerseys for our Military Night. The team raised a lot of money for Defending The Blue Line, an organization that helps the children of military families play the game of hockey. And, on Saturday, the team hit the road to travel to West Chester University to play.
After the color guard joined the team on the ice for the National Anthem, the puck dropped. From the start of the game, the Blue Hens were ready to play. Just over two minutes into the first period, Vinny Zingarelli put away the home team’s first goal of the night with an assist from defenseman, Ian Anderson. There was a lot of speed and intensity on the ice. With 13 minutes and 28 seconds left on the clock, John Redgate scored goal number two with help from Shane Mullin. Delaware was on their offensive game, and kept the puck on West Chester’s end of the ice. Having just over 3 minutes left in the first period, Leo Skehan scored off of an assist from John Redgate, putting the Hens up 3 goals over the Golden Rams!
With the adrenaline pumping, the team took the ice to play the second period. There was movement on the ice from both teams. 13 minutes and 32 seconds on the clock, Dan Going scored unassisted for the Blue Hens! The morale was high on the ice and in the stands! Nearly five minutes later, defenseman Nick Ustaski scored the fifth goal of the night! There was no time for the Rams to make a comeback because the Hens scored again! Matt Margolis scored off of an assist from Cole Zucker. Less than two minutes later, Dan Going was at it again scoring his second goal of the night and Delaware’s seventh! After a flurry of goals from the home team, they took an offensive break, but not for long. With 15 seconds left on the clock for the second period, John Redgate passed the puck off to Andrew Corapi to score the eighth goal of the night! The score of the game was 8-0, Blue Hens!
The third period was underway, and University of Delaware was far in the lead. West Chester tried to play more offensively, but our defense was able to keep up with them. There was a lot of movement up and down the ice. The WCU players were angry with the score of the game, and a fight broke out on the ice about halfway through the period. Both teams sent a player to their designated box. At the end of the 20 minutes, and no new goals, the final score of the game was 8-0! With a great game from our offense and defense, compliments also go to goalie, Dylan Troiano, for a shutout!
The energy was high in the arena, and after the game, I spoke to a few of the players. I asked both of them what their thoughts on the game were and their thoughts for Saturday’s away game. Kevin Froelich responded, “Today was a great game. Everything came together and we took it period by period. Hopefully, we can do the same tomorrow, but they are definitely going to come out stronger.” Shane Mullin said, “We played a partially full game. There were points scored from most of the team. The younger guys stepped up in key situations tonight. Hopefully, we can bring the same intensity tomorrow.”
The Hens took the ice at West Chester University on Saturday at 7:30 pm. Saturday’s game wasn’t as high paced as Friday’s, but Delaware still came out with a win. The score was 2-0, with goals scored from Pierce Lamberton and John Redgate. The Blue Hens’ rookie goalie, Stephen East, started his first college game. He played a great game, and earned a shutout!
I was able to get some thoughts about Saturday’s game from a few of the players. Leo Skehan said, “West Chester came out hard in the second game to try and split the weekend. But we tried to keep things simple, and come out the same way we did Friday.” Justin Hoch said, “A win is a win. Not as pretty as we want it, but we’ll take it. Our goalie played a great first fame, and was happy he was able to come away with a shutout.” Andrew Corapi added, “After a big win Friday, we wanted to respond well on Saturday. I think we found our game early on, the pucks just weren’t going in for us. East played a great game for us and was the main reason we came away with a win.” Vinny Zingarelli said, “We didn’t play anywhere close to our best game, but we were able to keep them from putting the puck in the back of our net with great goal tending from Stephen East in his first career start. And we were able to capitalize on enough opportunities to hold on for the win.”
The Hens are hitting the road this weekend, and travelling up to the University of Rhode Island. Before the season started I interviewed Matt Santucci, and he told me that URI was going to be one of the team’s biggest competition this season. I followed up with him, and asked him how the team was going to prepare for this upcoming weekend. He said, “It’s a huge weekend because they are a league opponent and one of our biggest rivals. We’ve been playing good hockey lately, so we just need to stay focused this week in practice to carry it into this weekend. Everyone will have an extra jump in their step at practice knowing we are heading to URI this weekend. It’s always a fun and important weekend.” Be sure to keep up with the team through Twitter, @UDHockey, and Facebook, University of Delaware Division 1 Men’s Ice Hockey, this weekend!
The team will be back at the Fred Rust Arena on Friday, November 6th, at 8:15 pm as they take on Lebanon Valley College! It is also Breast Cancer Awareness night at the Rust so we hope you all come out to the game!
