Once again, the men’s hockey team at Montclair State University plays more games and faces more losses. The team played against rivals William Paterson University on Thursday, Jan. 25, where they fell 13-2 on home ice. Much like their loss against William Paterson University, the team had a similar result against Siena College on Saturday, Feb. 3, where they fell 7-4.
On Jan. 25, the puck dropped against William Paterson at 8:30 p.m. to begin the first period. Due to their rivalry, both teams played a high tension game in hopes of coming out on top. The Red Hawks surprisingly started the game off in their favor as Michael Buckel scored early on at the 0:42 mark off a pass from defenseman Dan Diner. However, the Red Hawks began to feel the pressure and with no backup goalie, Nicola De Marzo was on his own.
At the 3:32 mark still in the first, William Paterson’s Michael Conca scored to put his team up on the board with a score of 1-1. The overall feel of the first period was rather physical as Red Hawks’ Kevin Brown was guilty of a two-minute cross checking minor at the 5:41 mark. Believe it or not, not many penalties were exchanged. However, William Paterson outplayed the Red Hawks for the remainder of the first period and blew past them with a total of three more goals.
As the second period was underway, it was a rather embarrassing 20 minutes of game play for the Red Hawks. They suffered a total of five penalties and William Paterson shamelessly put seven more goals behind De Marzo. Clearly, it was not the goaltender’s fault that the team could not generate any offensive plays. De Marzo seemed to receive zero help in the defensive zone. With an updated score of 11-1, both teams knew who the victor was as it almost seemed unnecessary to continue.
One good thing about the Red Hawks is that they do not ever seem to give up and always show excellent sportsmanship. With the third period in action, Buckel received a slashing minor, causing William Paterson to score at the 7:10 mark. De Marzo seemed to make some credible saves in the third period, only allowing one more goal in at the 10:29 mark. Speaking of how the Red Hawks never seem to give up and keep on pushing through, Shawn Meneghin ensured goal number two with assists by Matthew Dreisbach and Greg Matesic at the 14:49 mark to end the game 13-2. The Red Hawks were outshot 56 to 15 shots on goal.
A little over a week later, the Red Hawks suited up to play their second to last game of the season against Siena College at 8:30 p.m. The team played an overall better game considering they managed to put four goals past Siena within the three periods with only 19 shots on goal.
During the first, Red Hawks’ Justin Ritter was penalized with a two-minute roughing minor at the 0:55 mark. A few minutes later, Siena managed to score their first goal of the game when Brandon Gannon put one past De Marzo at the 5:39 mark. Nearly minutes after that, Siena scored back to back goals at the 6:28, 7:07 and 10:54 marks. With the score being 4-0, Siena decided to put their backup goaltender in net, making it a little easier for the Red Hawks’ Buckel who scored the team’s first goal thanks to a pass from Brendan Vander Vilet at the 11:08 mark. The first period was settling down with a few penalties in between, but Siena ensured their lead with another goal at the 11:39 mark.
The second period seemed to really die down with minimal action, probably because both teams were playing an even battled game, which the Red Hawks haven’t seen in a while, let alone the fans that were there. Kevin Regan of Montclair State was guilty of a tripping minor as Siena’s Michael Diotalevi scored on the power play at the 9:14 mark. Nevertheless, the opposing team managed to score yet again, updating the score 7-1 and closing out the second.
Once the third period finally rolled around, the Red Hawks appeared to have more life in them. The team looked eager to not go down without a fight. Early on, Buckel used his talent to score his second goal of the game that was unassisted at the 3:18 mark. Two minutes later, Meneghin scored at the 5:19 mark with passes from Diner and Lucas Prospero.
With two good goals from Montclair State, the team still managed to rack up five penalties. Buckel suffered from a 10-minute misconduct after disputing the ref’s call. Although the third was not exactly easy for both teams, Prospero scored the last goal of the game at the 11:28 mark, which was unassisted and finalized the score 7-4.
With no playoffs in the future for the Red Hawks, their final game of the season was against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Saturday, Feb. 10.
