Nathan Coughenour
Contributing Writer
The men’s club hockey team opened its season with a heartbreaking last-second loss at home on Saturday, losing 4-3 to the Millersville Marauders.
The young and inexperienced Bison were hard-pressed the entire game to get in a rhythm, and they never held a lead.
The scoring opened when the Marauders beat Bison goaltender John Chestnut ’14 on a power play six minutes into the game. Three minutes later Sandy Smith ’13 scored to tie the game at one. Dan Minnis ’11 Bison forward and Chestnut had the assists. Two more goals were scored at the end of the first period to cap off an extremely contentious first third of the game.
In the second period, both defenses started hitting harder and really began to play well, with the only Marauders goal coming on a power play four minutes into the period.
In the end, the game came right down to the wire in the third period. John Wroblewski ’12 scored his second goal of the game at the beginning of the period to tie the match. The Mauraders then scored with 16 seconds left.
“Well I honestly think we out-played them. We pressured them very well in the offensive zone, caused a lot of turnovers and had plenty of chances. I think we played a smart game on both ends of the ice … but the puck just didn’t bounce our way,” Wroblewski said.
Considering the team only had two practices to prepare for this game, the Bison had a solid performance.
They finished with 30 shots but had five penalties and went zero for four on the power play. Chestnut made 25 saves.
There is a lot of positive enthusiasm surrounding the team, which came in second in its league last year.
“Based off of our pre-season and the wave of talented freshman we received, it looks as though we are even better this year,” President Connor Curry ’11 said.
The Bison will have another chance to test their limits Oct. 9 at 4:15 p.m. when they take on Princeton.