The Division II Rowan Club Ice Hockey team has shown flashes of brilliance. In other instances, not so much.
It has been the story of their season thus far heading into this past weekend with a 2-2 record. The competition didn’t get any easier as they hosted Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey North rival, Army on Saturday.
Forward Bobby Penrod scored two goals in the game, one that ended up being the game winner along with an empty netter to lead the Profs to a 5-1 win over the Knights. They held Army to one goal which came in the second period. The brown and gold then went on a scoring surge in the final period with three goals.
Leading the charge in the last period was defenseman Peter Kaz with a power play goal that doubled Rowan’s lead. The captain knew going into the game that the opportunity to pick up two points in the division was important.
“It is huge,” Kaz said. “We are trying to get our group back. Obviously after the bad weekend we had last week, the boys knew today meant a lot to get those two points.”
Forward Anthony Dellerose had a goal and an assist in the game. He has been gaining chemistry very early on with his line-mates and is taking in every moment offered to make an impact for the team.
“We are getting the puck deep and doing what we do,” Dellerose said. “We are cycling the puck down low and throwing shots at the net and it just worked today.”
It was not a perfect game by Rowan by any means, as they accrued seven penalties to only three for the Knights. Head coach John Caulfield knows the team needs to improve in that area, but was pleased with how well they played otherwise.
“We gave them about nine or 11 consecutive minutes of power play time in the second period,” Caulfield said. “But once we got out of that routine of being in the penalty box on a consistent basis, five-on-five is where we feel most comfortable. I am pretty happy with that performance in the third.”
Sunday showed a different outcome, as the Profs traveled to Lawrence Township to face the The College of New Jersey Ice Lions. After winning all three meetings against them last year including a play-in game to the regional tournament, Rowan fell in this one, 5-4.
The team never had the lead in the game and that was evident due to their percentage of shots on-goal that went past TCNJ goaltender Patrick Tso. They outshot the Lions 53-31 and only scored four times in wide open chances.
Kaz and Penrod each had a goal and an assist in the game. The Profs did attempt to make a comeback in the third period, but it was too little too late.
Caulfield was quite upset with the energy level and consistency that was on display during the game.
“I thought we were inconsistent from start to finish,” Caulfield said. “We got a lot of shots, but there were no follow-ups on the rebounds. We had very little net presence today and I think we were not very strong on the wall battles. We dug ourselves into a real quick hole and tried to spend the rest of the day digging out.”
With a 3-3 record through six games, the Profs will look to rebound this weekend at home on Saturday against Montclair State and then away against St. Joseph’s University on Sunday.
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