Rowan’s Division II Ice Hockey team drew a two-game series this past weekend, which they had against the University of Maryland, an American Collegiate Hockey League (ACCHL) Premier division matchup, as their record now improves to 7-3-1.
The Profs took on Maryland Friday night at home in the Hollydell Ice Arena, where they lost 4-1. In the first period, the team looked far from themselves, as they let three go by in a matter of a couple of minutes.
In the first few minutes of the game, both Rowan and Maryland looked even. But they slowly started to unravel, and eventually let Maryland get on board first.
The team was struggling in the defensive zone, as they missed defensive assignments and had turnovers that resulted in chances and goals for Maryland.
Although coming into the second period, Rowan started to shift the energy in their favor as they laid out huge hits, and senior forward and assistant captain Josh Bianchi scored off of a deflection.
“I thought we were playing a good 40 minutes after the first period, we just couldn’t find it, and it’s frustrating,” Bianchi said. “I thought all four lines were rolling towards the end, we just have to play fast and physical play of game.”
When the team does lose, like on Friday, assistant coach Ian Kliewe says that this group doesn’t point fingers and blame each other.
“What we don’t do is we cannibalize ourselves, we didn’t point fingers,” Kliewe said.
Head coach Brien Bennett also believes that even with the loss on Friday, there were still plenty of positives to take away from the game.
“Things are going to happen here and there, and not everyone’s gonna play a perfect game,” Bennett said. “And I thought through periods two and three we’re in our game, a couple things we got to clean up, but we like a lot of what we’re seeing.”
The team did just that, as they bounced back the following night in Maryland to take down the Terps, 5-3.
The Profs completely flipped the switch, as in the first period, they looked like the more dominant and faster team. And it was Bianchi again, who was able to find the back of the net first off the power play.
And before the second period ended, the Profs had put up four goals.
Two of the five they scored against Maryland that night came off the power play, which, so far this season, Rowan has had huge success on drawing penalties.
Although Maryland started to slowly claw their way back into the game, scoring two goals in roughly three minutes, senior forward and captain Nick Thomas got on a breakaway and scored Rowan’s fifth goal of the game.
Rowan looks to build off of this win as they now have four away games and a home game that spans across eight days. The next game Rowan looks to take on Marist University. Their next home game is on Nov. 1 against Penn State University’s Division II hockey team.
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