The Hobart Statesmen, ranked No. 15 in this week’s USCHO.com Division III men’s poll, scored three goals in a 48-second span in the second period to take control of Tuesday night’s game against the Brockport Golden Eagles, winning 5-2.
“The first period went well for us but then we fell asleep for 48 seconds and it cost us a hockey game,” Brockport coach Brian Dickinson said. “It is disappointing that shift cost us a hockey game.”
Hobart got off to a sluggish start and Brockport almost took advantage in the first five minutes of the game. The Golden Eagles buzzed around the Statesmen net but couldn’t get anything past sophomore goaltender Martin Ausserhofer, who played in his first game this year.
“We probably slugged our way through the entire game,” Hobart coach Mark Taylor said. “There were some spurts where we jumped up a little bit, but that game was not us. Sometimes it can be healthy for you to win a game like that.”
The Statesmen (8-3-1) didn’t garner much offense at all until Brockport (1-12-1) went on its first power play of the night six minutes into the contest. Hobart scored on its second shot of the game at 7:31 while killing off that penalty. Christopher Bower intercepted a cross-ice pass near the Hobart blue line and carried it into the Brockport zone on a two-on-one breakaway.
Bower slid the puck over to Tommy Capalbo near the top of the crease, who tapped it in for the goal.
“We didn’t crumple,” Dickinson said. “When things aren’t going well, which they haven’t this year, you never know how you are going to respond.”
Brockport kept up the offensive pressure through the remainder of the period, outshooting Hobart 10-8 in the stanza, and the work paid dividends with 53 seconds remaining. Mike Hayward let go a blast of a slap shot from the top of the crease and Adam Shoff deflected the puck as it flew down the crease, sending it just under the crossbar to tie the game 1-1.
“We have worked hard since we got back on the urgency of getting up and down the ice against Hobart, probably the hardest working team we’ll face all year,” Dickinson said. “We did a good job of making them expend energy in their end of the ice a bit. We tried to take advantage and couldn’t get any clear chances until the end of the period.”
Hobart opened the flood gates early in the second period, scoring a trio of goals to take control of the game 4-1. Cam Miller started the fireworks at 6:24, finishing off a two-on-one breakaway off a pass from Danny Organ.
Just 23 seconds later, Ryan Corcoran redirected a wrist shot down the slot by Mike White. And then at 7:12, Gregory Ciciola poked in a rebound to finish off the flurry.
Dickinson called his timeout and put Joe Reagan into net to replace starting goaltender Oliver Wren. That stopped the fireworks but Hobart continued to slug along.
“Ausserhofer needed game time and I thought he got better as the game went on,” Taylor said. “I’m glad he got better as the game went on because I didn’t think we did.”
The Golden Eagles chipped away at Hobart’s lead early in the third period with a power-play goal at 3:20. The Statesmen failed to clear the puck from their defensive zone when given the chance. Ian Finnerty collected the puck just inside the Hobart blue line, skated through the right faceoff circle, and wristed the puck just inside the near post to narrow the Statesmen lead to 4-2.
Hobart’s Tommy Fiorentino slid in an empty-net goal with just under a minute remaining to finish off the 5-2 victory for the Statesmen.
