The Observer, November 3, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 9
Hockey club returns to form in win against Behrend
click to enlarge
Often a team has to take a step backward in order to leap forward. After a poor performance against Pittsburgh on Oct. 14, the hockey club regrouped during an off week, then bounded ahead last Friday and Saturday, splitting two games at home against conference powerhouses Penn State Behrend and University of Pitt-Johnstown.
On Friday, the Spartans were victorious over Behrend in a riveting game that was decided by a shootout after five minutes of sudden death overtime failed to yield a winner. The Spartans took a 2-1 lead into the second period. Behrend then knotted up the score at two. With five minutes left to go, Behrend took the lead again, but the Spartans quickly responded, tying the game.
When regulation ended, five minutes of four-on-four sudden death overtime began. Five minutes passed, and neither team had scored. The game had to be decided by a shootout. "Once we got to the shootout, I knew we were going to win," said coach Yuhnke. In a shootout, each team chooses five players to go on a breakaway during which the shooter must constantly move forward and may only take one shot. Play alternates between teams. Whichever teams scores the most goals wins.
Jeff Barbarits, Case's second shooter, scored. Jeff Greenstein, the Spartans' fourth shooter, scored Case's second, and final, goal. Goalie Rob Walls stopped each of Behrend's breakaways.
"Walls played a phenomenal game. He's the reason we won," said fellow goalie Jon Lux. Still, the Spartans recognize there is still room for improvement.
"We definitely had some slow spots," said freshman right-winger Matt Briançon. Added Yuhnke, "I thought we played sloppy in the first game against Behrend. We played with more intensity than the past weekend, but we consistently found ourselves out of position and making careless plays."
The following day, a small Case squad, which previously had problems during games when they had played the night before, suffered a tough loss in a game during which the team played some of its best hockey of the season, falling to University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown, 6-5.
"Even though we lost, the game against UPJ might have been our best game of the season," Yuhnke said. "That was the first time all year we played hard from start to finish."
UPJ dominated the first period while Case had difficulty setting up in UPJ's zone. Consequently, UPJ was able to take numerous shots on Lux, scoring twice. Towards the end of the first, the Spartans took several quality shots on UPJ's goal, but were unable to score.
In the second period, the Spartans' Jeff Barbarits, Dan Pawlowski, and Paul Anderko scored, with two Mike Stork assists. Unfortunately, UPJ scored four times, bringing the score to 6-3. After UPJ scored its third goal, Yuhnke pulled Lux.
"That might be one of the hardest things to do as a coach, pulling a goalie out of a game," Yuhnke said. "He had some bad bounces get past him early that got him out of his game. He never got comfortable, which caused him to have a bad game. I thought at the time we needed a change. I am confident he will be able to put that game behind him."
A visibly frustrated Lux stormed off the ice, into the locker room. "I lost our team the game," he said. But Lux was overly critical. As Briançon said, "He just got a couple of tough deflections. The whole team loses a game, not just one player."
A positive sign for the hockey club was their decline in penalties. As the referees are usually the same for each home game, it is probably not the referees that have caused the change.
"I feel confident we can build off these games and continue to get better. If we do that, we can still reach our goal of getting into the playoffs and winning the championship," said Yuhnke. Case returns to action tonight at 8:45 p.m. against Edinboro.
