The men’s hockey team is holding on to their undefeated status for the season, bringing their record to a perfect 6-0 as they defeated the St. Scholastica (Minn.) Saints twice over the weekend.
While the Blugolds are undefeated, senior forward Isaiah Bennis said it’s too early in the season to be comfortable with their record.
“I know in the past we’ve started out strong, but in the second half of the season it hadn’t gone the way we’d like it to,” he said. “We’re going to need to be second or third in conference, and if we keep it up we’ll be able to do that.”
Bennis said based off the Saints’ performance last year, where they finished second in conference, the Blugolds knew it would be tough.
“We thought if we played the way we had in the last four games, just doing really well on a lot of little things, that we’d be alright,” Bennis said.
On Friday night, the Blugolds dominated the nets, defeating the Saints 5-1. The Blugolds scored all five of their goals before St. Scholastica was able to get on the board. Senior goalie Brandon Stephenson blocked 25 of St. Scholastica’s 26 shots, but the Saints snuck one through with less than nine minutes left in the third period.
Junior forward Niko Kapetanovic said the Saints were 1-3 before meeting the Blugolds on the ice and the men were expecting the weekend to be tough as St. Scholastica wanted to improve their record.
“We knew they’d come out hard, so we came out even harder,” Niko said. “Coach did a good job of making sure we were focused and matching their intensity, because they were playing with early season desperation to try to get a win.
On Saturday night, the Saints came back in full force, scoring their first goal with about a minute and a half gone off the clock.
The Blugolds were prepared, and defeated the Saints 7-5.
The game went back and forth throughout the first and second periods, with the Blugolds meeting every goal the Saints scored with one of their own.
At 17:35 in the second, senior forward Jordan Singer scored for the Blugolds, tying it up 4-4. Sophomore forward Ross Anderson swept in less than a minute and a half later and pulled the Blugolds ahead for the first time in the game.
In the third period, the Saints scored once more, but the Blugolds’ junior defenseman David Donnellan followed it up quickly with a goal of his own, and Bennis grabbed the Blugolds’ last goal of the night with 10 seconds left on the clock, making sure the ’Golds won the game.
“We just had to battle back and get ahead,” Kapetanovic sad. “And once we got ahead in the third, we didn’t look back.”
Bennis scored a total of four goals, two each night, over the weekend against the Saints.
“We had all lines playing well all weekend,” Bennis said. “and my line managed to work the defense down. There was a lot of grinding … and we formulated a lot of chances. And I guess I was just on the lucky end of the stick a couple of times.”