A day after handling Villanova 9-2, the #10 ranked West Chester hockey team pulled off one of their biggest wins of the season as they rolled into Stony Brook’s home rink and left with a 5-3 win. The Golden Rams first traveled to Aston, Pa. on Friday for an ECHA contest with Villanova. The Wildcats had put quite the scare into the Golden Rams in an earlier contest at Iceline Arena, taking WCU to a shootout before the Rams escaped with a 4-3 win. Five Rams players found the back of the net with captain Jim Gehring’s five goals setting the tone in a blowout win.
The very next day, the Golden Rams headed north to New York to take on ECHA newcomer Stony Brook. The Sea Wolves made the leap from Division II to Division I this season and have handled the transition smoothly. Billed as a clash between two ECHA titans, this game did not disappoint the hype; however for probably the first time this season, the Rams received a big scoring output from a forward not named Pat Johnson, Jim Gehring or Eddie Devine. Drew Mervin had his best game ever in a Rams uniform as he tallied a goal and went on to add two assists.
“I’m feeling pretty stellar after getting a monkey off my back,” Mervin said. “I hadn’t scored in a while and it feels good to put one in there.”
Despite appearing quite sluggish and being outshot 36-20, the Rams managed to keep the Sea Wolves at bay, thanks in large part to the stellar goaltending of sophomore Corey Hackney. The Canadian-born Hackney stood tall and stole the game for the visiting Golden Rams as he made 33 saves, many of the spectacular variety. This is the type of game Rams followers have been expecting from Hackney all year, and it is the type of game he will need to deliver with more consistency if the Rams want to have any shot at making some national noise.
The fact that the scoring was so balanced has to make WCU coach Mark Gonsalves happy. The Rams have struggled to find scoring outside of the big four of Gehring, Johnson, Devine and injured forward Robert Bushman, and for the first time this season, they found it.
Matt Chandik is a third-year undeclared student. He can be reached at MC618553@wcupa.edu