The West Chester University men’s hockey team squared off against one of their biggest traditional rivals, the Drexel Dragons, this weekend and came out with a pair of wins by the combined score of 20-6. WCU won Friday’s game 8-2 and then thrashed the Dragons 12-4 on Saturday. Friday’s game was played at the friendly confines of IceLine Arena, the Golden Rams’ home rink. WCU extended their home winning streak to seven games and they have not lost at home since Oct. 18 when they dropped a 7-4 tilt to the University of Delaware Blue Hens.
The Golden Rams got extremely balanced scoring as six different forwards lit the lamp. Sophomore Tom Scocozza paced the team during Friday’s win with a hat trick, including a goal on the power play and also added an assist. Junior transfer forward Tom Gilbert also had a monster game with a goal and two assists. Gilbert, who has been plagued with a foot injury this season, had arguably his finest game of the season. Also notching single tallies were seniors Robert Bushman and Jim Gehring as well as juniors Pat Johnson and Dave Bixler. WCU senior goaltender Corey Hackney turned in a solid effort as he stopped 25 of 27 shots, good enough for a 92.5 percent save percentage.
On Saturday night, WCU traveled to the University of Pennsylvania’s Class of ’23 rink for a rematch with the Dragons. The second game went very similarly to the previous night’s affair as WCU jumped all over Drexel from the get-go en route to a 12-4 win. In a game marred by penalties, 33 were assessed during the game.
Gehring was the one who stood out the most. He duplicated Scocozza’s feat from the night before with three goals, including one on the power play, as well as an assist to set the tone for the drubbing of Drexel. Johnson also notched a hat trick on the strength of two power-play goals and chipped in an assist.
The Golden Rams yet again had six different scorers. Sophomore Mike Longo and Gilbert each had a pair of goals, and Gilbert also added an assist. Junior forward Eric Keene also added a goal on a penalty shot, and sophomore defenseman Steve Jones had an outstanding game as he scored a power-play goal and added two assists. Bushman and Scocozza both had solid games as well as they each contributed a pair of assists. Hackney also had a solid effort as he stopped 44 of 48 shots for a 91.6 percent save percentage.
The Golden Rams will head north this Friday as they take on a familiar foe in the University of Scranton Royals. The Royals and Golden Rams have had numerous memorable battles in the past when Scranton was in the Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association (ECHA), the league that the Golden Rams currently play in.
On Saturday, the Golden Rams will have the opportunity to clinch the ECHA’s regular-season championship as well as their second straight perfect ECHA season with a home game against Stony Brook University. Stony Brook currently resides in second place in the ECHA standings with a 6-1 league record, well behind WCU’s 9-0 mark. The two teams initially did battle on Nov. 15 with the Golden Rams winning 6-3. In that game, the Seawolves jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period before the Golden Rams ripped off four straight goals to take a decisive lead. A win over SBU would give the Golden Rams their third straight regular-season ECHA championship.
Player of the Week: Jim Gehring. The captain’s four goal, one assist performance paced the Golden Rams’ routs. He scored two special teams goals and propelled himself past the 40 goal mark for the second straight season. The senior now has 135 career goals for the Golden Rams.
Updated ECHA standings (Wins, Losses, Overtime Losses, Total Points)
West Chester: 9-0-0-18
Stony Brook: 6-1-0 12
Villanova 4-3-0-8
Towson 3-3-1-7
Lehigh 0-6-1-1
Maryland 0-7-0-0
Matt Chandik is a fourth-year student majoring in Spanish with a minor in Journalism. He can be reached at MC618553@wcupa.edu.