The regular season has ended, and the WCU club hockey team is not where they imagined themselves being when it began. Plagued by injuries, suspensions and a disappointing record, the Golden Rams are certainly frustrated with the way their season has concluded. West Chester wrapped up its schedule on Feb. 13, losing two of the three games they played that weekend. After being swept in a two game series with Delaware, the Rams rebounded back against Villanova and sent their seniors off with a win in their final regular season game at WCU.
Lack of offense was the recurring theme of the weekend, as WCU managed only seven goals in three games.
Coming into Friday’s game, the Rams knew they had their work cut out for them. Delaware is the first place team in the ESCHL with a record of 28-4. They proved their dominance early and often. WCU fell behind early in the period on a power play goal by Delaware defensemen Chris Galgano.
Following Galgano’s lead, UD scored two more times in the period and took a 3-1 lead after one. West Chester’s goal was scored from a Bob McInerney slap shot that found its way in from the blue line.
Whatever momentum WCU had from McInerney’s goal was halted quickly in the second. Delaware scored about halfway through the period, and again just three minutes later.
West Chester could not recover or get themselves going. Managing just seven shots in the period, WCU fell behind 5-1 and a comeback seemed almost out of the question.
The offensive rush was slow and sloppy and it seemed as though the Rams had given up before the period even ended. Delaware was executing crisp passes and tearing holes through the WCU defense all game.
Although the third period faired no better for the Rams on the scoreboard, it did bring excitement. Perhaps this was something WCU needed: seeing as they had been unenergized and flat all game.
Late in the third, head coach Sean Dorsey was ejected from the game for arguing with the linesman after no penalty was issued to a Delaware player for punching Steve Jones. Before play could resume, Rams’ alternate captain Joe Mango and Delaware’s Christian Tasker took off their helmets and squared up at center ice. At 5’9″, Mango held his own against the six-foot-two inch Tasker. Both of them landed several right handed shots before tumbling to the ice.
“Me wanting to go with him was a combination of things,” said Mango. “To start, I was defending my teammates. He was skating around trying to injure people. Second, he just came after me and wouldn’t stop.As for going up against someone with a size advantage, that didn’t really bother me because in my mind I’m the bigger person.”
Perhaps the fight set a fire underneath WCU, pushing them to give UD a run for their money the following evening. West Chester came out strong in all aspects of Saturday’s rematch.
Following a UD turnover early in the first period, Mike Kozza and Steve Meade traveled down ice on a breakaway. Kozza drilled the puck into the back of the net, giving WCU a 1-0 lead.
UD tied the game later that period, but the offensive powerhouse was not clicking the way it had the night before. After two deadlocked periods, the score still remained 1-1.
The third period was when West Chester had their golden opportunity and capitalized on it. Chris Doyle fired a shot across the goal line during a WCU power play, giving them the 2-1 advantage. The lead was once again short lived. Delaware answered back within minutes, putting the pressure back on the Rams. With eight minutes left in the period, this well fought game was decided in the worst possible way.
Doyle, bidding for his second goal of the game, was tripped while skating out of the corner to take a shot. The referee signaled for a penalty, but the penalty was not on Delaware. The penalty was on Doyle. After he was tripped, the follow through from his shot hit a Delaware player. The referee wrongfully decided to not only give Doyle a two-minute minor, but a five -minute major for spearing. This call alone all but sealed the win for Delaware.
Since a major penalty is not over when a goal is scored, Delaware took full advantage on their five-minute power play, scoring twice. The game ended with Delaware winning 4-2. This was an upsetting loss for Dorsey and his team, but there were many positives to take from it.
Dorsey said, “Saturday showed us what we can do if we just go out and play hard consistently. I was so proud of how the boys battled on Saturday. Unfortunately, the calls didn’t go our way. I thought we played hard the whole game, even when we didn’t get some bounces, and I thought we played disciplined throughout.”
Sometimes it is important to disregard the final outcome and look at the effort put forth. Whereas this game was not put in the win column, it said a lot about the team’s character and ability to bounce back.
The effort finally paid off on Sunday as the Rams honored their graduating players on senior day with a win against Villanova.
West Chester jumped on Villanova early, as Meade and Harrison Welch both scored as a result of great passes from Tim Margadonna and Chris Gentile, respectively. Meade then returned the favor in the second as the rebound of his shot found Margadonna, who poked it into the net. Villanova never really made a push. They managed to get within one, but their comeback attempt was ended when Steve Jones scored on an empty net, finalizing a 4-2 WCU victory. That empty net goal marked Jones’ thirty-ninth point of the season, a career high while at WCU.
One of the biggest factors of this win was Will Parra’s effort in net. His positioning and vision on the ice proved to be too much for Villanova, as he steered away all but two shots. Parra gave other players the credit as much as himself.
“Our defense played solid all game on Sunday. They killed off a few big penalties in the second and third, and did a real good job of taking care of the front of the cage, clearing rebounds, blocking shots and making my job easy.”
The game was not entirely perfect for West Chester. They seemed to have trouble clearing the zone at times, their offensive play was slow and they struggled to set up in the Villanova zone.
They also committed a lot of turnovers as a result of trying to do too much. Coach Dorsey was quick to point out what he wishes he saw from this game. “I wanted to see more execution, and we didn’t see that. We kind of got away from what we like to do, which is getting pucks deep, putting a lot of shots on the net, and being a physical presence.”
If West Chester can stay within their style of play, they have a chance to make themselves heard during the playoffs. “If we can play well, and consistent, we can definitely do some damage in the tournament and prove a lot,” Dorsey said, “If we can get a couple of wins, it will do wonders for the whole group heading into next season.”
Next season is right around the corner. It will be tough to fill the spots of Jones, Mango, Baer and Maclaughlin. However, with hard work, the Rams can keep making that push at a championship.
Kenny Ayres is a first-year student majoring in communications. He can be reached at KA739433@wcupa.edu.