By Mike Specht
Staff Writer
The St. Bonaventure hockey team (7-9) is set to face off against Niagara University (19-7) in a home-and-home series this weekend. The puck will drop at 9:15 in Dwyer Arena Friday night, and again at the William O. Smith Center 8:30 Saturday. The match Saturday will be the last home game for the Bonnies this season.
In order to compete with the Purple Eagles, Co-captain Mike Iulianello said he believes strong first shifts are vital for the Bonnies.
“When the puck drops, we need to understand that it’s zero-zero,” Iulianello said. “We need to come out strong if we want to make something out of these games and get ready for the playoffs.”
Niagara has shown their ability to score throughout the season. As of Jan. 24, they’ve scored 130 goals, while allowing 68. The Purple Eagles are more apt to score while on home ice, netting 40 more goals at home than during road games. Goalie Josh Popsie stressed the importance of defensive presence against Niagara.
“When you play the top teams like Niagara, you need to have a good goaltending and defensive performance if you want to win the game,” Popsie said. “It’s not easy to score a lot against Niagara, but we hope to come off strong and catch them off guard,”
The Bonnies will be without co-captain and defenseman Taylor Rosenberg, who was diagnosed with a concussion after last Saturday’s game against RIT. It is still unclear when Rosenberg will be cleared to play.
Last Friday, the Bonnies fell to Ithaca College 4-3 at home during Senior Night. Jordan Ashman and senior Tom Meka (2) scored for the Bonnies.
Popsie pointed to the penalty issues throughout the game that plagued the Brown and White.
“We were on the penalty kill for so much of the game,” Popsie said. “We just got worn out from playing down one or two men and Ithaca capitalized. We also had a good amount of bad bounces, especially in the third period, that lead to points for Ithaca.”
With the score tied at 3-3 with nine minutes left in the game, Meka believed he scored and gave the Bonnies the lead. With the referee unable to view of the puck on the play, the goal was waived off. Meka was then ejected from the match with a game misconduct penalty.
“We really could’ve used him, he’s one of our top goal scorers who never takes a shift off and always plays good hockey,” Popsie said.
After the loss to Ithaca, the Bonnies defeated RIT 6-4. The Bonnies fell to RIT earlier this season 5-3. Goals were scored by Derek Jester, Jake Piegay, Mike Griffin, Jordan Ashman, and by Sean Perhacs(2).
“After the loss against Ithaca, we came together as a team and played a more relaxed style of hockey against RIT,” Iulianello said. “We took it to them right off the bat, and responded to all their goals with a strong effort.”
