By Gavin Lindahl
Staff Writer
The men’s hockey team (0-4) continued its winless streak after dropping its third and fourth games of the season last weekend.
The Bonnies lost Friday night at home to Binghamton, 5-2. Senior forward and assistant captain Mike Iulianello said the team’s failure to capitalize on opportunities sealed the game.
“It was one of those games where the bounces weren’t going our way, and we couldn’t finish on any opportunity,” Iulianello said. “I had two opportunities that rang off the cross bar, and there were several other shots that were close to going in.”
But, according to Iulianello, despite unlucky bounces and being down, the team didn’t give up.
“As a team, I felt like we kept grinding to get more opportunities but just didn’t capitalize on our chances,” Iulianello said. “Even when we were down 3-0, we were still fighting.”
After the loss to Binghamton, the team hit the road to face Oswego’s club, but were met with another loss, 9-1.
Senior forward and assistant captain Sean Perhacs said the team couldn’t finish on opportunities like in the game against Binghamton.
“We scored to bring it within one after an early 2-0 deficit, but we couldn’t seem to get the next big goal like in the Binghamton game,” Perhacs said. “We made it close, but we couldn’t seem to get the one crucial goal.”
Iulianello said penalties played a large part in both games, just as they did the week before against the Rochester Institute of Technology and Cortland.
“Penalties have plagued us ever since my freshman year,” Iulianello said. “This season they have really come back to bite us in games.”
The team is still looking to improve chemistry, something Perhacs thinks will help the team close out games.
According to Iulianello, it’s all about execution on offense and working together on defense.
“Offensively, we have found a good set of lines and just really need to focus on knowing where each other is going to be on the ice,” Iulianello said. “We are a younger team on defense, and I think the guys have done a good job experimenting with multiple partners to work together as a defensive unit.”
The team’s coaches have also been putting an emphasis on keeping things simple, according to Perhacs.
“Our coaches stress that if you don’t have anywhere to go with the puck, just dump it in,” Perhacs said. “We need to play our game by keeping pucks down low and pressuring their defensemen, which will create turnovers and, hopefully, more scoring.”
The team will go on the road tomorrow night to face Niagara University at Dwyer Arena. According to Iulianello, the Bonnies will look to capitalize on Niagara’s over confidence.
“Niagara is always top of our league, and,when they play teams like us, they tend to take us lightly,” Iulianello said. “Anything can happen, so we need to go in there and work hard to put one in early and surprise them.”
Following the game against Niagara, the Bonnies will take on Canisius tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. at Olean’s William O. Smith Recreation Center. The arena will also host St. Bonaventure’s alumni hockey game at 1 p.m. before the game.
Perhacs expects a physical game, but said he hopes the fans and alumni hockey players will help motivate the team to succeed.
“Canisius is an underrated team and always seem to give us a tough game, so there will be a lot of energy in the arena,” Perhacs said. “Hopefully having some old teammates there will give us a bit of added motivation to outplay Canisius. It’s our toughest weekend yet, so we have to skate with an extra hop in our step.”
