By Dominic LoVallo
Staff Writer
The St. Bonaventure Club Hockey team is preparing for its season to start back up from Thanksgiving break.
Before the team went on break, it suffered two losses. The Bonnies lost to the Cornell University Big Red, 5-3 and lost to the Canisius College Golden Griffins, 9-1.
The Bonnies have not been able to keep the puck out of their net through the 13 games they have played so far. In those games, they have been scored on 89 times. That averages out to about 6.7 goals against per game.
Another problem the Bonnies are dealing with this year is the amount of penalties they have been taking. The team has combined for 221 penalty minutes so far. To go along with penalty troubles, multiple times this year, players have been ejected from games for various reasons.
Freshman left winger Ethan MacKrell feels that the penalties the team has been taking are causing the team to lose all momentum and is taking the Bonnies themselves out of games.
“We definitely have to keep our composure out there,” MacKrell said. “We take too many penalties, and when we get into penalty trouble, that’s often where we find ourselves lost out on the scoreboard. So as long as we can stick together and stay out of the box and not turn on each other when someone makes a bad play, I feel like we should be good.”
Though the team’s record stands at 3-9-1, MacKrell feels the Bonnies young players are starting to figure out how the game plays at the college level.
“I feel we’re progressing well so far as the season goes on,” MacKrell said. “We have a really young team with a lot of freshmen. From a freshman’s standpoint, I feel like we are all starting to learn the speed of the game a lot better, and we definitely have a lot more chemistry as a team as opposed to what we did starting out the season.”
The Bonnies next play Saturday against the Cortland State University of New York Red Dragons. Last time the Bonnies played the Red Dragons, they lost by a score of 11-6. Freshman left winger Andrew Hayn said he thinks the Bonnies have what it takes to beat the Red Dragons as long as they play smart, especially defensively.
“Cortland is a very beatable team,” Hayn said. “We definitely need to keep them away from odd-man rushes, which is what really killed us the last time we played them but we need to keep control of the puck and keep it out of our zone. Their top forward line is very skilled, so as long as we shut them down, we should be able to get the W.”
The team will be back in action for the first time in over a week Saturday at 3 p.m. when the Bonnies take on the Red Dragons at the William O’Smith Recreation Center.
