By Mikael DeSanto
Sports Assignment Editor
Improvement is the name of the game right now for the St. Bonaventure University men’s club hockey team, as it has picked up wins in its last two games. On November 5, the team beat West Virginia 5-4, followed by an 8-6 come-from-behind win against Binghamton on Nov. 15, improving the record to 2-7-1 on the season.
Senior forward Connor Moore said the team looked at those games differently, which contributed to the wins.
“We realized how big the last two games were,” Moore said. “We have always had a rivalry against Binghamton to start. They meant a little more than the other ones did; not that the other ones meant nothing. I think we finally started to get it together a little bit.”
Senior defenseman and captain Evan Wohlabaugh shared Moore’s feelings, and said everything has started to come together as the season has gone on.
“I think we started out pretty slow,” Wohlabaugh said. “It was hard to figure out the roles on the team. We have a lot of new guys, but as we have been going on we have definitely been developing them more, we have been playing better and better and we have turned it around.”
Moore said a big part of the success and development this season has been the play of two players in particular.
“We have two power forwards right now, Jake Kaempf and Matt Johnson, either together or apart, are good for two goals every game,” Moore said. “Big guys have been Evan Wohlabaugh and [Joe Colligan], our defensemen, have stepped up and are playing some big defensive minutes.”
Kaempf is tied for the team lead with 14 points (nine goals and five assists) and Johnson is second on the team with 13 points (four goals and nine assists). The player Kaempf is tied with, sophomore forward Andrew Hayn, said the team’s offense, while effective, has had to change as time has gone on.
“We are definitely aggressive in the offensive zone. We like to run a very aggressive fore-check and pin them down in their defensive zone, hopefully make them make a mistake and capitalize on it,” Hayn said. “Lately, we have been a little more conservative because we have noticed that, because of how aggressive we were, we were not able to get back on defense in time.”
Moore said the team’s defensive issues stems from letting its goaltenders face too much pressure every game, but that they are working on it.
“I think the biggest one is keeping shots down. We don’t really look at the goals anymore, we are looking at we are letting up,” Moore said. “We have trustworthy net-minders, but shots of goal create rebounds. We are working with a new defensive system where it is a little more man-oriented; it is guy-on-guy. I think the first game we did that was the win against West Virginia. Players are sticking to each other, so no one has time and space unless they are really working for it down low.”
Hayn and Wohlabaugh talked about the difference between this year’s team and the teams in prior years, each focusing on a different facet of their overall game.
Hayn said it is the team’s drive and determination that has pushed them to improve and find success.
“Honestly, we never give up. This is kind of a bad example, but we lost to Syracuse 13-0, and we played a full 60 minutes even though we were getting smoked basically,” Hayn said.
Wohlabagh said the tight-knit nature of the team has made them better on the ice.
“The camaraderie we have, it is completely different,” Wohlabaugh said. “We have grown closer, we hang out outside of the rink, we do everything together; we are always talking and having a good time. A team is going to start from there; if you are not working together as a team, if you don’t have the same goal, then you are not going to get anywhere in the season.”
Part of that closeness among the team has been giving Hayn the nickname “Hayn Train” that, through social media, has spread.
“It started on Twitter. My buddy Tee (Thomas Myers) photoshopped my face onto Thomas the train, and before our home opener I tweeted ‘come support the Hayn Train and the Bonnies hockey team,’” Hayn said. “It just got a lot of love on Twitter and it has caught on ever since, so it is just a good nickname and, hey, I’m not complaining about it.”
The club hockey team will have three games this weekend: tonight at Binghamton at 9., tomorrow against Cornell at 8 p.m. and Sunday at Canisius at 1 p.m.
desantmj13@bonaventure.edu
