Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Brockport falls to Williams in rare Tuesday affair

The College at Brockport ice hockey team dropped their first game of the new year against Williams College by a final score of 5-1. The Golden Eagles fall to 6-6-1 on the season, where the Ephs move to 8-4.

Brockport fell behind early in the opening period, as Williams notched the first goal of the match four minutes into play. The deficit was doubled minutes later, as the Ephs tallied their second goal to take a 2-0 lead over the Green and Gold. Brockport fought back but continued to struggle as they allowed another goal in the 12th minute of play to trail 3-0. The Golden Eagles offense picked up the pace but could not convert any goals as Tim Kielich hit the post and Danny Rock smoked the crossbar. The Green and Gold suffered a last-minute goal as they headed into the second period trailing 4-0.

Brockport came out in the new period rifling off three shots from Kielich, Ethan Solat, and Casey Winn to have all stopped by the Ephs goalie. The Golden Eagles continued to stumble as Williams scored another goal to have a 5-0 advantage. Both teams battled it out for the remainder of the period, as they score remained the same heading into the final period.

The Green and Gold came out fighting in the third period as they kept contest pressure on the Williams defense. Brockport found some trouble midway through the period as the Ephs were awarded a power play opportunity. The Golden Eagles penalty kill buckled down and converted a short-handed goal to cut the deficit to 5-1. Bryan Carville started the sequence as he hit Aidan Verbeke up the ice, as he carried the puck into their offensive zone. Verbeke then passed the puck to slot where Dylan Shapiro was there to rip hit shot top corner over the goalie's glove. Brockport get the intensity up, as moments later Verbeke intercepted a pass to have a one-on-one with the visiting keeper, but his shot was saved. The Green and Gold had one final push to get back into the game, but they fell short losing by the eventual score.

Brockport leads the country in the penalty kill with a conversion rate of .964 and continued their lockdown defense as they stopped all four power play efforts from Williams.

Jake Moore played 40 minutes in net and tallied up 12 saves, while Matt Schneider played 20 minutes between the pipes and ended with 11.