Another sluggish first period saw the Seawolves trailing after the first twenty minutes again.

And as they have done before, Stony Brook put together a strong second period and pulled out the 3-2 victory.

“This team has a lot of character,” Assistant Coach Pete Hall said. “They’ve done that a couple of times this season. And tonight the goal tending was key.”

Derek Stevens started in goal for the Seawolves, and played one of his best games of the season.

“He was galactic,” Hall said.

“Our team showed some heart,” Stevens said. “We needed the win after losing to West Chester last weekend.”

The opponent, Scranton University, came out and played an absolutely perfect road period in the first.

They limited the Seawolves’ chances and kept the crowd of over 300 out of the game.

When senior forward Joe Romano beat Stevens on a one-timer in front with just 31.9 seconds remaining in the first, the Royals completely took over the momentum.

Scranton came out quick in the second period, but Stony Brook’s John Wong scored the Seawolves first goal with 17:49 remaining.

Wong took the puck down the right side and drove a big slap shot past the Scranton goalie from the right circle.

Six minutes later Wong scored again for the Seawolves.

The puck came to Wong right off the face off. He wound up and for a slap shot, but didn’t strike the puck cleanly. The puck found its way through the traffic in front and fooled the Scranton goalie.

The Seawolves power play, which was unable to score on the game, and 0-5 up to that point, nearly cost the Seawolves a goal.

Dan Capizzuto misplayed a puck at the point and his defensive partner Peter Zarella was forced to take a penalty in order to stop a Scranton breakaway.

Stony Brook killed that penalty off, but soon after defenseman Phil Borner took a tripping penalty.

“My defensemen like to pinch all the time instead of playing smarter hockey and not getting themselves in trouble,” Head Coach Buzz DesChamps said. “As long as you have the lead you have enough goals to win.”

But Captain Angelo Serse came to the rescue with a short-handed goal.

Initially breaking in on a 2-on-1 with Ryan Hodkinson, Serse blew by the defenseman and took the puck to the net by himself. After a quick deke that shook the goalie, Serse slid the puck into the open net.

Although they were able to win the game, the Seawolves still realize there are things to work on.

“I think we need to put more shots on net and capitalize on power plays,” freshman forward Chris Ryan said after the game. “We had a lot of opportunities, we could have put them away earlier. It shouldn’t have been a 3-2 game.”

“At first they caught us by surprise,” forward Greg Maggio said. “But we just got back to our game plan, and that did it.”