Knowing their season was on the line, the Club Ice Hockey team was supposed to travel to Iowa to battle the Top-5 Iowa State Cyclones on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.
But do to inclement weather, the team was not able to get out to Iowa on Friday night. The team opted to get there as soon as they could, and played the scheduled game on Saturday after virtually no rest.
But the Seawolves persevered, shocking the Cyclones 5-3 in a high spirited game.
After falling behind mid-way through the first period, Angelo Serse scored a goal at the 11:03 mark to tie the game at one off an assist from John Wong.
Wong added an unassisted goal later in the first to put the Seawolves ahead 2-1 after one period.
The lead was extended in the second frame after Mauricio Torres scored on a feed from Pete Zarrella. Torres added another goal in the third period, but it wouldn’t be smooth sailing for the Seawolves.
Iowa St. was able to get back to within 4-3 with just over a minute remaining in the game, but Serse was able to hit the empty net to secure the win for the Seawolves.
The next morning at 10:00 a.m. central time the Seawolves were back out on the ice.
They fell behind 2-0 in the first period before a power play goal cut the deficit to one. Iowa St. added another goal to go ahead 3-1, but the Seawolves stormed back to tie the game at three.
Just before the end of the second period Iowa St. scored a backbreaking goal to go ahead 4-3. They added another in the third to go ahead 5-3, but the Seawolves turned on the offensive pressure.
But a five-minute major was assessed to Seawolves goaltender Derek Stevens and Stony Brook had to spend most of the rest of the game fending off the Cyclones power play.
Quotes from General Manager Chris Garofalo after Sunday’s game:
“We had a good game, I’m very proud of them. There’s no way we shouldn’t be going to nationals, but the powers that be are probably going to hold us back. In the end I think it’s just a bush thing.”
“I think we controlled more of the play in the game we lost than the game we won.”
“If we stayed out of the box we would have been better off.”
“Whether they get in or not, in my eyes they got in, they deserved it. It would be a shame if we didn’t, because we are truly one of the top 16 teams in the country.”
