Adrian College showed the Stony Brook hockey team why they’re No. 1 in the nation Sunday afternoon. After the Seawolves handed the Bulldogs their first loss of the season the previous day, the Bulldogs bounced back with a 7-0 victory over the Seawolves at The Rinx in Hauppauge.
In their second game in 16 hours, the Seawolves struggled to match their opponents level of competition and never put a puck past senior goaltender Austyn Roudebush.
“[The lack of rest] didn’t factor in for them,” head coach Chris Garofalo said. “It didn’t factor into their game, so why should it factor into our game?”
Roudebush had a strong outing for Adrian, stopping all 28 shots he faced in his fifth shutout of the season. Stony Brook sophomore goaltender Richard Shipman started in net, but was pulled after allowing three goals on 20 shots in the opening frame. Sophomore goaltender Payne Yoder took over to start the second and played the remainder of the game, allowing four goals on 27 shots. While neither netminder was able to keep pace with Roudebush, both received a minimal amount of defensive help.
“Honestly, our goalies can’t do much more,” senior defenseman Frank Sherding said. “It comes down to us. Giving up 47 shots is our problem, that’s our fault. Our goalies shouldn’t have to stop that many. We’re a good enough team where we should limit a team to 20 shots max. Honestly, we played horribly in front of them and we make them look bad by us sucking.”
Emotions swirled as the game slipped away from the Seawolves, who were assessed a total of 27 penalty minutes. Though he was guilty of two roughing minors on the afternoon, Sherding helped guide his team through the game and showed some of the younger players to choose their battles wisely.
“That’s one of the reasons the coaches picked me as a captain,” Sherding said. “In my four years, I’ve seen what [retaliation penalties] can do. You’ve got to keep everybody’s heads cool. That’s what the captains try to do, that’s what the coaches try to do. Some people, their emotions get the best of them. Some kids are young, they’re inexperienced and they have to realize that you have to control your temper and take it out on the ice.”
Sunday’s shutout loss was just the third for the Seawolves in their past six seasons, with their last coming on Oct. 8, 2016, also against the Bulldogs.
For the Seawolves, the loss will not only leave a bad taste in their mouths before the Thanksgiving break, but it may also cause them to drop below their current No. 11 national ranking.
“In the rankings goal differential is a factor,” Garofalo said. “Even though we won yesterday, it was negated by today’s loss. It wasn’t that we just lost, we lost by a large margin. Even though we won, we might still drop in the rankings because of how bad we lost today. But I hope this fuels the guys for our next games after Thanksgiving.”
The entire American Collegiate Hockey Association takes next weekend off in honor of Thanksgiving and returns the first weekend of December. After the break, Stony Brook will head to Pennsylvania for a two-game set against West Chester University. The games will be played Saturday, Dec. 2 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 3 at 1:30 p.m.
