Senior defenseman Frank Sherding skated into the Delaware zone all alone with the game on his stick. The captain was well aware that a goal meant more than just an extra point in the standings; it would also put the Stony Brook hockey team’s longest losing streak in over a year behind them.
Sherding had one chance to put his team back on track, and he made the most of it.
“When I walked in the locker room, I said ‘Your captain is a leader on and off the ice,’” head coach Chris Garofalo said. “‘Do you know why he’s so successful? Because he plays with desperation every game. He plays with heart, pride and passion.’”
The captain’s game winner was his second goal in the past three games, giving merit to Garofalo’s previous assertion that Sherding would be “part of the solution.” Another key to Stony Brook’s 5-4 victory was the play of junior defenseman Frank Coscia, who scored four goals in the weekend set against Delaware, including both late game-tying goals.
“He played desperate and when we play desperate, we play better,” Garofalo said. “I think he saw what was going on and that we had to win today. You can’t lose to an unranked team two days in a row and we were going to do that if we didn’t score that last minute goal to tie the game.”
Coscia’s late-game heroics may not have been necessary if not for a second period major penalty against sophomore forward Michael Kosina which resulted in his ejection. Though the Seawolves held a 3-1 lead when the penalty occurred, the Blue Hens were able to strike twice with the man advantage and tie the game before the second intermission.
“[The problem is] discipline,” Garofalo said. “We go to the edge and then we fall off because we go one step too far. I think it was us being aggressive and not being able to control our aggression. I think it’s a combination of that and their team not being strong enough to handle the aggression.”
Midway through the third period, Delaware sophomore forward Colin Emerich found the back of the net to give his team a 4-3 lead which lasted 12:22 until Coscia tied the game with sophomore goaltender Richard Shipman pulled for an extra attacker.
Shipman, who played both games this weekend, turned aside a combined 63 of 70 Delaware shots in the two-game set, five more than Delaware junior goaltender Stephen East. Shipman will be the expected starter this Friday, Jan. 26 when Stony Brook hosts the No. 7 University of Colorado Boulder at 9 p.m.
