Men’s Hockey Comes Up Short at Salve Regina, 5-4

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. – Suffolk men's hockey consistently battled back against Salve Regina in a back-and-forth affair, however, back-to-back Seahawks goals to start the second period proved to be the difference for the Rams in a 5-4 Commonwealth Coast Conference setback Friday night at St. George's Rink.  

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 4 | Salve Regina 5
RECORDS: Suffolk (6-14-2, 4-13-1 CCC) | Salve Regina (12-7-1, 10-5-1 CCC)   

HOW IT HAPPENED
Both teams wasted little time to get the scoring going as Joel Shoemaker potted the puck just one minute into the action to put the Seahawks on the board. The goal came off the face off that Kyle Valiquette won, but the puck got away from him and onto the stick of Matthew Brunton, who dished ahead to Ian Tookenay. Tookenay found a diving  Shoemaker for the score.

Fourteen seconds later Max Rand responded for the Rams. Troy Ladka picked up the puck off the boards and dished to Rand right in front of the cage. The junior managed to easily flip the puck over Anthony Del Tufo to level things at 1-all. 

Ryan Webb took a hard hit right before Rand found the back of the net and Kim Hoon was sent to the box for elbowing. Suffolk capitalized 14 seconds into the power play as Cole Scott sniped a shot from the blue line to push the blue-and-gold in front, 2-1. Devin Lowe assisted on the marker. 

Scoring calmed down a bit until the 12:44 mark with Salve Regina logged a power play goal of its own as Mitch Walinski etched his name on the scoresheet to even things up for the second time on the day.  

The 2-2 score stood at the first intermission and 3:01 into the middle period the host regained the advantage with Walinski registered his second strike of the night. 

Joseph Kile followed with a goal of his own 3:24 later to give SRU a 4-2 advantage. 

Griffin Clark got the Rams back within one. Kevin Ouellette fought a battle against the boards for possession of the puck that Clark grabbed after he looped around the back of the net. The senior skated from left to right and quickly shot opposite, which caught xxx off guard, and trimmed the distance down to 4-3. 

See-saw action continued as Damon Zimmer scored for the Seahawks 32 seconds later to restore the two-goal gap, 5-3, a distance that stood as the teams headed to the locker room for the second time.  

Suffolk aimed to comeback and Webb ignited that desire even more when he netted a power play goal 4:06 into the third period to pull the visitors within one, 5-4. Webb poked in Peter Nugent's denied shot to keep things interesting.  

Jarret Bovarnick kept the blue-and-gold in the thick of things as he stood tall between the pipes with 16 saves of a nearly nine-minutes span. 

Bovarnick continued to be tested, but would not budge, which allowed the Rams to stay within one the rest of the way, however, Suffolk could not figure out Del Tufo and the 5-4 score remained as the final whistle sounded.  

NETMINDER NOTES

• Bovarnick finished with 39 saves. 
• Del Tufo picked up 23 stops.  

STATISICALLY SPEAKING

• Clark, max Rand, Scott and Webb each scored one goal of the Rams. 
• Nugent, Ladka, Lowe and Ouellette all dished out one assist. 
• Salve Regina outshot Suffolk, 44-27. 
• The Seahawks held the edge in face offs as well, 40-35. 
• Suffolk went 2-for-7 on the power play, while Salve Regina went 1-for-2. 

NOTEWORTHY

• The four goals scored against Salve Regina are the most for the Rams since they took down the Seahawks 5-2 Feb. 4, 2014. 
• Suffolk scored multiple power play goals for the second time this season.  

POST-GAME PIC
  

WHAT'S NEXT?
Suffolk is back at Louis E. Porrazzo Memorial Skating Rink tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 11 when it entertains No. 4 Endicott at 6:50 p.m.