Utica swept through the weekend with a 7-3 victory against Westfield State and then a hard-fought, 3-2 win at Hobart. The Pioneers were rolling along against Westfield during the first half of the game on Friday, up 4-1 and outshooting the Owls by nearly a three-to-one margin. Then Westfield scored a power-play goal, narrowing Utica’s lead to 4-2, and looked to have momentum on their side.
“It is a game that we had a 4-1 lead in the second, we’re dominating, and the next goal breaks that game open,” said Utica coach Gary Heenan. “We just couldn’t put it in, missing the net and getting cute. They stuck around. Westfield is going to be very good. They have talent, but are just young.”
Utica held on through the early part of the third period, then scored a pair of late goals to relieve the pressure for the win.
On Saturday, Utica battled through a string of penalties during the first half of the game to put together a narrow victory at Hobart. The Statesmen only scored one power-play goal on seven chances during the first 30 minutes of the game. Utica stayed with Hobart, then scored a goal early in the third for the win.
“It is pretty rare that you get away with doing that,” said Heenan. ”It was definitely lopsided, but they were all penalties, no question about it. We have to learn that when you are on the road, you can’t start that way.”
Neumann had a mixed weekend, scoring a trio of power-play goals to beat Hobart on Friday night, then falling to Elmira 4-2 Saturday.
In Saturday’s game, Elmira scored a pair of goals 47 seconds apart in the first period to stake a 2-0 lead. That proved insurmountable for the Knights, as they paced Elmira for the remainder of the game.
Neumann was outshot in both games, but managed to get a split out of a very tough pair of games on the road.
Hobart came out on the short end of the weekend among the four teams playing games. The Statesmen dropped both games on home ice, despite being tied against Utica and only trailing Neumann by a goal entering the third period.
“We made some mistakes and have some growing to do,” said Hobart coach Mark Taylor. ”We’ll see if we have the nerve to do that.”
The games this weekend have created a logjam in the standings. Elmira is clearly the leader with an undefeated 3-0 record. Then Utica, Neumann, and Hobart are all tied for second place with a single win, and Manhattanville trails the pack at 0-2.
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