Newark, Del. — The University of Delaware Division 2 men’s hockey team (12-8-1) completed a sweep of their three-game weekend series with a pair of wins over Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey rivals, beating Stevenson in a 4-3 nail-biter on Saturday (Jan. 11) at Fred Rust Arena before blanking Drexel, 4-0, on Sunday night (Jan. 12) at Class of 1923 Arena in Philadelphia.
Delaware 4, Stevenson 3
Cal Raymore sealed victory for Delaware over the Mustangs at Fred Rust Arena in the final 2:14 of regulation, stealing the puck in the Stevenson zone and firing a 20-foot wrist shot past Pierce Dushenko for the game-winning goal.
Ryan Johnson tracked down a Shane Moran rebound in the low slot to give Delaware the lead 28 seconds into the first period, but late-period penalty trouble enabled the Mustangs to take a 2-1 lead by way of power-play goals from Aaron Rovenolt and Tom Foschini. The Hens tied the game with 3:24 in the first when two-way defenceman Eddie Martorella intercepted a Stevenson clearing attempt, walked back into the Mustangs’ zone for a shot on Dushenko, and Moran finished in the slot off the Martorella rebound.
Midway in the second period, Devin LeBlanc took advantage of a power play and connected with a wraparound goal to reclaim the lead for Delaware. Despite registering a barrage of shots and a number of quality scoring chances, the Hens only managed to take a 3-2 advantage to the intermission as a result of stellar goaltending from Dushenko, who stopped 11 of 12 shots faced in the second after registering 15 saves in the first.
Momentum shifted in Stevenson’s favour in the third period, and they pelted Delaware goalie Stephen Odgers with 21 shots in that time after only recording 17 in the first two periods. Brandon Scholze tied the game at 3-3 for Stevenson 4:19 in the third period, stealing the puck deep in the Delaware zone and beating Odgers from close range. Odgers bounced back to finish the game with # straight saves, and a scuffle between Delaware’s Dylan Knox and Stevenson’s Val Ramage with 2:46 left opened the door for a stretch of four-on-four action which led to Raymore’s game-winner.
Inside the final two minutes, Dushenko stopped a pair of Martorella chances to keep the Hens just one goal up, and the Mustangs only managed two shots on the Delaware goal with Dushenko replaced by an extra attacker for the final 1:35.
Both Odgers and Dushenko finished the game with 35 saves.
Delaware 4, Drexel 0
The Blue Hens completed a season sweep of Drexel (6-11-2) with a 4-0 shutout at Class of 1923 Arena. Senior goalie Stephen Odgers earned his second shutout of the season with a 35-save performance.
Freshman Trevor Earley scored his first goal as a Blue Hen 11:54 in the first period with a wraparound to the left corner of the Drexel goal. The Hens used crisp passing and quick puck movement to extend their lead to 3-0 through two periods, as both Cal Raymore and Ryan Johnson provided net-front redirects to finish tic-tac-toe advances headed by winger Shane Moran.
Despite being held to only five shots on goal in the third period, the Hens added one more to seal victory. At 7:32 in the frame, Dylan Pasley fired a hard wrist shot from the right dot to beat Drexel goalie Logan Kramsky bar-down. Kramsky recorded 26 saves on 30 shots in defeat.
Delaware travels to Raleigh, N.C., next week to take on North Carolina State on both Friday and Saturday evenings (Jan. 17-18).
