Newark, Del. – A fortified defence and strong transition game led to a resurgent Blue Hens offence Friday night (Oct. 5), as the University of Delaware Division 2 men’s hockey team (6-1-0) posted a 10-2 drubbing of Rutgers (0-3-0) before a small home crowd at Fred Rust Arena.
Aggressive battles for net-front position led to a majority of the Blue Hens’ goals, including two of three from leading scorer Ryan Morse, but the Delaware side recorded their fair share of highlight-reel tallies as well against Rutgers goalie Andrew Krynicki.
Delaware wasted no time opening the floodgates, as defenceman Andrew Marciniak connected on a slap shot from just inside the Rutgers blue line 41 seconds in. The Chicagoland native also contributed two assists, increasing his point total to 11 in just seven games so far this season. Devin LeBlanc followed at 6:51 with a net-front redirect from a Ryan Johnson feed out of the right corner, and Morse earned his first goal of the game with a similar redirect, posting up at the right edge of the crease at 14:46 to finish a Steve Bryson feed from the left dot.
Morse’s second goal put UD up 5-0 at the 7:34 mark of the second period, when he carried the puck to the top of the right circle and fired a wrist shot over Krynicki’s glove. His third, raising his seasonal total to 12, was a gritty net-front chip shot over a sprawled Krynicki with 4:18 remaining in the middle period. Morse’s linemates, Bryson and Alec Rankin, both contributed three assists in victory, and Rankin also added a goal in the third period.
Up 8-1 six minutes into the third period but shorthanded due to a Bryson tripping minor, Rankin turned a Marciniak headman pass into a breakaway, carrying the puck up the left side of the Scarlet Knights zone, evading trailing pressure from Casey Cavasin, and backhanding the puck past Krynicki from directly in front of the crease.
All three players on the Delaware fourth line — Matt Tofte, Shawn Camisa and Kyle Sapia — scored as well, as did Ryan Johnson.
In all, Delaware accounted for 52 shots on goal while limiting Rutgers to 17. Chris Demas (3-0-0) recorded 15 saves, only giving up goals to Daniel Sanigorski and Nicholas Monticchio.
Delaware travels to take on the Towson Division 1 team on Sunday afternoon (Oct. 7) before returning home to commence Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey Conference play next Friday (Oct. 12) against Stevenson.
