The wait is finally over for the Ice Knights.
This past Saturday at Fredonia, the team managed to snap their five-game losing streak, picking up their first victory since a Dec. 8 win against Castleton St. Their victory came on the heels of a tough 5-3 road loss to Buffalo State on Friday that extended the losing streak to five.
In Friday's game, Buffalo State struck early, scoring just 23 seconds into the first period.
"We got off to a slow start," said junior Casey Balog. "We can't give up a goal on the first shift, especially on the road."
The Knights answered back when Balog scored later in the period, but the Bengals scored again before the period was over. Leading the Knights 2-1, Buffalo State took over in the second period, scoring three unanswered goals.
"We definitely gave them all the momentum by taking too many penalties," Balog said.
In the third period, junior Brandon French scored for Geneseo with 5:20 left on the clock, and freshman Andrew Rygiel scored with just over three minutes left. The Knights, however, were still unable to catch up and took the loss.
"We got away from the things that make us a great hockey team and it ended up costing two points," said Rygiel.
Saturday night was a different story, as Geneseo snapped their losing streak with a win in Fredonia.
"On Saturday night we played one of our most consistent games of the season," said Rygiel.
After a scoreless first period, senior Mathieu Cyr put Geneseo on the board with a goal six minutes into the second period. Fredonia answered back with a goal in the 11th minute, but Cyr scored again a minute later. Sophomore Dan Brown scored another goal for Geneseo with two minutes left in the period, which was quickly answered by Fredonia with just 1:15 left on the clock. Leading 3-2 at the start of the third period, Geneseo played some tough defense and kept Fredonia out of the net.
With nine minutes left in the game, Brown scored again for Geneseo. Fredonia scored with two minutes left on the clock, but was unable to score again, leaving the Knights with a tremendous victory.
"It was a very rewarding win," Brown said. "We have been working very hard as a team and to finally get some bounces to go our way and everything coming together was really satisfying."
"The combination of finishing on our chances, with the hitting and playing a full 60 minutes, those three things combined to get us the win," said head coach Chris Schultz.
After finally ending its six-game skid, the team is now prepared to surge off of its latest win in a push for the playoffs.
"Saturday can absolutely serve as a momentum changer for our hockey team," Brown stated. "If we collectively play the way we did Saturday we will win a lot of games."