Last Friday, the Geneseo Ice Knights extended their losing streak to a season-high three games, falling to the Morrisville Mustangs 7-5 at home in a performance head coach Chris Schultz called, "unacceptable."
Elaborating, Schultz said, "Our defense and goaltending was subpar and our offense waited until the end of the second period to start producing. You can say that the comeback showed character, but we didn't comeback. We came up short."
The Mustangs found the back of the net first, scoring a power-play goal at the 16:21 mark in the first period. But the second period was Geneseo's true downfall, as Morrisville scored again within the first four minutes and then punished the Ice Knights with three more power-play goals to open a 5-0 lead.
Toward the end of the second period, Schultz pulled senior goalie Jeff Pasemko in favor of freshman Cory Gershon. Schultz explained the move, saying, "I switched goaltenders because of the type of goal that was being scored. Two near-side shots cannot go in the net. It's a positioning issue. The angles were not being played appropriately and we couldn't afford to let Jeff figure things out and give him more time. Jeff's a great goaltender that had an off night."
Geneseo managed to recover slightly by scoring two goals in the final 23 seconds of the second period. Freshman Stefan Decosse scored the first at the 19:37 mark with assists from fellow first-years Clint Olson and Jonathan Redlick. The second goal occurred with just eight seconds left in the period, when junior Jeff MacPhee fired a shot past Morrisville's goaltender, assisted by Olson and Decosse.
Geneseo's comeback attempt continued into the third period. Redlick scored during a power play at 3:37 and then added yet another power-play goal at 6:36, closing in on the Mustangs 5-4.
Morrisville, however, managed to hold on to the game as they scored their sixth goal at 7:28. Senior Kevin Galan scored Geneseo's final goal of the game at 14:19 but, despite Geneseo's continued efforts, Morrisville tacked on an empty net goal with nine seconds left to seal the victory.
Geneseo had 40 shots on goal for the game, compared to Morrisville's 29. Pasemko allowed three goals with 13 saves in 26:24, while first year Gershon allowed three goals and made 15 saves in just under 34 minutes of action.
Geneseo falls to 10-7-1 overall and 5-3-1 in SUNYAC. The Ice Knights travel to Brockport on Friday.