Ranked No. 7 according to the U.S. College Hockey Online Division III Poll, the Geneseo Ice Knights continued SUNYAC play last weekend to defeat Morrisville State College 4-1 in the lone weekend match.
The win brings Geneseo to second place in the conference at 7-3-1; the team's overall record stands at 13-5-2 for the season.
Geneseo got off to quick start in the first period when freshman Carson Schell scored off of a rebound to give the Knights the lead less than two minutes into the game. Geneseo scored two additional goals in the period: Junior Jonathan Redlick found an open net on assists from freshmen Rich Manley and Zach Vit, and junior David Arduin scored on the power play as Redlick picked up the assist for his second point and the game's third.
In the second period, Arduin added a second power play goal to bring his season point total to nine, tying him for the team lead with Manley and Vit. Morrisville got its own power play goal later in the frame, but the Ice Knights did not suffer from a second period letdown as they have in recent games.
"In the first period we came out and played as good a period as I think we've played all year," said head coach Chris Schultz. "After that, we were thinking, ‘What kind of second period are we going to have?' We challenged the guys in the room and it was a step forward."
Both the second and the scoreless third period were marked by an excess of penalty minutes. The game featured a total of 24 penalties for 95 minutes, and four players were tossed from the game. Morrisville accounted for 59 of the penalty minutes and three of the ejected players.
"It's not a coincidence that the same thing happened the night before in [Morrisville's game against] Brockport," Schultz said. "It's disappointing because we want to play a good brand of hockey … when they resort to running our goaltending and getting into all that nonsense, you do have to do something about it, but at the same time you have to be smart about it and I think we were."
Schell was tossed from the game for facemasking, but made several contributions on offense and defense before his departure. He scored the first goal of the game and tied up the puck deep in the zone to waste time on the penalty kill.
"If [Schell] doesn't grab the guy's facemask, the guy's going to be pulling his neck down and he's going to get himself hurt," Schultz added. "He's a guy that everybody needs on a team. He was unbelievable tonight, especially on the kill."
Junior Cory Gershon allowed just one goal and made 28 saves to earn the victory. The win puts Geneseo two points ahead of Morrisville for the number two seed in SUNYAC and a first round bye in conference playoffs. Geneseo stays at home this weekend, hosting SUNY Fredonia on Friday and Buffalo State on Saturday night,