The Ice Knights split two games on Dec. 2 and 3, defeating Morrisville State University in the final minute, 4-3, and losing at Hobart College, 2-4. They are now 5-6-0 on the season.
"The frustration from the coach's part is how you can compete like dogs [on Dec. 2] across the board and not do it [again on Dec. 3]," head coach Chris Schultz said.
On Dec. 2, sophomore Rich Manley scored the game-winning goal against Morrisville with 54 seconds left in the third period. Sophomore Zachary Vit and junior Blake O'Connor picked up assists on the play.
Junior Nick Ryan and senior Stefan Decosse scored in the first period to give Geneseo an early lead. Senior Clint Olson scored in the third on the power play. Junior Adrian Rubeniuk made 18 saves in the win.
Geneseo held leads of 2-0 and 3-2 but Morrisville fought back to tie the game each time.
"The guys never got down. [They] believed they were going to win," assistant coach Kris Heeres said. "The work ethic was as good as it's been all year and that's the work ethic we are going to need moving forward."
Falling to Hobart on Dec. 3, Geneseo had difficulty all game dealing with Hobart's two-forward and three-defensemen lineup.
"It's a clog-the-neutral-zone, boring type of hockey. They were very effective with it," Schultz said. "We had the system in place to beat it but the execution wasn't there."
Senior Jake Yard and first-year Zach Martin each scored for Geneseo. Despite both goals coming on the power play, Geneseo struggled with a man advantage against Hobart's aggressive penalty kill.
"I think what lost the game for us was Hobart's penalty kill," Schultz said. "We had two power play units that were lazy. You need your big dogs to go hunting and they didn't go do it tonight."
Senior Cory Gershon made 27 saves in the loss, which Schultz noted "was outstanding."
Geneseo hosts Salve Regina University (R.I.) on Friday Dec. 9 and travels to No. 6-ranked Elmira College on Saturday Dec. 10.
"We're looking for consistency in our goaltending, our defensemen and our forwards," Schultz said. "You just need all three parts of the game to gel together and obviously it's not happening now."