The Ice Knights won their third game in a row on Saturday Dec. 1, topping the Morrisville State College Mustangs 4-1.
First-year Devon Rice led the way, scoring his second and third goal of the season, while sophomore Bryan Haude made 41 stops for his second win of the season.
Rice opened the scoring at 5 minutes, 16 seconds into the second period off of a net mouth scramble in front of Morrisville goaltender first-year Jakob Rasmussen. Junior Carson Schell shoveled the puck toward the net and Rice cashed in the rebound for his second goal of the season.
Senior Ryan Bulach scored his fifth goal of the season roughly seven minutes later. Sophomore Jack Caradonna and junior Zach Vit switched sides at the point off of the faceoff, similar to the wheel play that the Ice Knights implemented on their five-on-three power plays. The switch opened up Vit for the one-timer, which he sent wide, but Bulach slammed in the rebound off of the back wall to give Geneseo a 2-0 lead heading into the third period.
Geneseo dominated play for the majority of the game, with the Mustangs recording most of their 42 shots in short, hectic stretches.The Mustangs, now 1-7-0 in conference play, pressed in the final five minutes of the second period and put the Ice Knights on their heels to open the third period, when Haude was at his best.
Rice responded to pressure with his second goal of the game at 5:53 into the third period. Rice won a foot race to reach a stretch pass from junior Rich Manley and driving down the right boards, he lifted a sharp-angled backhander from just inside the hash marks of the right circle. The shot beat Rasmussen over the blocker to give Geneseo the momentum once again.
Junior Jonathan Sucese padded the lead a minute later – his third goal in three games. With the teams skating four-on-four, Sucese used the extra ice to his advantage, taking a feed through the neutral zone from first-year David Ripple, splitting the defense and rifling a wrist shot over Rasmussen’s glove.
Haude lost his shutout bid at 14:33 into the third with a power-play goal from junior Ryan Marcuz.
With the win, coupledwith SUNY Plattsburgh’s win over SUNY Oswego, the Ice Knights remain third in SUNYAC. Geneseo is two points behind Plattsburgh, but moved within three points of the Oswego Lakers who stand in first. Geneseo has competed against every team in the conference except SUNY Brockport. The Ice Knights will travel to play the Golden Eagles on Friday Dec. 7 – their last game before the winter break.