The Geneseo Ice Knights went 3-1 on the past two weekends, defeating SUNYAC rival SUNY Brockport 3-2, beating Hobart College 5-2, and splitting their two games in the Adrian tournament last weekend.
Geneseo and Brockport traded goals through the first two periods of their match; senior Andrew Rygiel made one goal and junior Danny Scagnelli added a goal and an assist. With the score tied at two late in the third, junior Jonathan Redlick took a pass from sophomore Ryan Bulach, put a move on the goalie and found the back of the net.
“The timing couldn’t have been anymore perfect on that play, because Bulach didn’t really have much at that point,” head coach Chris Schultz said. “I didn’t even see Redlick on the far side going. It was a great goal scorer’s goal right there.”
The next night, Geneseo traveled to Hobart for a non-conference matchup and came away with a 5-2 win. After a scoreless first, junior David Arduin scored on the power play early in the second to give the Ice Knights the lead. Soon after, senior Trevor Elliot netted his first career goal to extend the lead. On a penalty kill in the period, junior Cory Gershon made some spectacular saves to keep Hobart off the board. Gershon had 38 saves on the night. Hobart was 0-6 on the power play.
“Our best penalty killer tonight was Gershon,” Schultz said. “He made a couple of saves; I don’t know how he got to them. It’s probably the best performance I’ve seen out of him in his career.”
The line of Arduin, Bulach and junior Stefan Decosse had gone scoreless the last couple of games despite creating numerous opportunities. A 4-0 lead early in the third by scoring from Arduin and sophomore Corbin Rosmarin came as a relief.
“It was a huge monkey off our back,” Arduin said. “[Against Brockport] we could have made it a little easier on [ourselves] if we buried on a couple chances.”
Over Thanksgiving weekend, Geneseo defeated Hamline University (Minn.) 4-2 at the Adrian tournament. Freshman Rich Manley and junior Jake Yard each had two goals for the Ice Knights and sophomore Adrian Rubeniuk made 20 saves, improving to 4-0-1 on the season.
Last Saturday, the Ice Knights lost to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire 2-0 in the finale of the Adrian tournament. The Blugolds scored two goals in the third to beat Geneseo.
This weekend the 10th ranked Ice Knights continue SUNYAC play against SUNY Cortland and No. 1-ranked SUNY Oswego.
During Saturday’s game, the Ice Knights will hold a cancer fundraiser. Each Ice Knights player will donate $3 for every goal the team scores and they encourage fans to donate $1 per goal. Proceeds will benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the Livingston Foundation.