Senior defenseman Tanner Salsberry navigates the puck past an opponent in the Ira S. Wilson arena on Jan. 25. The Ice Knights are on a three game win streak, with their most recent victory coming over SUNY Canton with a score of 10-2 (Courtesy of Josie Kwan).
The Geneseo Ice Knights moved up to second place in the United States College Hockey Online ranking on Tuesday Nov. 11. They earned that recognition with a 10-2 rout of the SUNY Canton Kangaroos.
The Kangaroos visited the Ira S. Wilson Ice Arena on Saturday Nov. 9 in a non conference matchup. Even though Canton is a SUNY school, they are an independent team, so this game does not affect the teams’ conference records.
Regardless of the implications, Geneseo took care of business beginning with the play of first-year goaltender Matthew Petizian, who earned his first collegiate win with 23 saves on the night.
The stellar home start for Petizian also earned him the PrestoSports Rookie of the Week, awarded by the SUNYAC.
On the opposite side of the ice, Geneseo caused all sorts of headaches for the opposing goaltenders. In the first period, captain and senior forward Conlan Keenan netted his first goal of the year, followed by a powerplay goal from junior forward Carson Kelley. Senior forward Andrew Romano rounded out the scoring by redirecting a puck into the net with three seconds left in the first period.
In the second period, Geneseo’s fourth goal forced the Kangaroos to switch goaltenders. Despite the personnel change, the Knights exploded for six more goals in the game. They manufactured so many goals through a thoroughly impressive offensive performance that they averaged exactly one shot per minute.
They were able to get off 60 total shots in the matchup, due in large part to the amount of power-play opportunities presented to them. Canton had 78 total penalty minutes on 16 penalties, resulting in 10 power play opportunities for the nation’s leading power play team a season ago. The Knights made impressive work of their power play chances, scoring five power play goals.
Two of those power play goals were scored by sophomore defender Chris Perna. His power play goals came just 50 seconds apart because the Knights found themselves gifted with five straight minutes of 5-on-3 hockey.
Not only did the Kangaroos spend 78 minutes in the penalty box, but three different Kangaroos were ejected from the game. Keenan thinks the game got so physical because Canton “[tried] to combat our speed as a team. We want[ed] to play fast as a team so teams want to play physical to try and slow us down and interrupt our game plan.” The Knights’ game plan was technically interrupted because they most likely were not expecting to have 10 opportunities on the power play, a change in the game plan that was most certainly welcomed.
Even with the game getting so physical, Keenan and his teammates were able to stay composed. “The message on the bench and in the locker room was the same, keep our heads and let them take all the penalties they want,” Keenan said. “We can’t get dragged into a penalty battle, so keeping our composure was key for us and we just needed to hold ourselves accountable by putting the team before ourselves.”
The Knights hope to carry the momentum they have built over their three-game win streak as they travel to Cortland on Friday Nov. 15 and return home for an integral matchup with rival SUNY Oswego on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Wilson Ice Arena.