Walking off their home ice this weekend with two consecutive wins, the College’s ice hockey team is looking ready for the upcoming playoffs in a few weeks.
Sporting a 5-3 win over Rutgers, a team they lost to earlier in the season after a plague of injuries took out five of their top players, the Lions redeemed themselves at the Louck’s Ice Center on Saturday, Jan. 25.
“The Rutgers game wasn’t our best performance,” senior defensmen Scott Rothlisberger. “But we finished every period strong and pulled out a big win. We were having some trouble scoring against their goalie, but with some great set-ups, I was able to get three goals.”
Rothlisberger has been a consistent leader for his team, blocking shots, contributing a powerful slap shot from the point and providing emotional leadership as a team captain.
“It was a great feeling to be able to get a hat trick against Rutgers,” Rothlisberger said. “Losing to them earlier this season was tough and I know all the guys wanted to win that game pretty badly. As a senior and a leader, it was amazing to be able to lift the team by getting key goals against what we consider one of our big rivals in our division.”
However, the excitement of the weekend started on Friday with a 6-0 domination against Seton Hall, giving goalie David Laub the much deserved shutout.
With the addition of two new transfers in this season, the team is still working on finding chemistry with the new changes.
“With the new additions, we have worked hard to find out the best possible combination for our top lines,” Rothlisberger said. “Anthony Santisi being back has helped since he has great chemistry with John Czarnik and Alex D’Alessio. I think it will take some time to build chemistry with the new guys, but our returning players have worked really well together so far this semester.”
However, one pair that has picked up right where they left off over break is freshmen Luke May and Will Sulpizio.
The duo scored perhaps the most beautiful goal of the night, highlighting their ability to always find each other as May shot the puck on the breakaway and Sulpizio was right there to score the rebound before the opposing goaltender could even shift sides.
“This weekend was about not losing the momentum we have built over the season,” Rothlisberger said. “We now have a 14-game winning streak and despite some poor play at certain points over the weekend, I was proud of the team to keep the win streak alive and keep playing hard even against less talented teams.”
