By Joey Bachich
Staff Writer
The College’s club hockey team defeated the University of Oregon by a score of 5-2. Physicality and strength really helped to put the Lions on top in this win.
The Lions faced off against the Oregon Ducks on Nov. 17 in a heated battle of cross-country teams. The Lions and Ducks were both in need of a win having less than 10 points in their own respective conferences in the American Collegiate Hockey Association.
The Lions were coming off of a win against RIT, who was third in the conference. The Ducks start their east coast road trip against the Lions after dropping a game to Grand Canyon University 3-2. For the Lions, forwards Logan May and Jake Barrera lead the team in points, with 17 and 15 respectively, along with goalie Michael Bussanich having a decent season, posting a career save percentage of .909. Against Oswego State University, Bussanich posted a .939 save percentage with 31 saves on 33 shots.
The first period opened with a lot of pressure from Oregon, who quickly backed the Lions defense in their defensive zone for much of the first half of the period. A great strategic play was to let Oregon shoot the long pucks and make it difficult to get easy shots on net. Bussanich again stood on his head in the first period, fending off any effort of the Ducks who really pushed to break the deadlock. Late in the first period, a puck hung in front of the net and Scott Martin buried the goal, giving the Lions confidence going forward.
The second period started the same as the first, with a little more pressure from the Lions. Oregon tied the game up with a great play off a faceoff that tied the game 1-1 in an exciting contest. Oregon had a great stretch of sustained puck control when they doubled the lead a minute after their first goal that saw a Duck wide open in the slot who sniped the top right corner. The Lions at this point had a great forecheck that they put on Oregon that made the defense stumble over themselves trying to get it out. This led to a bad pass which Emmanuel Ammendola took advantage of and tied the game in the middle of the second period.
At this point physicality started to show itself in the game, which favored the Lions, who seemed to enjoy the body to body contact and Oregon had trouble handling that. After a charging call on the Ducks, the Lions scored on a powerplay which Logan May put away.
When it rained it poured for the Ducks, who let up a late goal to Nick Staudt after a full team effort where defender Alex Gatsonis almost went coast-to-coast where he rattled a shot off the crossbar and later in the play Staudt was there to flick the puck into the net, putting the Lions up 4-2.
The third period saw Bussanich shine when he made an acrobatic save, which directly led to a breakaway goal by Eric Szanto. Oregon had a ton of great chances to close the game with two late power plays which tested Bussanich late, where he did not waiver and stood tall to hold on to a convincing 5-2 victory over the Oregon Ducks.
Bussanich was the MVP of the game with his 50 saves on 52 shots, shutting down the offense of the Ducks. He had a career game and had some really impressive saves on the night.
