The University of Rhode Island men’s club hockey team won its game in the quarterfinals against Lehigh University before coming up short, losing to Drexel University in the semifinals of the Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association.
Going into the ECHA playoffs, Rhode Island entered as the number one seed. The Rams looked to show why as they faced off first against Lehigh, the last-seeded team in the tournament.
In the first period, both goalies came out sharp for the Mountain Hawks and the Rams, as there were no goals for most of the period until URI captain fourth-year forward Shane Mulhern got around fourth-year goalie Jacob Brown to give Rhody a 1-0 lead.
The second period featured no scoring. Both teams dropped a goose egg as the score remained 1-0 in Rhode Island’s favor as the game headed into a decisive third period.
Early on in the third period, it was the Mountain Hawks who scored. They got a power play goal from captain third-year defenseman Nikolas Cadoret, who was able to score one through traffic to make it a tied game.
After a back-and-forth battle for most of the third period, the Rams finally broke the tie with just under six minutes to go on a wrist shot into the back of the net from third-year Max Lockwood.
As the game was coming close to a finish, Lehigh was looking for any sort of chance to tie it up again, but that quickly faded after a penalty from second-year Jesse Heinberg. It quickly turned into a goal from second-year Aidan Darlington to put the Rams in a commanding 3-1 lead with under two minutes to go.
First-year Charlie Nelson got in on the goal party as he scored a final goal for the Rams to secure the 4-1 victory.
“We settled in and played our game against Lehigh,” URI Head Coach Joe Augustine said. “We started out slow but played our system and took advantage of the turnovers.”
On Sunday, the Rams faced off in their semifinal match against the number four seed Drexel Dragons.
It was Drexel who answered the bell early on, with a goal from forward Pietro Baccarin to give the Dragons the 1-0 advantage. Later on in the first period, Drexel struck again, as forward Matt Harris snuck one past URI fourth-year goalie Nick Maringola.
In the second period, it was Baccarin again. This time, on a pass that set him up for a one-timer that he smashed into the back of the net to give Drexel a commanding 3-0 lead.
Rhode Island dug itself an even bigger hole when Nelson got called for a hooking penalty, and this set up the Dragons, who capitalized by making it 4-0 on a power play goal from forward Ryan Sambuco.
Heading into the third period, the Rams, desperately looking to get anything going, finally got their first goal of the game from Nelson.
That’s all the Rams were able to do as Drexel shut them down the rest of the period, and the Dragons got a final goal from forward Jimmy Jacobs to give them a 5-1 upset win.
“We didn’t show against Drexel,” Augustine said. “No effort and no structure, and if we play like that in St. Louis, it could get very ugly very quickly.”
Next up, the Rams head to the American Hockey Collegiate Association Nationals in St. Louis, as the No. 22 seed to face off against Calvin University, the No. 11 seed, on Thursday at 1:30 p.m.
