Saturday, November 1, 2014

STYLUS REPORT ON HOBART GAME

Here's the report on last night's game from Eric Mueller of the Brockport Stylus...

The College at Brockport's Golden Eagles opened the season with a 3 - 1 loss against Hobart College, Friday, Oct. 31. Although the team played well early, Brockport wasn’t able to generate enough offense.

Junior goalie Jared Lockhurst was the story of the game early, standing on his head and keeping the Golden Eagles in the game. In the first period, Brockport was out shot 17 - 7. Although it may seem lopsided, the Golden Eagles generated a lot of offensive zone time, but just weren’t getting into the dirty scoring areas. Brockport could have lost this game by a lot more than two goals if Lockhurst didn’t play so well early in the game.

In the second period, Brockport came out strong and fast to take the lead. A net-front presence was established which led to scoring opportunities. Lockhurst continued where he left off in the first, making save after save, but Hobart finally snuck one by him with 3:43 left in the period. Brockport spent a lot of time in the dirty areas in front of the net which created offense for the team.

Brockport dominated most of the second until the last five minutes of the period where it seemed Hobart took the game to another level the Golden Eagles weren’t able to match.

From the moment Hobart took a 2 - 0 lead early in the third, the team seemed deflated. That was until junior forward Chase Nieuwendyk picked up the puck at his own blue line, turned on the jets and went forehand, backhand sliding the puck inbetween the legs of the Hobart goalie bringing Brockport within one on a shorthanded goal. The intensity of the game took off from that point on and Brockport had a few chances to tie it up, but had a hard time hitting the back of the net. With a minute to go in the game, Hobart capitalized on a two-on-one to take a 3 - 1 lead.

The key headline coming into this game was seeing how Brockport would react to Hobart’s European style of play. What stuck out most was the transition game Hobart displayed. The team had numbers coming up the ice with it on every one of Brockport’s turnovers. In the offensive zone, Hobart kept three men high, mostly acting as third defenseman. This created many turnovers by Brockport at the blue line, allowing Hobart to sustain attacking pressure. Brockport did a very good job limiting the chances Hobart had early in the game, but as the game went on, Hobart proved to be too much for the Golden Eagles. Brockport fell into a trap of trying to force the puck out of the zone instead of making the easy play. This played right into Hobart’s game and allowed the team to attack Brockport repeatedly.



Source: http://www.thestylus.net/news/view.php/853128/Brockport-ice-hockey-drops-season-opener