Ice Knights defeat Morrisville, fall to Hobart

The Ice Knights split two games last weekend, defeating Morrisville in the final minute, 4-3, and losing at Hobart, 4-2. They are now 5-6-0 on the season.

“The frustration from the coach’s part is how you can compete like dogs (December 2) across the board and not do it (December 3),” head coach Chris Schultz said.

Sophomore Rich Manley scored the game winning goal against Morrisville with 54 seconds left in the third period. Sophomore Zachary Vit and junior Blake O’Connor picked up assists on the play.

Junior Nick Ryan and senior Stefan Decosse scored in the first period to give Geneseo an early lead. Senior Clint Olson scored in the third on the power play. Junior Adrian Rubeniuk made 18 saves in the win.

Geneseo held leads of 2-0 and 3-2 but Morrisville fought back to tie the game each time.

“The guys never got down. Guys believed they were going to win,” assistant coach Kris Heeres said. “The work ethic (December 2) was as good as it’s been all year and that’s the work ethic we are going to need moving forward.”

Geneseo fell to Hobart on December 3, 4-2, and had difficulty all game dealing with Hobart’s two forward and three defenseman lineup.

“It’s a clog the neutral zone, boring type of hockey. They were very effective with it,” Schultz added. “We had the system in place to beat it but the execution wasn’t there.”

Senior Jake Yard and first year Zach Martin each scored for Geneseo. Despite both goals coming on the power play, Geneseo struggled with a man advantage against Hobart’s aggressive penalty kill.

“I think what lost the game for us was Hobart’s penalty kill,” Schultz said. “We had two power play units that were lazy. You need your big dogs to go hunting and they didn’t go do it tonight.”

Senior Cory Gershon made 27 saves in the loss.

“I thought Gershon was outstanding,” Schultz said.

Geneseo faces Salve Regina at home on December 9 and travel to #6 Elmira on December 10.

“We’re looking for consistency in our goaltending, our defensemen, and our forwards,” Schultz said. “You just need all three parts of the game to gel together and obviously it’s not happening now.”