Ice Hawks fall to Neumann
Rutland, VT - The Neumann College men's ice hockey team scored four, third-period goals to pull away from Becker College in a 6-1 victory to advance to the championship game of the Rutland Herald Invitational Tournament hosted by Castleton State College at the Rutland Regional Fieldhouse.
Neumann took a 2-1 lead heading into the third period before exploding for three goals in three minutes to put the game out of reach. Charles Patterson scored the insurance goal 8:19 into the period when he deflected a Kyle Casey shot past Jake Rosenthal. Two minutes later, Erik Stoyanovich shot from the right of Rosenthal, about a foot off the end line, and somehow found the net to go up 4-1. Casey scored his fourth goal of the year 22 seconds later off a rebound from a shot by Jesse Cole. Donovan Hall scored his second goal of the game with 2:25 left in the game to round out the scoring.
After a scoreless first period, Neumann got on the board first 5:28 into the second period. Tony Stoehr came out of the crease to make a play, but the puck rebounded to Casey who took advantage of the open net and put the Knights up 1-0. Hall scored a short-handed goal for the Knights four minutes later after stealing the puck in the Hawks'defensive end and wrapped the puck inside the post for the 2-0 advantage.
Becker scored with eight seconds left in the period to cut the lead in half before heading into the locker room. Robert Johnson scored his first collegiate goal on a 2-on-1 breakaway for the lone Hawks goal.
Matt Tendler made 14 saves in net for the Knights who improve to 6-4-1 on the season. Stoehr made 19 saves in the net for Becker before leaving the game due to injury. Rosenthal came into the game with 17:32 remaining in the game and made seven saves. Becker falls to 2-5 on the season and will play in the Third Place game of the Rutland Herald Invitational Tournament at 12 noon versus Brockport State who fell 4-1 to host Castleton. Neumann will take on Castleton for the second consecutive season in the tournament championship at 3:00 pm. Neumann defeated Castleton 3-2 in the inaugural tournament last year.
