Tonight will be the second to last time the Suffolk University men’s hockey team will lace up its skates in a regular season contest.
Over the past week, the Rams have put themselves in a good position to continue their season and participate in postseason action.
On Feb. 15, Curry College visited Steriti Rink in the North End to play Suffolk on its home ice. Both of these teams are trying to push through the end of the season and hope to find themselves with enough wins to continue playing.
The action started early as each team was assessed roughing minors just a few minutes into the game.
Suffolk broke the ice first with a goal off the stick of center Carmen Mastrangelo, his fifth of the year assisted by Tyler Heineman and Mike Pantano.
Shortly after the opening goal Suffolk’s Stanton Turner was called for an elbowing penalty, which lead to Curry evening the score at one.
About halfway through the second period, Suffolk and Curry were skating 4-4 when Dan Mazzei netted his sixth of the season once again giving Suffolk a one-goal advantage. Connor McCarthy and Stanton Turner assisted Mazzei’s goal.
Seconds after a Suffolk timeout, Curry’s Jordan Reed beat goalie Brandon Smolarek, to once again bring the game even.
The third period belonged to the penalty kill of each team. Suffolk was strong killing off two penalties at the beginning of the third, and Curry killing off a big one before the end of regulation. This one was heading to overtime.
About three minutes into the five-minute overtime, Suffolk right wing Tim Sprague lifted his team to a huge win by beating Curry goaltender Derek Mohney. The game-winner was Sprague’s eighth goal of the season, tying him for the team lead.
The win improved Suffolk’s record in the ECAC Northeast to 4-6-1.
Two days later Suffolk traveled to take on the evenly matched Western New England squad.
Suffolk once again continued to send players to the penalty box, minimizing their chances to get any offense going. After killing off two penalties, Suffolk eventually gave one up to WNE seconds before the first period ended.
Taking a 1-0 deficit into the first intermission did not set the Rams back. A strong second period was played by both teams, each killing off two penalties.
A tripping call on WNE gave Suffolk a chance to tie it at the end of the second. On their third power play, Dan Mazzei scored his seventh to even things up in similar fashion to WNE in the first. Mazzei’s goal came 35 seconds before the end of the second and was assisted by Mastrangelo and Sprague.
In the third period, Suffolk lost control of the game and racked up an impressive amount penalty minutes, including two majors. WNE score two goals and never let up, giving them a 3-1 victory.
With the loss, Suffolk is now in fifth place in the ECAC Northeast with two games left on the schedule, Head Coach Chris Glionna is feeling confident about his team going into the final two contests.
“We need to just continue to reinforce the fundamentals. Every league game is close so we need to make sure we don’t make small mistakes that will add up to large mistakes over the course of a game.”
Suffolk is set to take on Becker and Wentworth, two teams Suffolk has yet to record a win against this year.
“They are both excellent teams and both of the earlier games were good hockey games. The key for us is out working both those teams. We are only as good as our compete level.“
Speaking of compete level, it sounds as if the men are ready to go behind senior captains Jon Stauffer and Charlie McGinnis.
“The team is very excited for these last two games. We think if we can get in the tournament we have as good a shot as anyone to the league.”
