The Kent State hockey team faced tough matchups against Indiana University of Pennsylvania on Friday and Duquesne on Saturday, and the team lost both matchups.
The game started with IUP getting an early lead on the Flashes, making it 2-0 by the end of the first period. Coming into Friday’s game, the Flashes knew that IUP was an aggressive and vocal team.
“Our biggest game plan was to make sure that we kept our mouths shut and went to work,” coach Zachary Nowak said. “IUP is a team where they’re going to get physical and get chippy.”
Kent State made some mid-game adjustments to adapt to IUP’s changing neutral zone strategy, such as different forecheck formations. Despite its adjustments, IUP continued its momentum, making it 5-0 before the end of the second period.
At the start of the third period, Kent buried one in the net making the score 5-1. IUP scored twice more in the third with the Flashes only scoring once more, making the final score 7-2.
“Obviously, at the end of the day, it wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but they have kids that can bury pucks,” Nowak said. “We had lots of opportunities ourselves, and we hit lots of posts, but we missed lots of net.”
Saturday, Kent faced Duquesne, putting in junior goalie Alex Toth for his first start of the season. Duquesne took an early lead making it 2-0.
Both Kent and Duquesne went on to score more, with the Flashes still falling short. Duquesne was still winning making the score 4-2.
While the Flashes ended up outshooting Duquesne in the third 20-12, they still could not pull through. Kent State ended up losing with the final score being 6-2.
“It was definitely a tough one — there’s a lot of things that we talked about game planning wise that we just didn’t execute,” Nowak said. “It was definitely a little frustrating for all of us here because we planned and we put in a lot of work to make sure that we could be as best prepared as we could, and we didn’t really follow through with what we needed to do.”
In the games over the weekend, a few players stood out from Kent State’s team, including graduate student forward Tommy Kilway, who had a great game with one goal, and did a great job at settling guys down. Another notable player is Toth, who made his debut Saturday, and, despite intense pressure, saved 24 out of the 29 shots on goal.
The Flashes will go on to play Mercyhurst, which has a record of 3-8. The game will be Friday at the Mercyhurst Ice Center at 7 p.m.
“The sooner we can win the puck and the sooner we can play aggressive defensively to win those pucks back, the better we’ll be off,” Nowak said. “There is definitely a lot, we’re giving up way too many shots right now all together.”
Jamie First is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
