The Kent State club hockey team (10-2) swept Slippery Rock this  past weekend, but coach Jim Underwood was not happy with the team’s performance.

The Flashes won 4-2 at home Friday against SRU, and Underwood had some critical comments about his team’s play.

“I challenge my players to play a full 60-minute hockey game,” Underwood said. “Right now, we have yet to play a complete hockey game. We are very good in different spurts, but we really lack the intensity to finish games off. Our grade overall was a C at best.”

Goaltender Tyler Geloneck helped his team hold off Slippery Rock by allowing only two goals Friday night.  

“It feels great to keep stacking up wins,” Geloneck said. “If we want a chance to play for a national championship, we need to continue to beat all of our out-of-division opponents. I am very zoned in during the game. We try to keep a focus for a full 60 minutes because we know that every game matters.”

Freshman Justin Bioni started the scoring Friday night early in the first period to put the Flashes ahead 1-0, helping the team capture the early momentum.

“It’s nice to do everything I can to help the team,” Bioni said. “It’s what I’m here for, to put up points and obviously stop goals. Putting that first goal in and seeing everybody go nuts really helped bring our energy up for the first few periods.”

Saturday night, the Flashes won, 5-4, aided by defenseman Jake Parry, who scored a goal late in the second period to tie the game at three.

“It feels good to win. Our fans have been very supportive this year,” Parry said. “One thing we need to improve on, though, is our shooting. We have been outshooting teams every game, but we need to find a way to get more pucks in the net.”

Finally, late in the third period, John Buttitta scored a goal to give the Flashes a 5-4 lead.

“Feels great to help the team out in a positive way,” Buttitta said. “I’m very happy our guys are getting gritty for one another.”

Underwood noticed some “better periods” of play throughout the weekend.

“First and second period were better periods for us,” Underwood said. “But that is only two-thirds of the game. We did a lot of good things like getting pucks in net, we had traffic, we had screens and we dominated a lot of zone time. But that’s where it ended. We need to find a way to do those things throughout the entire game. We allow teams to kind of hang in there. We need more juice from our guys and it starts with our captains and works its way down.”

The Flashes are back in action against Eastern Michigan Friday, Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Kent State Ice Arena.

Morgan Dunlop is a sports reporter. Contact him at [email protected]