Hockey takes setback with two losses against Adrian College

Kent State forward Jon Buttitta, #14, skates the puck out of the zone against Adrian College on Friday, Jan. 22, 2016. The Flashes lost, 5-1.

Bri Figley

The Kent State men’s hockey team (13-12) suffered two losses against Adrian College this past weekend.

The first game started slow, with no score from either team until the second period. Adrian took the lead scoring three points and an additional two points in the third period. Kent State sophomore Jake Hainline answered with the only score in third, assisted by sophomore Mike Sullivan and junior Alex Compean.

“One of the things that went well tonight was our penalty kill did a great job of shutting down the power play,” said Coach Jim Underwood.“Our first power play was uneventful, but our second generated a lot of offense.”

Underwood felt the faults of the game were that the team didn’t play aggressive enough.

“We were very weak along the boards (and) afraid to get to the puck first … we made a lot of soft plays because of that,” he said.

The second game went uneventful for the Flashes, losing 4-0 to the Bulldogs Saturday night.

Although the Flashes didn’t score, Underwood felt they played a cleaner game than they did the previous night.

“It was a positive moving game,” said Underwood.

Kent State will face Oswego State this Friday.

“Oswego is a little unknown for us (because) we haven’t played them in five years,” said Underwood. “We’ll be going back to small plays this week but I think we have a great chance.”

The Flashes will face Oswego State (8-6-2) this Friday and Robert Morris University (14-7-3) on Saturday.

The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday night at the Kent State Ice Arena