Men's hockey loses first game after winning 16 in a row

By Paul May
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

The top-ranked, undefeated Division III men's ice hockey team in the country lost their first game on one dark and snowy night last week. Norwich University men's hockey lost to Trinity College, 4-1, a game that gave many of the players a rude awaking.

"With the closing seconds of the game I realized that we have just lost our first game of the year," Matt Moran, 23, senior criminal justice major from Brighton, Mass., said. "With the loss of this game, it made a few of us come back to reality."

"This has shown us that we can't go into games lightly," Marshall Lee, 23, junior communications major from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, said. "We know now that we can be beaten."

"Trinity College just out-played us in the middle of the ice," Moran said. "It seemed that they [Trinity] showed up to play that afternoon and maybe wanted it more."

"Our shots on goal were about the same," Randy Hevey, 22, junior business major from Chicopee, Mass. "We both had about 23 shoots on both goalies."

"They had a good goalie that was stopping everything that we put at him," Keith Maurice, 23, senior business major from Barre, Vt., said, "With a loss now, it is much better than to have a loss in the play-offs."

"If we lost in the playoffs, then we would be out for good," Maurice said. "Simple as that."

With this loss now, the team can come back together and play with a "huge load off" their chests, Moran said.

"We never thought that we would go the whole way undefeated," Maurice said.

"We have two games at home this weekend, and I feel we will get back on track," Jon Grabie, 22, a sophomore communications major from Swell, N.J., said.

The team is going to look to improve themselves from the loss. The Cadets are home this weekend, playing two more games. January 25, the team will host 5-7-3 Mass. College at 7:00 p.m. Then Saturday, the team will host 2-12-1 Skidmore College at 3:00 p.m.

"We have learned now that we just can't just walk into a game," Jon Bokeiman, 23, junior p.e. major from Centerport, N.Y. "We are going to work harder, and this has awakened the team to see that we are beatable."

The win Norwich had on Friday night against Wesleyan College put a playoff in Norwich's future.

"We will be ready for these games coming up," Tim Krykostas, 23, a senior communications major from Hicksville, N.Y. "We just needed a wake up call, and now that we have it we will play much better than we did before."

"I know that with working hard this week we will come back with a vengeance," Lee said.

"Now that we have a loss out of our systems, we will not let it happen again," Bokeiman said.

The team members are going to meet with their coaches and talk with them about what needs to be done and what the team will do to keep on track with the goal of their season.

"We have a goal which the team has made, and that is to become the national champions, again," Moran said. "We can't fall short of that goal."

"We needed an eye opener; now, our eyes are ready to see the trophy in Northfield," Krykostas said.

Back to Guidon index