Spring Break
URI men's hockey battles for two weekend victories
Joe Roberto
Issue date: 10/21/08 Section: Sports
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The Rams outshot Drexel 83-38, and seemed to have the Dragons overmatched in both the offensive and defensive side of the game.
Junior Andrew Lisi started in goal for Rhody, and Daniel Pyne was in goal for the Dragons.
Friday, freshmen Jay Dupras, Richie Falasca and Evan Dietz played a huge part in the Ram's win. Dupras contributed with one goal, while Falasca scored two goals giving him six goals on the season.
"Every line is contributing to each game, every game there's a different line scoring goals and helping this team win," said head coach Joe Augustine about the team.
With the score tied 1-1 in the second period, the tensions between both teams rose. At 6:58 in the period, a big hit along the URI bench took place, causing both teams to fight. Senior Jon Biliouris from the Rams and Adrian Allatt from Drexel were ejected for leaving the bench during a fight.
While the Rams jumped out to a 4-1 lead, Drexel, with the help of costly penalties from the Rams, fought back to slim the lead to 4-3. In the third period, Drexel scored power play goals at 9:17 and 7:02. The Dragons had too many chances to tie the score in the third period having 13 shots.
The Rams were on a five-game winning streak before the shootout loss on Oct. 12 against Central Oklahoma University.
"The puck has been bouncing our way lately, we just had a few bad breaks in that loss," Augustine said. "We just need to keep working hard and this club will be fine."
With Friday's win the Rams improved their record to 6-1.
Tension could be felt between both teams at Saturday night's game. Each team went back and forth and had a lot of big hits in between.
A scoreless tie was finally broken in the second period when sophomore David Sheehan scored a power play goal at 16:45. This was Sheehan's second goal of the year.
Both teams had their share of big hits throughout the first and second periods, but at 6:26 in the second period, one big hit led to another fight between the scrappy teams.
URI captain Cory Manley was hit from behind leading both teams to have another fight. Augustine was extremely heated after the blow and had a few words with Drexel's head coach.
"The team just reacted to their captain," Augustine said. "Having a hit from behind is a very vulnerable place and someone can really get hurt. I think this fight was just a carry over from Friday night's brawl. You just don't want to see players get injured."
At 4:02, URI freshman Robert Beggi scored the second goal of the game on a power play goal and was assisted by Dupras.
The score remained 2-0 until 5:36 in the third period. With the 46th shot of the game, Rams senior Matt Wodecki scored his third goal of the season, and was assisted by both junior James Lang and sophomore Paul Doran.
Drexel's goalie, Daniel Pyne, stopped 46 shots out of 49 shots during the game, while Rhode Island senior Ray Martin stopped all 15 shots coming his way, earning his first shutout and fourth win of the season.
After Saturday's win, the Rams moved to 7-1 for the year will be on the road to West Chester University for two games on Friday and Saturday where they will try to continue for a successful season.
