The men’s ice hockey club team has plenty of talent, but it is not translating into wins quite yet.
UR lost to the University of Buffalo Friday, 5-4, and dropped a league game to Cornell University Saturday, 5-2, to fall to 1-2 in the Eastern Collegiate Hockey League and 1-5 overall.
“The record really doesn’t reflect how good we are,” said senior Cory Rubin, who is a defenseman and one of three team captains.
UR’s main problem this season has been on defense. Despite solid goaltending from freshman Matt Gimovsky, UR has yet to hold an opponent under three goals.
“We’ve been working hard, it just hasn’t worked out so far,” Rubin said.
UR has not played badly so far ? only one of their losses has been by more than two goals. “We’re so close to finally learning what it takes to put away a game,” Rubin said. “It’s going to happen.”
Eight different players scored a point over the weekend. That is a testament to the depth that is the strength of the team.
“We have three solid lines that could be the top line on any night,” Rubin said. “We don’t have to rely on any one line.”
Senior center Phil Crotty and senior wing Mike Evans each scored twice last weekend. Junior center Kevin Birchenough, the team’s top scorer, and sophomore wing Nate Williams each had two assists.
“We know we’re good,” Rubin said. “It’s just getting over that hump and into the winning mentality.”
UR will need to find their winning mentality quickly because they now go on the road for five straight league games.
UR travels to Syracuse University for a 7:30 p.m. game Friday and then heads to Niagara College to play at 9:30 p.m. Saturday.
Next weekend, the men will play at Washington University in St. Louis and Jefferson University on Friday and at John Carroll University at Saturday.
UR still had high hopes for this season, but they will need to get some wins the next two weekends to fulfill their goals.
“We feel like we have the team and the goalie to [win the championship],” Rubin said. “Anything less than that and I think we would be upset.”
Jacobs can be reached at bjacobs@campustimes.org.
