Thundering Herd Ice Yellowjackets
UB ice hockey fans marched into the Amherst Pepsi Arena expecting a hard hitting, edge of the seat type of game Friday night. The game did indeed bring about some hard hits and more than a couple roughing penalties, but the outcome of the game was a surprise to everyone.
When the game was over the scoreboard showed 7-1 favoring Buffalo's Club Hockey Team, the Thundering Herd, over the Rochester Yellowjackets. The tough and touted Rochester defense looked very sloppy and disorganized as they let Buffalo forwards penetrate into their zone and create a plethora of scoring opportunities.
In fact, the Bulls scored their first goal within four minutes of play in the first period. Winger Brian Mosler slapped one into the corner of the net at 3:20 into the period, and senior center Chris Gervaise snuck a shot under Rochester's goalie with 5:10 left to play.
Mosler noticed the state of disarray in Rochester's defense.
"On the first goal, the defense kind of just let me walk right in. We wanted to get a lot of shots on the goalie and I just fired it as I went by the goal and got us some momentum," said the sophomore.
Junior forward Brandon Higley fired a goal into the net on a power play to put the Bulls up by three.
The Bulls forwards seemed to have a field day with the Rochester defensemen as they out shot the Yellowjackets 9-6 in the first period. UB forwards were skating circles around the defense and spent most of the game on Rochester's side of the rink.
The Bulls' young defensemen seemed to be settling down as they proved to be impregnable to the Rochester offense. They were also adept at penalty killing, shutting down power plays and at one point playing two men down. But inexperience stung Buffalo as Rochester's Joe Stoklosa put one into the back of the net for Rochester's only goal of the game.
"We just broke down.it wasn't a smart break out attempt. They had been all over us on our breakout all day, and they caught it once," said Buffalo Head Coach Mike Mannix. "But for as many times as we gave the puck away, only one of those going in was not bad."
The final score is misleading as UB scored three open net goals in the third period of the game. In a questionable decision, the Rochester coach decided to pull the goalie with more than eight minutes left to play. Defenseman Peter Miller, Bill Mosler and forward Paul Szeglowski all scored easily on the Yellowjacket's open net.
Despite his team's domination of the game against the Yellowjackets, Mannix still sees areas in which his team can improve to be of further success.
"We had some breakdowns but we finally had a team we were faster than and had more talent than . We still have a lot of work to do, we have to take care of our own zone a lot better, and we're giving the puck away way too much."
Saturday night at the Pepsi Center the scoreboard read 9-0 in favor of UB as the seconds ticked away in the final period, but the damage was much worse considering the highest number the scoreboard can show is nine.
The Thundering Herd swept the ice with the visiting St. Bonaventure 12-0, in a game that featured just about everything.
From a third period fight and numerous scrums throughout, MTV, obnoxious sorority girls screaming obnoxious things in an obnoxious way, and the back-up Bonnie goaltender with his rainbow colored mask (I imply nothing) - the only thing missing was Anna Nicole Smith and Ozzy Osbourne.
Buffalo took an early 2-0 lead in the first period with goals from Mosler and Szeglowski. Later in the period Mosler was ejected for a check from behind that sent a St. Bonaventure player into the boards headfirst. The rough play set the tone for the rest of the game.
UB then exploded for seven goals in the second period to put the game away.
A split save on a breakaway late in the third period highlighted goaltender Justin Cuviello's shutout game, his first of the season.
"It was the first shutout of the year, first shutout for a long time for UB. It felt pretty good, and I'm glad it wasn't a three shot game or anything. We really started to shut them down and played pretty well (after the first period)," said the 5'11"senior.
Szeglowski led the Bulls in scoring, registering two goals and seven assists.
The Bulls' next action is Nov. 1 at the Pepsi Center against Cornell.
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
