Club Ice Hockey Team Earns First Win of 2015 Campaign

Photo by Art Chill

The Ramapo ice hockey club team was looking to earn its first win as an active program since Feb. 26, 1984, a 7-6 win against Marist College. The Roadrunners won the game 7-3 despite being down one skater.

According to general manager Art Chill, the game plan against Muhlenberg was to get the first win on the board and to build confidence in the team.

“This is a brand new club; it’s the first one in 31 years,” said Chill. “We only had under our belt about seven or eight practices for our first game and no scrimmage, so we never really had an idea of what the team could do, and as I said that we were very pleased, even on the losing side we were very pleased with what we saw. So, what we wanted to do for the Muhlenberg game, obviously, is to get the first win on the board and to build the confidence.”

Muhlenberg College got on the board first in the third minute of the first period, as Sam Amon put a shot past sophomore goalie Keith Gay, who was the second game star, with Billy Rafferty providing the assist. Ramapo would then answer back in the 14th minute of the first period as junior defenseman Marc Concato shot the puck past Muhlenberg’s goalie, Bryan Macallister, to score unassisted and to tie the game at 1. The Roadrunners would extend their lead 29 seconds into the second period, as freshman forward Dmitry Danilchik scored the Roadrunners’ second goal of the game, assisted by freshman forward Patrick Anzano.

The second goal of the second period was also scored by the Roadrunners, as sophomore assistant captain Matthew Rose shot one into the net in the seventh minute of the second period, to put the Roadrunners up 3-1. Junior defenseman Andre Vicari provided the assist on the play. The Roadrunners began to pull away in the third minute of the third period when sophomore assistant captain Joshua Filipovits forced a shot past Bryan Macallister to put the Roadrunners up 4-1 with assists from Gay and sophomore forward Andrew Galascio.

Vicari scored an unassisted goal of his own in the fifth minute of the third period to put the Roadrunners up by four. Then, in the 10th minute of the third period, junior forward Christopher Mecca scored the Roadrunners’ sixth goal of the game to put the Roadrunners up by five goals, with Galascio providing his second assist and second point of the game. Afterwards, Muhlenberg began to the cut the deficit, as Billy Rafferty put a shot past Gay to cut the Roadrunner lead to 6-2 in the 11th minute of the third period. Rafferty’s goal was unassisted.

Galascio would score tie Roadrunners’ seventh goal of the game, with assists by Mecca and Concato in the 14th minute of the third period. Lastly, Muhlenberg would score its third goal of the game as Tyler Tavormina blasted a shot past Gay in the 15th minute of the third period.

Ramapo’s penalty kill was outstanding, as they did not allow a single power play goal on Muhlenberg’s seven power play attempts. Ramapo exceeded its season average of 4.5 goals per game.

“This team has a lot of inner strength,” said Chill. “This team just fought harder when we finally got that tying goal.”

The team is back in action on Sunday when they travel to Suffolk.

pmcguire@ramapo.edu