During a weekend filled with heartbreak, the Ramapo ice hockey team lost twice in overtime to two division foes — Fairfield University and Quinnipiac University. The Roadrunners now sit at a 4-9 record on the season and find themselves in eighth place in the Empire Division.
The first of the two games took place at Fairfield, where the Roadrunners got off to a solid start. After the first goal of the game was scored by Fairfield’s Vincent Spaziante, Ramapo clapped back with three unanswered goals. The first was a shorthanded score at the end of the period off the stick of senior Trent Shanley, assisted by captain Eddie Dahdah and Shane Lovell.
Minutes into the second period, Shanley found the back of the net for the second time, off assists from Luca Carnemolla and Eric Miles. Later in the second period, Brian Atwell scored his first goal of the year, assisted by Alex Cohen. Fairfield did, however, get one back just seconds after Atwell’s goal, as Brendan Burke put one past Ramapo goalie Denis McGarry, off assists from Ned Malolepszy and Jeffrey Matthews.
Midway through the third period, Fairfield tied the score thanks to a goal from Owen Lacourciere, assisted by Christopher Cummings and Devin Kelley. Fairfield’s Cameron Daly was called for a tripping penalty with six minutes remaining in regulation, but Burke was able to score his second goal of the night with his team shorthanded to give Fairfield the lead. With just two minutes remaining in regulation, Dahdah scored the equalizer off assists from Rick Kimble and Nick Waldron, sending the game to overtime.
With under two minutes to go in overtime, Cummings scored the game-winning goal for Fairfield, off an assist from Mark Vaughan. The victory was Fairfield’s eighth of the year.
On Saturday night, the Roadrunners hosted Quinnipiac at the Ice Vault arena. Five minutes into action, Thomas Moskal scored off assists from Dahdah and Kimble. Ramapo and Quinnipiac continued to trade goals back and forth for the remainder of the period, as the Roadrunners scored off the sticks of Shanley and Rory Maurer, while Quinnipiac saw goals from their own John Cielo and Jonathan Parker. Recording assists for Ramapo were Dahdah, Moskal, Peter Paszkiel and Matthew Curattalo. For Quinnipiac, Jake Russo, Alex Umbro and Aidan Pasquin tallied assists in the first period.
Leading 3-2, the Roadrunners wasted no time building on their lead, adding two goals from Dahdah in the first five minutes of the second period. Moskal, Shanley and Lovell each recorded assists on Dahdah’s goals. With seven minutes remaining in the second period, Glen Considine scored a power play goal for Quinnipiac, off assists from Nick Emmons and Josh Levesque. Jacob Noyes scored with 13 seconds remaining in the period to bring Quinnipiac within one score of the Roadrunners.
The lone goal scored in the third period was a game-tying score from Quinnipiac’s Francesco Coppola, off an assist from Edwin Scriven. Toward the end of regulation, Kimble was called for an interference penalty that gave Quinnipiac a power play heading into overtime. The Bobcats capitalized off the Roadrunner mistake, as Nick Emmons put one through on the one-man advantage — leading to a 6-5 Quinnipiac victory.
McGarry started both games in net for the Roadrunners over the weekend, tallying 77 saves on 88 shot attempts, good for a .875 save percentage.
Looking ahead, the Roadrunner’s final game before winter break will come on Dec. 10 against Farmingdale State College at the Ice Vault Arena in Wayne.
wjackso2@ramapo.edu
Photo by William Jackson.
