This weekend, the Saint Louis University club hockey team sank the U.S. Naval Academy in a back-to-back series Saturday and Sunday in St. Louis, outscoring the Midshipmen for a total of 18-5 over the weekend. In Sunday’s matinee with Navy, the Billikens breezed past the Midshipmen 8-3 to round out the Veteran’s Day weekend engagement.
“Sunday was a good team effort,” said junior captain Tim Niedbalski. “We scored three goals on the power play, and every line got a goal.”
The Billikens came out on fire and scored three straight goals to open the game. Navy managed to score a single goal in the period but couldn’t mount a rally late in the period. Chris Peterson netted the fourth goal, which would end up being the game winner.
After establishing an early lead, the Billikens eased their efforts in the second period and allowed Navy to cut the gap to one goal by the end of the period.
“We need to work on consistency,” Niedbalski said. “It’s going to be a matter of us keeping our concentration throughout the game. We were up 4-1 at one point, and we just let down.”
In the third period, the Bills recaptured their form of the first period and quickly took away any hopes of an upset by the Mids, scoring four more goals to end the gala 8-3.
“The entire team played well. Russ Sprague played very well in goal. It was his first start, and he may have been a little nervous, but he turned his nerves into a good game,” Niedbalski said. “Matt McComy had a good game and scored two goals, and three guys (Peterson, Adam Kulp and Geoff Schuessler) scored their first goals this weekend.”
Saturday night, the Billikens handed the Midshipmen a 10-2 pounding that got off to an unusual start. Schuessler, the team’s starting goalie, scored the first goal of the outing by being the last SLU player to touch the puck on a delayed penalty that slid into Navy’s goal. A Navy forward shot the puck at Schuessler, who deflected the puck back out onto the ice, which was swooped up by a Navy player who tried to send the puck back to a teammate near the blue line, but the pass went long and slid into the empty net.
After that, the Billikens scored two more unanswered goals in the first period.
“Geoff had a very strong game,” said coach John Bosch. “That first goal was squirrelly, but overall he had a great game. Geoff seems like he gets stronger as the other team takes more shots on him.”
In the second period, Navy scored their first goal of the game when Lukin Lane slid the puck to J.D. Walker in a flurry in front of SLU’s net, and Walker easily buried the shot.
In the ninth minute of the period, Jon Zimmer avenged the Mids’ goal by scoring unassisted off a breakaway.
Seven minutes later, however, Navy answered back with another goal, this time after a series of short passes in front of the net until the puck finally reached Kacey Kemmerer, who netted the puck with 4:53 remaining in the period.
Navy tightened up defensively in hopes of preventing the Bills’ lead from increasing, but Mark Uvodich and Jordan Janes each added a goal before the end of the period, making it a 6-2 game heading into the final stanza.
At the start of the third period, Navy changed goalies, but the change ended up backfiring on the Mids as SLU scored four straight goals to end the game 10-2.
