On Sunday, the Kent State hockey team took on Rochester Institute of Technology in its last home game of the season.
The Flashes ended their senior night game with a score of 6-2, which means that they are still sitting in fourth place in the ACHA Collegiate Hockey Mid-America First Division.
“For us, it’s playoff prep,” coach Zach Nowak said. “We had to treat that game last night as round one of the playoffs because, obviously, we have playoffs coming up. “
The game
Kent State had an early lead with the first point being scored 22 seconds into the first period by freshman forward Kornel Kaibas.
Not long after the first goal, freshman forward Jules Jardine scored another goal only six minutes into the first making it 2-0.
Kornel then scored one last goal with three minutes left in the first period, finishing it off with a score of 3-0 by the end of the first.
About halfway through the second period, RIT came back a little bit by scoring and making it 3-1.
About two minutes after RIT scored, forward Max Mudge scored, making that another goal for the Flashes.
With only two minutes left in the second period, freshman forward Cole Bianchin scored, ending the period with a score of 5-1.
The final period of the game was a little bit slower than the rest with only one goal being scored by the Golden Flashes.
About 10 minutes into the third period, sophomore forward Thomas Avellino scored a goal for Kent State.
Not long after this, RIT scored its second and final goal of the game, making the final score 6-2.
“We’re just trying to build day-by-day, playing better hockey,” Nowak said. “We got out to an early lead in this game, just like we did in the Robert Morris game, but we locked it down in the third period.”
Recap
A lot of players played well in Sunday’s game, with a few standing out; one of them being freshman defenseman Nick Storti. Storti had two assists in Sunday’s game and is also working very well with his other teammates on the ice.
“He’s been so good for us, he struggled getting points on the board early on in the season,” Nowak said. “Since coming back from injury, he’s been shooting the puck so well, just scoring a lot for us, getting a lot of points and getting a lot of assists.”
Also, Bianchin and Kaibas played very well over the weekend. Bianchin scored one goal and also had two assists. Kaibas scored two goals and had one assist.
Finally, senior goalie Nick Beck had a very strong game on Sunday. Nick played the full game and blocked 17 out of the 19 shots on goal.
“We play a certain way, and we want to make sure that, coming into those games, that we’re a little bit unpredictable, we can bring some fresh looks in terms of offensive creativity,” Nowak said. “We also know that we’re gonna have to bring a playoff mentality, we have to be able to eat shots and we have to be really good in the defensive zone.”
Up Next
This weekend, the Flashes will go off to the playoffs and will play Friday, Saturday and Sunday with opponents yet to be named.
“We’re going to have to take care of the back end,” Nowak said. “Then the offense will come from good defense.”
Jamie First is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
