The Kent State D1 club ice hockey team was swept by the Cleary University Cougars this weekend after struggling to keep the net clean. The Flashes moved to 1-3 after splitting a pair of games against Cincinnati last week.

The Cougars walked into the Kent State Ice Arena to lace its skates for the first time this year, as CU opened the season on the road. Cleary moved to 2-0 on the young 2025 campaign. 

Friday 

Just 5:47 into the first period, the Cougars struck first on a goal from southpaw forward freshman Bailey Ewonus, with the assist

going to sophomore forward Tommy Madden and freshman forward Blair Krawchyk. 

KSU countered quickly, as freshman forward Nick Cutaia tied the game on an unassisted goal. 

However, Cleary set the tone early in this one, foreshadowing its pension to score lots of goals during this series. In just over four minutes, the Cougars scored two goals, with senior forward Collin Kerchoff and junior forward Billy Simms putting the Flashes in a 3-1 hole the team could not come back from. 

Cole Bianchin, the sophomore forward out of Pittsburgh, has been the Flashes leading man on offense to start 2025. Bianchin, who already had three goals on the year, pulled KSU to within one goal in the beginning of second period. 

The Cougars responded in resounding fashion, scoring two goals to make it a 5-2 game. Krawchyk found the net a second time, and sophomore forward Stephen Miller scored his first goal of the 2025 season. 

Following the barrage of Cougar goals, the Flashes switched goalies, going from sophomore Victor Willock to graduate student Kyle Bartlett. 

“We’ve got three new goalies in the program, and we’re trying to figure out who fits where,” coach Zack Nowak said. “It needed to be a change of pace at the time, but I thought Willock played just fine.”

Heading into intermission between the second and third periods, Nowak had a lengthy and vocal discussion with the referee

crew. 

“If I wanna make sure that our guys are staying quiet and focused on hockey I need to make sure that the rules are protecting them,” Nowak said. “For us it was a little bit frustrating, because we wanted to make sure that the rules of the game were protecting our players.” 

Both teams tacked on another goal in the third, but it wasn’t enough for the Flashes to mount a comeback, losing 6-3 in the opening match. 

Saturday 

Coming off a slow start in the previous game, KSU started blazing hot on Saturday. Three different Flashes found the net in the opening period, with junior forward Bryson Miller and sophomore forward Adrian Sanchez giving the lead before Cutaia would complete the KSU hat trick of goals.

The Cougars, staying resilient, got right back into the mix, with Kerchoff scoring another goal in the series to make it a 3-2 match. Sanchez brought the lead back to two on goal with an assist by freshman forward Liam Norton. 

Cleary University once again found its scoring magic, nailing a whopping five unanswered goals, a knockout punch that the Flashes could not recover from. Krawchyk ended up being the architect of the high-flying comeback, scoring two more goals to complete his Saturday hat trick. 

KSU sophomore defenseman Chaseton Sieling scored his first goal of the season just over 14 minutes into the third period as the Flashes lost 8-5. 

Moving Forward

The Flashes will take a week off before heading to Midland, MI to take on the Northwood University Timberwolves for a two game series on Oct. 10 and 11. 

“I think we’re a better team than what we’ve shown,” Nowak said.  “I think we have a lot of work in front of us in terms of committing to our structure and committing to what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Gage Wellman is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected] or @GageWellmanKSTV on X.