Shootout victory leads to seventh win of season for ACHA DI

After playing two games on the road, the ACHA Division I men’s hockey team took the ice Sunday afternoon hoping to rebound from its first loss of the season against the Drexel University Dragons last weekend, with the Colonials facing the Dragons on home ice this time around.

Although the team gave up a 3-0 lead, they were able to pull through with a 4-3 shootout victory with the help of Wes Heinle.

“Last year we never played with a lead, we always came from behind” said assistant coach Dan Stolze about the team’s late lag. “This year we have the lead, with three or four goals. We’ve become complacent upon those goals. We need to keep driving and keep the focus at hand.”

Zach Barto would start the scoring for the Colonials at the 18:32 mark in the first, after taking a pass from Camden Zappi. With Barto’s goal, the team would take the lead into the second.

With the help of Stephen Thomas and Lucas Chiala, Eddie Sarin would get the early goal in the second, giving the Colonials a 2-0 lead with 1:23 left.

Defenseman Joe Boyer got the team’s third tally of the afternoon with the assists going to Heinle and Cody Brightbill at 6:44.Ten minutes later, Drexel would cut the lead in half with Tyler Woyshner getting the puck behind goaltender Ryan Gayso. After two periods, the Colonials would take a 3-1 lead to the locker room.

With the start of the third period, the Dragons would get on the board with Woyshner’s second goal at 5:50, cutting the lead down to one goal.

The Colonials would hold on to the 3-2 lead until Marco Gagliardi would score the tying goal for Drexel with a 1:28 remaining in regulation.

Unable to score with the 1:28 remaining, the teams headed into four-on-four hockey for a five minute overtime period.

The overtime period was unsuccessful for both teams, forcing a shootout.

To start things off Drexel’s, Eric Brawley was the first shooter.

Brawley had two assists during but could not get the puck behind Gayso.  The puck would hit off the goal post for James Joyce, right before Woyshner came up empty handed for Drexel.

Heinle took a shot glove side and was able to get the puck in making it 1-0. John Quigley was sent out in hopes of keeping the game alive for the Dragons, but unfortunately, Quigley was unable to capitalize on the opportunity, giving RMU its seventh win of the season.

“I was talking to the guys on the bench beforehand and they were talking about his glove side and that was showing some signs to take advantage of so that’s where it went and lucky for me the puck went in” Heinle said.

The team’s next scheduled game is at West Virginia University on October 26.