2008 Woodie Awards
Hockey eyes championship run
By Matt Chandik
Issue date: 2/4/08 Section: Sports
Merely a week after claiming their second straight ECHA regular season championship by virtue of a 6-2 win over Stony Brook, the WCU Men's hockey team headed to West Virginia for a two game set with the WVU Mountaineers and left with another two notches on their belt, winning by the scores of 5-3 Saturday and a 5-4 shootout win on Sunday.
The weekend saw some more encouraging signs for the Rams, as it showed that their recent balanced scoring is no fluke. During Saturday's game, four different Rams scored on WVU goaltender Rastislav Kret.
Sophomore defenseman Jeff Shockley continued his recent scoring hot streak as he added his fourth goal of the season. Scoring from defensemen this year has gone down significantly, as there are no longer any very offensively-minded defensemen such as Bob Kenworthy and Bobby Jones as there were last year, so more goals from the blue liners is definitely a great sign as the team rounds into playoff form.
Junior forward Drew Mervin also continued his torrid scoring streak he has recently been on by adding a goal against the Mountaineers, and usual suspects Robert Bushman and Pat Johnson combined for three goals to top the #14 Mountaineers. Johnson has been on fire all year and has nearly accumulated 80 points on the year, good for second in the country behind captain Jim Gehring.
Sophomore goaltender Corey Hackney is definitely hitting his peak at the right time. He stopped 45 of 48 shots against Stony Brook last week, and continued his success this weekend with a pair of outstanding games.
Sunday's game saw an exciting wire-to-wire game which culminated in a shootout. Gehring paced the Rams with a pair of goals in regulation, and sophomores Mike Longo and Bob MacLaughlin also chipped in a goal each.
With the score knotted at four after 65 minutes of play, the teams went to a shootout. Gehring, sophomore Eric Keene and sophomore Pat Johnson all tallied a goal for the Rams, and Hackney was able to turn away the Mountaineer shooters as the Rams won the shootout 3-2. The win evened the Rams' shootout record this year at two wins and two losses.
The weekend saw some more encouraging signs for the Rams, as it showed that their recent balanced scoring is no fluke. During Saturday's game, four different Rams scored on WVU goaltender Rastislav Kret.
Sophomore defenseman Jeff Shockley continued his recent scoring hot streak as he added his fourth goal of the season. Scoring from defensemen this year has gone down significantly, as there are no longer any very offensively-minded defensemen such as Bob Kenworthy and Bobby Jones as there were last year, so more goals from the blue liners is definitely a great sign as the team rounds into playoff form.
Junior forward Drew Mervin also continued his torrid scoring streak he has recently been on by adding a goal against the Mountaineers, and usual suspects Robert Bushman and Pat Johnson combined for three goals to top the #14 Mountaineers. Johnson has been on fire all year and has nearly accumulated 80 points on the year, good for second in the country behind captain Jim Gehring.
Sophomore goaltender Corey Hackney is definitely hitting his peak at the right time. He stopped 45 of 48 shots against Stony Brook last week, and continued his success this weekend with a pair of outstanding games.
Sunday's game saw an exciting wire-to-wire game which culminated in a shootout. Gehring paced the Rams with a pair of goals in regulation, and sophomores Mike Longo and Bob MacLaughlin also chipped in a goal each.
With the score knotted at four after 65 minutes of play, the teams went to a shootout. Gehring, sophomore Eric Keene and sophomore Pat Johnson all tallied a goal for the Rams, and Hackney was able to turn away the Mountaineer shooters as the Rams won the shootout 3-2. The win evened the Rams' shootout record this year at two wins and two losses.
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