11/12/2012

To follow up a pair of huge wins against Bowling Green, your UT Hockey team headed east this past weekend to take on TSCHL rivals Pitt and Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP).  Friday night’s game against Pitt turned out to be another good game in the growing rivalry between the two clubs.  Having last played each other in the semi-finals of the TSCHL playoffs, both teams took the ice with something to prove.

Pitt looked ready to upset the reigning TSCHL champs and played the Rockets very even throughout the first period.  Their hard work paid off in the closing seconds of the period as they were able to sneak a puck past starting goalie Zac Cherney.

Starting the second period down 1-0, the Rockets wasted no time in getting their offense rolling.  Less than two minutes into the period, Sven Weisser tied the game on a goal assisted by Garryt Kujawa and Zach Kinney.  Pitt would not go quietly though and quickly answered with a goal of their own.  As the back and forth action ensued, the Rockets quickly tied the game again this time with a goal from Ryan Sell on an assist from Brent Bain.  After this flurry in the first four minutes of play, things settled down a bit before the Rockets took their first lead of the game with a power play goal from Jordan Jones.  The slap shot by Jones was set up by Sell.  The Rockets carried their 3-2 lead into the second intermission.

The teams once again battled to a stalemate for much of the third period before Sell picked up his second goal of the night with a little less than six minutes to go in the game.  He was helped on the play by Bain and Zach Born.  Pitt battled back, picking up a goal with four minutes to play, but the Rockets were able to shut the door and hand Pitt a 4-3 defeat.

Continuing the road trip, the Rockets traveled to Indiana, Pennsylvania on Saturday to take on the Crimson Hawks of IUP.  This was something of a trap game for the team last year and the Rockets looked to avoid a similar fate this year.

The Crimson Hawks scored first, but after that the Rockets controlled the game and made sure it would not be a repeat of last year.  Trailing 1-0, the Rockets wasted no time in tying the score with Chris Watkins lighting the lamp less then 30 seconds after the first IUP goal.  Justin Saunders and Logan Myers picked up the assists.  Later in the period, Kyle Swansegar added a power play goal with help of Dan Lopez and Weisser.

Up 2-1, the Rockets kept the momentum rolling with Born picking up a goal on an assist from Tyler Althouse.  Kujawa would then get in on the action, adding a power play goal from Kinney and Lopez.  Bain would add a 5^th goal later in the period to give the Rockets a commanding 5-1 lead.  Bain’s tally was assisted by Kinney and Sell.

The third period started out much the same for the Rockets with Swansegar earning his second goal of the night.  Again the power forward scored on the power play, this time with an assist from Justin Phillips.  IUP would finally find some life though and would trade goals with the Rockets the rest of the way.  Luckily, the Rockets picked up a goal each from Lopez and Born to help seal the victory.  Brendon Sokoloski, Swansegar, Althouse, and Sell each added assists on one of the final two goals.  The final score was Toledo 8, IUP 4.