Your Men's D3 Club Hockey Team faced off against the Akron Zips for the first time this season. The Colonials would meet up with the Zips once again, with the second game taking place in January. Coming off of a 3-7 loss against Duquesne, RMU would hopefully look to get back on track with a win here at home.
Each team spent the entirety of the first period looking for any sort of an opening, but neither were able to find a goal. Nick Arcaya had multiple great saves, and was doing very well to keep Akron from scoring. RMU found themselves with a power play opportunity late, but the Zips were doing very well defensively and eventually killed. The first period would close with the score still remaining at 0-0, but both teams were flashing their attacking prowess and it would be safe to assume that the deadlock would break very soon.
To the surprise of no one, the scoring opening in the first minutes of the second period. Unfortunately, it was the Zips who struck first after a defensive breakdown from the Colonials opened up a nice lane which resulted in a goal. Several minutes later, Akron snuck a shot right over the shoulder of Nick Arcaya and increased their lead to 0-2. To make matters worse, the Zips added yet another goal on the power play towards the end of the period. Now faced with a 0-3 deficit, the Colonials needed to get back into this one sooner rather than later. They did just that after Justin Pollard buried his first goal of the season with seconds left. The second period would close at 1-3, but RMU would hopefully carry some momentum from their previous goal into the third and climb back into this game.
The Colonials found themselves with a power play chance early in the third, but the Zips defense held strong and kept RMU from scoring. Minutes later, a costly Colonial penalty made way for a power play goal for the Zips. Akron was seemingly doing everything right, and capitalizing on any mistake the Colonials made. With a 1-4 score about halfway through the third period, RMU would need to ramp up their aggressiveness and hopefully climb back into this game. This third period would not get any easier, though, with Akron adding yet another goal late to extend their lead to 1-5. A bit of life was shown from RMU after Jackson Vukman scored his first career goal, but a miracle was needed to tie this game up with only 2 minutes remaining. The Colonials kept their heads up, and it paid off once again after they added another goal thanks to an absolute snipe from Cameron Macariola. This was now a 3-5 game, but time was just not on RMU's side. The Colonials earned a power play thanks to a silly penalty from Akron, and with the empty net they would play the remaining minute of this game 6-on-4. Unfortunately, the Zips were able to hold them off and this game would finish 3-5.
The Colonials looked decent for the majority of this game, but several unforced errors caused them to drop this one. Now on a two-game losing streak, RMU would look to get back on track on the road next Friday against Case Western Reserve University.
