DECEMBER 5th & 6th
How the West was Won! (almost)
Drexel vs. University of Pittsburg
Friday, December 5th

For the fourth weekend in a row, the Dragons faced a top 25 ACHA ranked team. As Drexel did to Penn State, Drexel defeated #21 ranked Pittsburgh, 3-2. After sitting on a bus for five hours, the Dragons roared onto the ice at the Blade Runners Ice Complex and jumped to 2-0 first period advantage.
Zak Blazic (PJ Armstrong) opened the scoring at 7:52. Positioning himself in front of the Panther net, Blazic was able to re-direct Armstrong’s slap shoot from the blue line over the Panther goalie.  Almost 18 minutes into the first period, Bruno Petrillo (Armstrong, Blazic) teamed up with his line mates to execute a nifty three-way touch pass to increase the Dragon margin to 2-0. In the second period, the Panthers began to roar. Playing good defense, Pittsburgh was able to turn aside each Drexel sortie into the offensive zone.  At the 13:30 mark Pittsburgh got on the board with a goal by Brian Foster (Mike Clark), cutting the Dragons lead in half. In the third period, with Adrian Allatt off the ice with a hooking call, Pittsburgh tied the game with a power play goal by Sean Maniuszko (Phil Mains, Justin Thomas).  Up stepped goalie Dan Pyne for the Dragons.  Pyne stopped shot after Panther shot to keep the game tied.  With 1:55 left in regulation, team leading scorer Alex Cohen (Allatt) scored the winning goal.  On the power play, Cohen looked the Pittsburgh goalie off the near post by feigning a cross ice pass.  Cohen’s bullet hit the mark, and Drexel defeated another top 25 ACHA team.

Drexel vs. Indiana University at PA
Saturday, December 6th

After defeating Pittsburgh, the Dragons traveled to Indiana, Pennsylvania with the goal of weekend sweep.  No dice!  IUP prevailed in a shoot-out. With a good luck dinner in their bellies courtesy of freshman Mike Simone’s family, the Dragons jumped to a first period, first minute, first shift, score by Alex Cohen (Tom Buklarewicz).  IUP tied the game by Delaware Valley native, Ben Robertson on short hand goal at 12:31 of the first period of this seesaw game.
In the second period, the Dragons again got the upper hand.  Bruno Petrillo (Matt Mansur, Kevin Thren) scored in the second minute of the second shift of the second period.  IUP came right back to tie the score less than one minute later on an even strength goal by Andrew Hedash.
In the third period, IUP seemed to skate stronger as the cobwebs of two long bus rides began to take its toll on Dragon legs.  IUP began to pepper goalie Dan Pyne with shots from all over the ice.  IUP finally dented Pyne at the 15:01 mark as Joe Ford knocked in a rebound to give IUP a power play lead.  The seesaw continued. Taking a pass from Petrillo, Zak Blazic (Petrillo, Jake Davis) got a step on the IUP defender on the left side and tied the game with just over seven minutes left in regulation. Drexel failed to connect on a power play opportunity at the end of regulation.
In the overtime period, Drexel seemingly scored the winning goal as Matt Mansur slid a loose puck into the net under the fallen IUP goalie.  For some inexplicable reason, the referee ruled no goal, citing he lost sight of the puck.  That lost goal was Drexel’s last opportunity as the teams ended the 5 minute OT period still tied. IUP prevailed in the shoot out, 2-0.  Pyne stopped 60 shots, the referee stopped one.  The one was the difference as the West was (almost) won.

Game Summary Provided by: C.J. Blazic