ANNAPOLIS, MD (Friday, November 30, 2007) – Navy’s ice hockey team started strong Friday night and took a two-goal second period lead, but visiting Stony Brook used four power play goals to bounce back and slip past the Midshipmen, 5-4, at the McMullen Hockey Arena.

 

With the non-league loss, Navy’s overall win-loss record fell to 6-13.

 

The Mids are now idle for the rest of the semester and will not play again until the New Year, when they host Delaware on Friday, January 4 at 7:30 p.m. at McMullen Arena.

 

Forced to juggle the offensive lines because of injuries to some key players, Navy benefited from one of the new combos early in the first period when junior center Charlie Daniel scored at 2:24, assisted by classmate Matt Swezey and senior defenseman Adam Shields.  Swezey had been moved up from defense to join Daniel and senior Brian Gleason on one of the Mids’ forward lines.

 

Stony Brook tied the score at 1-1 later in the period at 14:15 with a power play goal off the stick of sophomore Ryan Hodkinson.  But Navy regained its one goal edge before the first period ended when Daniel won a key face-off in the Seawolves’ end of the ice and fed the puck to sophomore defenseman Patrick Heitman, who in turn passed the puck to Swezey, who then found the back of the net at 16:31.

 

The Midshipmen took a 3-1 lead when junior Jeff Martin scored an unassisted power play goal just 1:33 after the start of the second stanza.  But unfortunately 16th ranked Stony Brook dominated the remainder of the period, scoring three unanswered goals -- two of them by Hodkinson to give the Mount Sinai, New York native a hat trick -- to grab a 4-3 lead.  Both of Hodkinson’s second period goals came while the Mids were killing a penalty.

 

Navy rallied to tie the contest early in the third period when senior Nick Schwob stole the puck while killing a penalty and skated in alone on Stony Brook goaltender Derek Stevens.  Although Stevens stopped Schwob’s initial shot, linemate Jon Westerman pounced on the rebound and put it past Stevens at 3:13 to tie the score 4-4.

 

But the visiting Seawolves scored their fourth power play goal of the night, credited to Mauricio Torres, at  the10:08 mark of the final period, to take a 5-4 lead.  Although the 25th ranked Mids fought hard to the end and had several good scoring opportunities, Stevens slammed the door shut with 14 third period saves to keep Navy off the scoreboard until the final buzzer sounded.

 

Stevens finished the game with 30 overall saves on 34 Navy shots, while Mid goaltender Eric “Andy” Anderson was credited with 27 saves on 32 Seawolves’ shots.

 

 

SCORING SUMMARY

 

Stony Brook                 1          3          1          -           5

NAVY                         2          1          1          -           4

 

First Period

N – Daniel (Swezey, Shields) 2:24

S – Hodkinson (Kentoffio) 14:15 (pp)

N – Swezey (Heitman, Daniel) 16:31

 

Second Period

N – Martin (unassisted) 1:33 (pp)

S – Breiterman (Torres, Marek) 3:56

S – Hodkinson (Marek) 7:29 (pp)

S – Hodkinson (Breiterman) 12:33 (pp)

 

Third Period

N – Westerman (Schwob) 3:13 (sh)

S – Torres (unassisted) 10:08 (pp)

 

 

SAVES

Stevens (Stony Brook)              6          10        14        -           30

Anderson (NAVY)                   6          5          16        -           27

 

SHOTS

Stony Brook                             7          8          17        -           32

NAVY                                     8          11        15        -           34