Bryon Center, MI – The Bryn Athyn College men's ice hockey team slipped past #3 Kennesaw State, 8-5 in game two of pool play at the ACHA Ice Hockey national championships.
Connor Buick was named Howies Hockey Tape Play of the Game.
Jayson Marbach led the Lions with three goals. Anthony Notorfrancesco scored one goal and two assists. Buick and Travis McCurdy had one goal and one assist. Justin Nugent and Anthony Astorino put in one goal apiece.
Marbach expressed," We had a short turnaround from last night. Tomorrow is a new beast and we'll be ready. It's win or go home and we're not ready to go home yet."
Paul Napierkowski picked up the puck in the defensive zone, skated up to neutral zone, and connected the pass to Marbach. He took the puck down the left side; pushing off a defender and beats the goals shot side to give the Lions their lead at 12:56 of the first period. The Owls would battle, putting pressure on the Bryn Athyn zone. With less than a minute left in the game, Kennesaw State forward picked up a pass on their own blue line and went on a breakaway, tried to beat Steven Altman blocker side and was stopped. The Lions took the puck to the other end and took a shot on net, which was covered. Bryn Athyn would win the faceoff in the Owls zone, and Astorino scored from top of the circles to extend the lead to 2-0 with 36 seconds left in the period. The Lions out shot the Owls 16-9 in the period.
Bryn Athyn would take their offensive pressure into the second period, Buick scored 1:17 into the period, off a pass from Devyn Dworsky. Three minutes later, Marbach punched in a centering pass from McCurdy to take a 4-0 lead. At the 6:07 mark, Nugent scored to extend the Bryn Athyn lead to 5-0. Kennesaw State went on a three goal scoring frenzy to bring the game back within two goals. All three goals came from the Owls power play. McCurdy, one timed a pass from Chris Ebersole to take a 6-3 lead. 30 seconds later, Notorfrancesco scored short handed to rebuild the Lions lead to 7-3. The Owls answered with a goal with to minutes left in the game to bring it back within three. With a minute left in the period, Marbach picks up a turnover on the Owls and sniped bar down to end the period 8-3.
Kennesaw State would score the lone goal in the third period, but it wasn't enough to take away the Bryn Athyn win.
Altman made 28 saves in net for the Lions.
Bryn Athyn finishes pool play tomorrow night at 7:45 pm against #2 Calvin. Both teams enter the game with a 2-0 record. The winner of this game will move forward to the semifinal game Friday night.