The Bearcats increased their record to 13-4 this weekend, after a 6-2 victory Saturday afternoon overcrosstown rivals Xavier.  The win, UC’s third over XU this season, has helped to catapult UC into the third slot in North D3 standings, leaving them only one point behind number two Hope College. 

Saturday’s game got off to an uneventful start, neither team scoring until 1:36 remained in play, when UC’s Michael Mercer, assisted by Jon Korst, found the net behind the Xavier goalie to give the Bearcats a 1-0 lead heading into the second period. 

A few minutes later, at 12:35 in the second, Xavier answered back, slipping the first of their two goals past UC netminder Martin Paul, and tying the score at 1-1.  Some eight minutes later, despite being in the midst of a six penalty streak which would last the remainder of the game, alternate captain Ben Bailey, assisted by second-year forward Tony Sarni, scored, giving UC the lead once more.   

The third period would go much the same was as the second, largely dominated by the Bearcats despite numerous power play opportunities for the Muskies.  At 17:02, center Alex Silvestros, assisted by fellow forward Jeremy Bougeois and defenseman Anthony Bodnarik, tipped in a shot, taking the score to 3-1 in favor of the Bearcats. 

As expected between the two bitter rivals, play became increasingly chippy as the third progressed, but despite some pushing and shoving, forward Michael Rehbaum, assisted by Jake Bonta, scored against the XU netminder once more, at 11:55.  Less than 20 seconds later, Jarell Gillens, assisted by Korst, added yet another point to the scoreboard.

At 8:58 left to play, XU picked up the only power play goal of the afternoon, slipping the puck past both the UC defense and goaltender, cutting the Bearcats’ lead to only three points.  UC answered back some four minutes later, at 4:23, when Silvestros, assisted by Bougeois recorded his second goal of the game. 

Time expired without change to the score, and the Bearcats emerged from the afternoon victorious, 6-2.  UC is unbeaten against Xavier this season, but still have a final two game series against the Musketeers in early January. 

Winning goaltender Martin Paul, who in his last game against Xavier recorded a 6-0 shutout, said of the game, “It’s always feels good to get a win, especially going into the break.”  Paul hasn’t seen much playing time since the previous Xavier victory, and went into Saturday’s game with totally new equipment, which he feels affected his play.  He faced 23 shots, turning away 21, and despite allowing two goals, he called the win an “all around good game.”

Coach Blaine Stoughton agreed with the goalie, praising the team’s overall performance in the face of an uneventful first twenty.  “The team kept their composure, they didn’t get frustrated.  We were out-playing [XU], but not scoring.  We’re not a high-scoring team, we win close victories.”

Though they may not be a high-scoring team, the goals the Bearcats do score, coupled with strong defensive play and goaltending, have been enough to defeat even the most challenging of opponents.  Still charged from their recent victory over No. 1 Hope College, the victory over Xavier only served to add more fuel to the Bearcats’ fire. 

“We’re working hard,” says Silvestros, “The team’s running on all cylinders.”  Rookie forward Adam Dahl added, “We were geared up, we came out skating faster, and we were more prepared.”

UC goes into December with only one game remaining before the Christmas break.  Veteran player and former team captain Zac Nelson will leave the team over the break, joining a Serve Beyond Cincinnati trip to Africa for the remainder of the season. 

After a weekend off for the Thanksgiving holiday, the Bearcats hit the road and travel to Fort Wayne to take on IPFW once more, on their home ice.  The last time the teams met, in the beginning of November, UC won, 6-5.  A full preview of the game will follow in the next week. 

*Please visit the team’s facebook site for photos of this weekend’s game*

The UC Bearcats returned home from Michigan 12-4 on the season, after splitting the weekend’s series, losing Friday to Davenport University, but later defeating Hope College in the most exciting victory of the season.

Only a few hours after arriving in Michigan Friday, the Bearcats travelled to Patterson Ice Arena to take on now 6-6 Davenport University at 8 p.m.  Despite the long trip, UC seemed primed to give number seven ranked Davenport a run for their money as the first period began.

UC took first blood, Steven Louie, assisted by team captain Mike Jagelewski, scoring at 17:20.  This would prove to be the only point for the Bearcats, and Davenport answered back with only 36 seconds remaining in the period, tieing the score at 1-1 going into the second period.

Starting center Alex Silvestros received a minor penalty for hooking, and a ten minute misconduct at 8:52 in the second, rendering him ineligible to play for the remainder of the period.

“[The penalty] was frustrating, for him and for us,” said starting goalie Ted Riolo, “It’s hard to get momentum going with your starting center in the box for 12 minutes.  It couldn’t have happened at a worse time.”

Riolo, it seems, was correct, as the game would remain deadlocked for less than a minute after Silvestros was put in the box.  At 7:54 Davenport scored on the power play against Riolo, and, a little over a minute later, they scored again.  Despite solid play in the first, Riolo was pulled in favor of rookie goalie Greg Geyer.

The line-up change wasn’t enough to stop the bleeding, however, and Davenport scored again at 3:08 and 1:13 and the Bearcats retired to the locker room for the second time trailing by 4.

The third period was no better for UC, Davenport scoring first at 18:47, taking the score to 6-1.  Within a five minute interval, Davenport racked up four more goals before UC got their feet under them and managed to prevent another point for nearly all the rest of the period.

At 49.8 remaining in play, the Davenport captain scored on Geyer, and a shoving match ensued, ending with the Davenport captain pinning the goalie to the ice.  Defenseman Jake Bonta stepped in to assist Geyer, and received a five-minute major penalty according to the ‘third man’ rule, as well as a game DQ.  Both Geyer and the Davenport captain received roughing minors.

Time expired, and the Bearcats left Patterson Ice Arena with an 11-1 loss.  Silvestros commented on the loss, saying, “It was a frustrating game.  In the first period, we held them.  Then they came out fired up.  It was an 11-1 game, but it shouldn’t have been.”  Riolo agreed, and added, “We just have to forget about tonight and move on.”

And move on they did.  Saturday night saw UC at The Edge ice arena, taking on the number one team in the ACHA D3 North Conference, the now 9-2 Hope College Flying Dutchmen.  Both teams were coming off loses the previous evening, the Bearcats from Davenport, and Hope from Saginaw State.

“We expected them to come out hard in the first,” said Riolo, “and they had the crowd behind them.”  The crowd itself was sizeble, nearly 300 strong, and for the first few minutes the extra support seemed to be working in Hope’s favor. continue reading Bearcats Return Victorious, Defeat Number One Hope

The Bearcats won two of three games this weekend despite fatigue, numerous penalties, and consistently chippy play.

Friday night, UC lost 8-5 to an EKU whom they’ve beaten twice to begin the season in September.  The loss came as a surprise to fans given UC’s previous performance against the Colonials.

Coach Blaine Stoughton says a combination of overconfidence on UC’s part and the stellar performance of EKU’s goaltender were to blame for the loss.  “It was a closer game than the score indicated,” says Stoughton, “In the first period, from crease to crease, it was pretty even.”  Even so, by the end of the period, the Bearcats were down 2-0. continue reading UC Wins 2 of 3 in Rough Weekend

For a series that most of the team considered to be “a little sloppy”, the UC Bearcats managed an impressive sweep of the Xavier Musketeers in two straight games on home ice, raising their record to 6-1.

Friday night’s game was an exciting one for Bearcat fans, UC consistently lighting up the scoreboard. In his first start for UC, goaltender Martin Paul denied all comers in the 6-0 blowout win.

Forward Arman Olgun got a dose of long awaited revenge, scoring a hat trick in his first game against XU since blowing out his knee several seasons ago as a result of a dirty hit. “It felt amazing to win like that against [XU], especially since it’s the team that took me out my freshman year.” continue reading Bearcats Sweep Xaiver, 6-0, 4-3