The Duquesne Division 1 club hockey team took on Canisius University on Friday, September 16th, at Alpha Ice Complex. The Dukes lost the game by a score of 7 to 3, despite out shooting the Golden Griffins 35 to 21. 

    The Dukes started the game on the front foot, pushing the pace and making it very difficult for Canisius to have any sort of attack. However, a penalty around halfway through the period led to a Canisius power play goal to open the scoring, and that stopped any momentum the team had. The Dukes would end the first period down 2-0 after giving up a goal with 35 seconds remaining as a result of a bad giveaway in the defensive zone. 

    Canisius doubled the lead within the first 5 minutes of the second period, scoring twice, both times from right in front of the Duquesne net. “Our coverage in the D-zone and transition game is lacking,” said head coach Conrad Waite post-game, “but most of it is just on the mental side of things.” This is a very young and inexperienced Duquesne team, and Coach Waite believes this was the root of the Dukes’ problems. 

    Duquesne forward and captain Hayden Feck opened the scoring for Duquesne, 5 minutes into the second period, taking full advantage of a rebound off the goalie’s pads that bounced right to him, finishing the chance. “I gotta get it on net before the goalie gets into his spot,” he said. 

    Feck’s goal served as a spark for another great stretch of play. The Dukes were all over the Golden Griffins, who could barely get the puck out of their own defensive zone, let alone establish some offensive zone time of their own. However, another tough penalty for the Dukes ended that stretch. “It is something the youth of our team shows in not being able to maintain our highest level consistently,” said Coach Waite, although he was pleased with how they played during their stretches of good play. Assistant coach Jordan Weigand was also pleased with those stretches, saying “they [Canisius] couldn’t handle it with 2 on the puck,” but pointing out that those moments of pressure weren’t sustained. 

    The Dukes would go on to give up a power play goal very quickly into the kill, but they were able to score one in the waning seconds of the period. CJ Simione’s late shot took an oppourtune bounce to forward Kody Reiser who fired it into the net, ending a poor period on a sweeter note. 

    Canisius scored first in the third, and Duquesne responded 2 minutes later with another Feck goal, this time coming from a beautiful assist from Sam Hoyen, who took the puck around the net and passed it on his back hand to a wide open Feck, in front of the goal. Feck commended Hoyen for going in hard to the boards to win the puck, saying “he did the hard part.” Duquesne surrendered another goal, this time with the goalie pulled with 9 minutes remaining in the game, and lost 7-3. 

“This should not have been 7-3,” said Feck after the game, stating that he and the team need to “stay disciplined.” Coach Waite agreed saying that “the discipline and mental side is gonna be the hardest thing for us to figure out.” However, he is excited about the “potential we showed,” looking forward to big things in the future. 

The Dukes’ next home game is over homecoming weekend on October 7th at Alpha Ice Complex against Mercyhurst at 9:20 pm.