Some characteristics of a well-rounded team include, leadership, consistency of play, and showing heart. The Eagles would go on to show all of these traits in Sunday’s game against Florida Atlantic University (FAU). A Sunday matinee matchup would end a weekend filled with the Eagles playing quality opponents, as they played Florida State on Friday night. The Eagles would be without their head coach, Bob Joyce, on the bench on Sunday. Joyce was at the University of North Dakota, celebrating with his former teammates a thirty year reunion of the 1987 national championship winning ice hockey team. Joyce was the captain of that team, and set a record of scoring 52 goals in the championship winning season. Coach Joyce brings the same leadership he possessed back then to every game he coaches for the Embry-Riddle Eagles, but on Sunday it would be Coaches Anthony Galante and Bill Thompson who would be leading the charge.
It’s a battle of the birds in this game’s tale of the tape. The Eagles come in with a record of 4-3. They are averaging 5 goals a game, and allowing, on average, 3 goals a game. The Owls come in with a record of 0-3. Their losses come to University of Central Florida and Florida State. The Eagles lost to Florida State on Friday night, but in a very close game so an eye-test shows these two teams looking evenly matched. The Owls score, on average, 1 goal a game, and allow 6 goals a game. Comparing stats shows the Eagles to have a clear advantage, but pregame stats don’t win games.
The first period started and FAU came out with an early 3-0 lead. The Eagles failed to generate any goals, but they did get some good shots on FAU’s goalie. The Eagles ended the period with 9 shots, and 2 of those coming in grade A scoring area, while the Owls ended the first with 14 shots, with fifty percent of their shots coming in grade A scoring areas. Mitchell Kihm started in net for the Eagles, and stood on his head to keep them in the game despite a strong Owls attack. The Owls had three great shifts to start the game, but they would run out of steam as the game progressed.
The second period started with another FAU goal, pushing their lead to 4-0. Bobby Elisha would relieve Kihm midway through the second period. Kihm ended his day with stopping 16 of 20 shots, and made some fantastic saves as the fast-paced Owls threw all they had at him. The next goal belonged to the Owls as well, as they scored on a 4 on 3 situation (due to both teams having men in the penalty box). At 5-0, the Eagles could have quit as it seemed it was not their day, but that is not what followed. The final goal in the second period would finally go the Eagles way. The Eagles were on a powerplay, the face-off was won by Ryan Marks, and he won it back to Spencer Kuhlman. Kuhlman walked across the blue line, drawing a FAU player to follow him. He found Glenn Corey open with a pass above the left face-off circle, who was patient and found Brenden Barger skating untouched behind every Owl on the ice. Corey made a perfect tape-to-tape pass to Barger who tapped it through the goalie’s five hole for a goal. Corey’s patience drew two FAU defensemen, which in turn opened the ice for Barger. As commentator Dr. Byrnes said, “It was a great setup!”. The period would end with the scoreboard reading 5-1. The Eagles ended the period with 5 shots, with all of them coming in grade A scoring chances, and the Owls shot 11 times, with 7 coming in grade A scoring areas.
It will be hard to accurately describe the uptick in play that the Eagles showed in the third period (I of course will try), but Coach Galante said it best describing it as “art”. Very early in the period the Eagles got a powerplay. Spencer Kuhlman gained possession and skated on top of the attacking zone looking for a lane. He saw there was traffic in front of the net and let a shot fly. The puck laid in a pile of bodies, and Ryan Marks put stick to puck on a backhand to score a goal. 5-2, FAU. Less than two minutes later, FAU was frantically trying to clear the puck out of their zone. Ryan Marks was strong on the puck though, and battled three Owls up and down the left side boards, taking hits and making moves with the puck on his stick. He shot the puck towards the net, and it hit Spencer Kuhlman, who was in front. The puck dribbled past Kuhlman and the defender who was covering him, and found Kyle Usiak, who was all alone on the back side of the net. Usiak shot the puck right under the diving FAU goaltender’s glove for a goal. With the score narrowing, 5-3, FAU took a time out. The Eagles could not be stopped with a stoppage of play though. Ryan Marks would win the next offensive zone face-off, make a pass to Chris Barton, who would catch the pass on defense and take a shot towards the net. The goalie made the initial save, but on the rebound Marks put another backhand shot into the net. All this occurred in the first five minutes of the third period. The Eagles were on a roll, and found new life in the last period of play. The Owls would respond, making it a 6-4 game. The Eagles thrive in crunch time, and with fifteen seconds to play, and six Eagles on the ice as they pulled the goalie, Spencer Kuhlman had the puck in the corner and passed it to the slot hoping to find Glenn Corey. Corey got a piece of the puck and put it on net. The FAU goaltender stopped that attempt, but Ryan Marks pushed the puck past the goalie on the second attempt for a dramatic goal. That would be three goals on the day for Marks. Hats off to you, Ryan Marks. The score was now 6-5 with fourteen seconds to play. The Eagles  mustered one more attack, but the final whistle would blow and the Eagles would lose 6-5. The stats would show that the third period belonged to the Eagles, as they had 17 shots, with 8 coming in grade A scoring areas, while the Owls had 8 shots, with 3 coming in grade A scoring areas. Bobby Elisha’s stats in net to end the game showed he stopped 11 of 13 shots, and was integral in an Eagles’ comeback.
The Eagles might have lost the game, but they showed characteristics of a well-rounded team. We mentioned the characteristics earlier, but let’s see how the Eagles displayed each. First, leadership. The Eagles, as mentioned earlier, usually have Coach Bob Joyce on the bench, but Coach Anthony Galante and Coach Bill Thompson showed that leadership runs throughout the whole coaching staff, as the team didn’t miss a beat and battled the whole game, falling just short of beating a quality opponent. Certain players such as Mike Pandolfo and Brenden Barger displayed their leadership and guidance between periods and on the ice. Second is consistency of play. This one I’ll be honest, the Eagles have showed so far to be a second half team. What does this mean? So, the Eagles have shown time and again that they may fall behind early in games, but they don’t quit and battle back causing dramatic finishes in the second half of the game. The Eagles consistently outplay opponents in the second half of games. This sometimes leads to victories, as they battle back for leads, or losses, as they fall just short. On one hand, they are consistent on being a second half team, but on the other hand they could be more consistent by playing all three periods at the same level as they do the second half of the game. This was the consensus in the locker room as Barger addressed the team and said they need to start playing the first two periods like they do the third. The team agreed. One thing is for sure, being a second half team leads the Eagles into some dramatic finishes. Third and finally is showing heart. The Eagles the past three games have battled from behind to set up intense finales to their games. Last Sunday, they beat Flagler by mounting a third period comeback. On Friday night, against Florida State, and this game against FAU, they came within a goal in the last few minutes of the game, only for the clock to run out before the comeback was complete. A theme throughout these games, no matter the outcome, is the Eagles battle until the last whistle. While other teams take their foot off the gas, as shown by the Eagles making comebacks, the Eagles accelerate the whole game and leave everything on the ice.
The Eagles have one more game before fall break, a Wednesday night rivalry game against Flagler (be sure to read my article on the last Embry-Riddle vs Flagler game to get an idea how physical that game will be). The Eagles are sitting at 4-4. It would be nice to fly into fall break with a winning record, and the Eagles look to accomplish just that on Wednesday night.

-Nick Conrad

Watch the game here: https://youtu.be/d90E5LftPmk