Despite effort, Eastern drops two

Kevin Kenealy
Online Interactive Editor

It was all quiet on the Eastern front. At least for Eastern's RSO hockey team's offense it was.

This past weekend, Eastern took a hit against Southern Illinois at Edwardsville 14-4 over the course of two games at the East Alton Ice Arena.

Coming off a 7-4 loss Friday night, Eastern appeared to be playing some of the best hockey they had all year Saturday afternoon, at least for the first two periods.

Whereas Eastern let SIUE take a commanding 3-0 lead at the end of 1 in game one, they contained the Cougars to a tight 0-0 score through nearly 30 minutes in the second game.

"We played good for two and a half periods and then they just took the wind out of our sails," Captain Dave Fitzgerald said.

Despite early penalty trouble that included three penalties in the first three minutes, starting goalie Nick Maggio looked at the top of his game, not allowing 27 shots on goals to even phase him.

The first goal that was scored on Magg appeared to take him by surprise as it was slapped to the top of the net, 1-0.

Due to time constraints, a simple timeout was all that separated the second and third, and perhaps is part of what contributed to Eastern's downfall.

Just minutes before the start of the third, Eastern had looked about as sharp as they had all year and then a minute and a half into the period it became 2-0. A few minutes later, it became 3-0 on a sidewinder goal around the net.

But it was a dinky slap shot from the outside that sent Eastern's fans into a solemn state. As if the Cougars didn't have the edge already, they also scored a few more lucky outside shots, cementing the victory and burying any chance of a rally.

Penalty trouble also contributed to Eastern's fall in game two as they were tagged with 16, with two 10-minute misconducts attributed to Fitzgerald and Ryan Hastings. Hastings alone went to the box six times.

When Matt Elrod, who acted as a player-coach during the game, was asked what had happened to such a tightly controlled game, all he could do was shrug.

The loss tags Eastern with a losing record for the first time this season at 10-11 and now they will have to face a tough Missouri State team this weekend away to try to redeem their winning record.