Club hockey team loses two out of three over weekend

by Jason Wolverton
Vanguard Editor-in-Chief

October 23, 2006 —

In just its seventh game since reforming, the Cardinals Club Hockey Team ran into defending national champion Wright State, and the team's nervousness showed.

The Raiders scored two goals in the first five minutes and were up 4-1 after the first period en route to a 10-4 win in the first round of the Seth Schupan Memorial Early Bird Hockey Tournament on Thursday night.

The Cardinals came into the game 5-1-0-1 and ranked sixth in the ACHA College Club Hockey Rankings, but could not get the butterflies out of their stomachs.

"A lot of it had to do with nerves," captain Jake Trombley said. "We were pretty nervous before the game. We just didn't bring our 'A' game."

Trombley scored his third goal of the season with 6.9 seconds left in the first period, finally putting the Cardinals on the board after the Raiders put four past senior goalie Brad Altenbernt.

"There wasn't a lot of flow to the game," coach Steve Hart said. "Right from the get go, we were on our heels. We wanted to come out flying, but we couldn't get any momentum going."

The second period was fairly tight, but once again, Wright State took advantage early, scoring two more goals to make it 6-1. The Cardinals responded with two late goals, one from freshman forward Jonathan Tibaudo and another from Trombley, making it 6-3.

SVSU looked disheartened at times in the third, giving up four more goals. Tibaudo scored once more for the Cardinals' final goal of the game.

Still reeling from the defeat, SVSU lost its next game of the tournament, a 5-4 decision to Ferris State on Friday. Tibaudo scored what would be the first of two natural hat tricks in two days, and Trombley added the last goal for the Cardinals.

The Cardinals used Tibaudo's second natural hat trick and two goals from senior forward Ryan Michaels to beat Lake Superior State 6-5 on Saturday.

The win gave the Cardinals seventh place in the tournament and improved their record to 6-3-0-1 on the season. Hope College, which came into the tournament ranked first in the nation, won the tournament.

SVSU returns to the ice on Friday at the Saginaw Bay Ice Arena to face Calvin College at 9 p.m. Northwood visits on Halloween at 7 p.m.

The Cardinals travel to the west side of the state a week later, as they face Grand Valley State on Nov. 3 and Hope College on Nov. 4.

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