Sokoloski: Wilkes learns from a bump in the middle of an exciting hockey chase
The excitement in the air at the Toyota SportsPlex was unmistakable right before the start of the biggest game in Wilkes University’s short hockey history.
A curious crowd came out.
The school’s blaring band showed up.
An eager coach watched his passionate players skate swiftly around the ice.
Then the puck dropped.
And before anyone could blink Friday night, Wilkes was behind 3-0.
“Not a score you want to see,” Wilkes forward Tyler Barrow said, “coming into a huge game like this.”
By the end of the first period, Wilkes was in a 5-0 hole and their unbeaten goaltender was replaced.
By the start of the second, the Colonels seemed to be collapsing when they sent their third and last goalie out to try and protect the cage.
At that point, one thing was painfully clear.
The big moment may have been too big right now for Wilkes.
“I think that’s a good analysis of it,” Wilkes coach Tyler Hines said. “It was a little disappointing, with how we built the game up. We’d like to say we were ready for it, we were prepared. The fact of the matter is, we got scared.”
That’s OK.
Because in a very brief period, Wilkes has come a long way.
The Colonels made the playoffs in their very first season last year. They were ranked for the very first time in the USCHO.com poll last week. And at No. 12, they played another USCHO-ranked team when No. 6 Utica came to town for a showdown.
“I think, at the start, we came out a little soft,” Wilkes forward Danny Reidel said. “Too tight. We weren’t as ready as we should have been.”
That’ll change soon.
Because the Colonels have something now that’s invaluable to the program’s growth.
It’s called experience in high-pressure games.
Utica brought plenty of that into Friday.
The traditionally powerful Pioneers beat three straight ranked opponents before they arrived in Wilkes-Barre.
They made it four in a row with Friday’s 8-3 thumping of Wilkes, running their season record to 11-2-2 and their overall winning streak to six straight while improving to 3-0 lifetime against the Colonels.
But Wilkes is far from dead.
The Colonels quickly pointed that out, proudly noting that they played Utica even at 3-3 after the opening period.
“Going down 3-0’s hard,” Reidel said. “But we stayed even-keel. Really, I learned, as a team, we can just be a little stronger, mentally and physically. As the game went on, we were the better team.”
It was 6-0, Utica, when Barrow scored the first Wilkes goal 5:42 into the second period. And from that point on, the Colonels began sending a message.
They didn’t pack it in and get ready to play another day. They battled, hard. And they won the game’s final 33 minutes, outscoring Utica 3-2.
“It says a lot,” Barrow said. “I just think we had a really slow start. We didn’t think they were going to be this fast. All in all, they came out, won battles. It stings a lot. But we’re going to make improvements from this.”
The critical thing is, the Colonels aren’t shell-shocked. They believe, to a man, that Friday’s result isn’t a reflection of who they are.
“This wasn’t a typical game,” said Wilkes starting goalie Michael Patterson-Jones, who watched his sparkling 8-0 season record drop to 8-1. “I think we beat ourselves. I believe in our offense. We just came out flat. We didn’t follow our gameplan. They took it right to us. We weren’t prepared.”
Next time, the Colonels insist, they will be.
“I think they know what’s coming next time,” Reidel said. “We showed them what we’re all about in the second and the third (periods).”
After getting smacked early, the Colonels showed fight and desire and the willingness to not only learn, but improve.
Sometimes, a loss like that can turn into a team’s biggest win.
Paul Sokoloski covers area sports for the Times Leader. You may reach him at 570-991-6392, at [email protected] or on Twitter
