Coach Roman Bussetti wanted his team to be quick to the puck in its season opener against Drexel.
The Owls were not quick enough, as the Dragons outshot the Owls 44-27 in an 8-3 defeat Sept. 24 at Hatfield Ice Arena.
“I just think we got a lot of bad breaks,” Bussetti said. “We had a lot of calls against us and didn’t get so many calls against them. We had a couple bounces that didn’t go our way and they had a couple bounces that did go their way.”
After the Owls took an early 1-0 lead in the first period, Drexel scored seven unanswered goals. including three powerplay goals, while outshooting the Owls 31-13.
“When the second came they came out firing down a goal,” senior forward Stephen Kennedy said, who tallied two goals and an assist. “The tides turned, we fell off the pedal and before we knew it they had three goals and it was just an uphill battle from there. That’s not the way to play hockey. You have to play all 60 minutes each time.”
In the third period, the Owls collected 13 shots, including two goals from Kennedy.
“I think it was just moments of showing heart,” Bussetti said. “I felt like a couple shifts in the second period and the third period were well played. The first period they outshot us, but we also missed a lot of open shots.”
Temple opened the scoring in the first when forward Dan Nucero scored on a rebound after Kennedy missed on the initial attempt.
“I was trailing on the play,” Nucero said, who was playing in his first game. “Kennedy didn’t even see me, but when the rebound popped out to me, I was able to put it in the back of the net.”
Stephen Godwin can be reached at stephen.godwin@temple.edu
Loose Pucks
Temple forward Matt Krulikowski left the game in the second period with an upper body injury, but, no immediate diagnoses is out on his status.
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