Senior defenseman Ryan Dumbach pumped his fist and waited for his teammates’ embrace after ramming a puck into the net during a scramble late in the second period against Elon University.
The goal was the captain’s third of the game and part of Temple’s (7-11-1, 0-4 Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association) offensive explosion to beat Elon, 8-3 Sunday afternoon at the Flyers Skate Zone in Northeast Philadelphia.
“The whole team got going,” Dumbach said. “[We’re] really moving better as a unit. I had a couple of lucky bounces I guess and got some good shots through. It was nice.”
“He’s a hell of a hockey player,” coach Mark Spease said. “[It’s] the same thing I always see with Ryan. There’s no changes there. The pucks went in the net today.”
Dumbach’s first goal of the game came off a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle that beat the Phoenix goaltender on the left side. The goal was the Owls’ third of the game and was the second of three goals in a three-minute span in the first period that gave Temple a 4-2 lead.
Despite their offensive outburst, the Owls did not get out to a fast start. Elon scored its first goal less than three minutes into the game. Freshman goaltender Matthew Hollingshead stopped the initial shot, but he couldn’t contain the puck and the Phoenix were able to sneak it past him.
Elon added another goal about two and a half minutes later off of a shorthanded breakaway that put it up 2-0.
The Owls answered back quickly to cut their deficit in half. Senior forward and defenseman John Kumpf received a pass in the slot and fired a snap shot to beat the goaltender through the five-hole.
After Kumpf’s goal, Hollingshead made a game-changing save where he dove across a wide-open net to prevent Elon from pushing its lead back to two goals. Hollingshead finished with 40 saves on 43 shots.
Kumpf scored again later in the first period off of another snap shot from close range to tie the game at two with five minutes and 38 seconds remaining. His goal was the first of three in roughly a three-minute span. Dumbach and junior forward Nick Van Allen scored the other two goals.
Temple got “ticked off” and started to play well after falling behind, much like when it fell behind 3-0 against Drexel Saturday night before it scored its only goal in its 7-1 loss, Spease said.
“That’s something that we’re trying to work on so that they come out and start ticked off instead of waiting for something to happen to tick them off,” Spease said.
The Owls added three goals in the second period to push their lead to 7-2. Two came from Dumbach to complete his hat-trick, and the other came from sophomore forward Ryan Ploppert.
Freshman forward Shawn Fowler tacked on another goal, his first of the season, in the third period to secure the Owls’ 8-3 win.
Temple won’t play against until Dec. 1. The Owls have three more games to close their Fall 2017 schedule before resuming play in January.
“I think after a tough game like yesterday, we just kind of wanted to come out and work hard and work on our systems and just from there on the goals would come,” Dumbach said. “We’ve had a couple of tough games, but we’re hoping for today to have a good end for our Thanksgiving break here.”
Correction: This article originally misstated Temple’s record.
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