Ice Hockey Notebook: Brothers face off in championship game

Temple ice hockey’s City 6 Tournament championship game against Drexel pitted the Owls’ Brett Woyshner against his brother.

When Owls forward Brett Woyshner eyed the other side of the ice prior to Temple’s 2-1 loss to Drexel in the City 6 tournament championship this past Sunday, he saw a familiar face.

Standing among the Dragons was his elder brother, Tyler Woyshner.

“I didn’t really notice him too much,” Brett said. “They didn’t call his name over the loud speakers as a starter or I might have noticed him more.”

The two siblings had been looking forward to facing each other since the opening of the tournament last Friday.

The game marked the first time the two brothers have played against each other, but both players have played with each other for years.

“Yeah we’re close,” Tyler said. “When we’re not playing hockey competitively, we are just playing hockey just for fun and we’re always hanging out and doing stuff together.”

The two brothers have been skating since they were five years old, but career paths have sent them to different schools.

Tyler Woyshner said he chose Drexel for its architecture and engineering program, and Brett almost followed him to the Dragons campus, but he decided to attend Temple for its physical therapy program.

The longtime bond is not broken by distance, as they frequently visit each campuses throughout the year and hang out in their respective apartments.

Seeing each other more often in the offseason is not automatic, because of Brett Woyshner’s work schedule.

The hockey careers have gone a little differently for the men. Tyler Woyshner is now entering his senior year and first year as captain. Brett has a little of a harder time earning his roster spot as his freshmen season was spent as a redshirt.

“I don’t think it affected him too much,” Tyler said. “I think he just wanted to focus on school his first year. He got in the gym and he got a little bit bigger so I think he’ll be ready to take the next step this year and move up in the lineup.”

Passing a focus of drills

The team spent the majority of Monday’s practice focused on passing drills.

Temple was 1 for 5 on the power play Sunday and for most of the game, the team seemed out of rhythm.

The initial drill after warmups was a passing drill in which the players circulated the ice passing back and forth to teammates along the boards before taking shots at goalies Eric Semborski and Scott Salamon.

On a two-on-two drill, the players looked more focused on making sure passes on the way to the nets.

“In this league you never hold on to the longer than five seconds,” senior forward Steve Luongo said. “It’s dead on off your stick. Obviously we want to work on our passes. Anything that is tape to tape, that is what we want to work on.”

Up next

This weekend, the Owls will face Lehigh Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Rowan Sunday at 2 p.m., both on the road. Luongo said he thinks the team will be ready for its upcoming slate.

“I actually think we took [Sunday’s loss] pretty well,” Luongo said. “I know in years past, some teams act like they don’t know how to react after a loss, but I think we came back with a positive attitude.”

Coach Ryan Frain and some of the other players admitted that maybe fatigue played a part in their loss against Drexel.

“I think we might rotate through our lines a little more,” Luongo said. “I think towards that third game, a lot of our goal scoring guys were pretty worn out. I think we have four strong lines and I think anyone out there has a chance to score. If we get our lines rolling more I think we will have more energy in the third period.”

Stephen Godwin Jr. can be reached at stephen.godwin@temple.edu or twitter @StephenGodwinJr.

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