On senior night, the Owls sent the seniors home with a 4-3 win against Delaware in what was the team’s last home games with Temple.
“I’m proud of everybody,” senior forward Joe Pisko said. “It was awesome. Everybody played really well for us and sent us out with a win one last time.”
After even play throughout the first half of the opening period, Pisko forward tapped home a rebound after junior forward Stephen Kennedy missed a shot.
“I just followed [Kennedy] up to the net,” Pisko said. “And the puck was just sitting there and I poked it in. But I had to celebrate because it’s the last home game, and the last time I’m probably going to be here.”
The Owls would take that 1-0 lead going into the second period.
Delaware would answer early in the second scoring within the first three minutes when junior forward Samuel Walus received a pass from behind the net and shot it past senior goaltender Chris Mullen low short side.
With 7:34 left in the second Walus added another with a wrist shot from the faceoff circle that beat Mullen five-hole.
This time, it was Temple that answered right back with a junior forward Brady O’Donnell wrist shot from the slot that beat Delaware senior goaltender Joe Marshall to tie the game up at 2-2.
The score would remain tied heading into the last period of regulation.
While on the penalty kill, Kennedy stole the puck at Delaware’s blue line, skated in on a breakaway and wristed it past Marshall to take a one goal lead.
However, discipline has been a problem for the Owls all year and lack of discipline struck again. After Kennedy scored his goal to take the one goal lead, he began to taunt the Delaware bench and received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
With sophomore forward and team captain Greg Malinowski already in the box for elbowing, Kennedy’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gave Delaware a two-man advantage. The Blue Hens capitalized immediately and scored from a slap shot from the blue line to tie the game at 3-3.
But after tying the game Delaware made the same mistake and began to taunt the Owls bench resulting in another unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
While on that power play, sophomore defenseman Jason Lombardi picked up a loose puck at the point and wristed it past Marshall to take a 4-3 lead with 5:32 left in regulation.
“The puck just squirted out,” Lombardi said. “There was a lot of screens and bodies in front and I just threw it on net as hard as I could and it just happened to fine a corner.”
It would be the last goal of the game and Temple would take the 4-3 win.
“As soon as everyone got to the rink tonight you could tell everybody was ready to go,” coach Ryan Frain said. “Ready to fight for that last home win for these seniors and send them out on a good note.”
Up next the Owls will travel to Maryland to compete in the first round of the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs on Friday. The time and opponent has yet to be determined.
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