The Owls could not hold a lead against Towson University Saturday night at the Flyers Skate Zone.
Temple lost 5-4 at the Flyers Skate Zone, after Tigers’ defender Jeremy Snyder scored a pair of goals to spark the rally Saturday.
The Tigers came into the contest winning seven of their past nine games.
“We played hard against a really good team, and I think we had a good effort,” sophomore defenseman Ryan Dumbach said. “Obviously we want to win, but a lot of good things did come out of this game. We didn’t back down from a team that is ranked high.”
Senior forward Stephen Kennedy helped his team start fast when he scored six minutes into the game. Temple’s sophomore forward Joey Powell followed a few minutes later with a goal of his own, to extend the lead.
Snyder scored with just more than two minutes left past Temple junior goalie Hayden Richards, but the Owls escaped the first period with the lead.
“I think we got off to a really good start,” sophomore forward Eric Graham said. “We were really taking the body and that kind of helped us. I don’t think we got enough shots as we should have, and I think that would have helped us out a lot. I think when we got up we sat back a little bit, and that kind of allowed them to dictate the pace of the game and that affected how we played offensively for the rest of the game.”
The Owls got caught with two quick penalties to start the second period, and Snyder tallied another goal on the man advantage to even the score 2-2 six minutes into the period.
Temple answered a minute later, when junior defender Matt Krulikowski beat the Tigers’ goalie to give his team back the lead.
The Tigers came back a few minutes later and scored the equalizer. Towson took the lead for the first time all game after it beat Richards more than a minute later.
A fight broke out with 14 minutes left in the frame, and it ended with matching minor penalties and the departure of Owls’ senior defenseman Jason Lombardi, who was tagged with a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct penalty. Towson was whistled for two more penalties in a testy ending to the period.
Towson and Temple ended the game with eight and seven penalties respectively. Lombardi’s game misconduct penalty also means he will miss Sunday’s game against Villanova.
“It’s hard to get in a rhythm when you’re switching up your lines and you’re not able to get everybody out,” Temple coach Roman Bussetti said. “You’re trying to get guys out, and it’s not working when you’re dealing with penalties.”
Graham scored three minutes into the third period, but the Tigers answered back 6:11 into the period.
Temple poured on the pressure and pulled Richards with 2:30 left in the frame, but could not find the back of the Tiger’s net.
“We have to get on the same page and stay on the same page,” Bussetti said. “I think the first thing we have to fix is our work ethic and being able to play for 60 minutes. We battled for 60 minutes. We just made a couple mistakes. They didn’t do anything that was earth shattering to beat us. They worked harder and got a couple goals to beat us because of it.”
Stephen Godwin Jr. can be reached at stephen.godwin@temple.edu or on Twitter @StephenGodwinJr
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