Temple goalie coach Ted Wood saw something critical to his team’s success in pre-game warm-ups.
Monmouth goalie Stephen Bonora moved slightly slower to his blocker side then his glove side.
The Owls took advantage of their coach’s tip and scored 10 goals on 55 shots against the IceHawks, with the majority of them fired at that side. Temple forward Steve Kennedy led the way with his second hat trick of the season in a 10-1 win at the Northeast Skate Zone on Nov. 1.
“Coach Ted has a notebook about every goalie in the league so he’ll say something and it will stick in our heads,” forward Steve Luongo said.
Luongo scored his first and second goals of the season, but there were six other players who had multi-point games.
Luongo finished last season with two goals and two assists, but points the success of adjusting to his position in recent weeks.
“I have this problem where every year I score two goals in a weekend and that is about it,” Luongo said. “Hopefully that’s not the case this year.”
Among those goals were three short-handed tallies.
“[It] was a couple lucky bounces,” head coach Ryan Frain said. “Guys were working their tails off on the [penalty kill]. When you’re working hard you’re going to get some of those bounces. A lot of times they had a bunch of guys deep and the puck happened to squirt back out towards the blue line and our guys were there and we were able to get odd man rushes on the penalty kill and we were able to execute.”
Temple continued their domination on the penalty kill by forcing the IceHawks into converting on just one of their eight chances. The game marked the third straight contest in which the Owls held their opponents scoreless on at least four power plays.
The key for the Owls was beating Monmouth to the puck and proving to be stronger stick handlers once they had the puck. The IceHawks were the opposite and at times looked out of their league.
Monmouth was able to fire 34 shots on Temple goalie Scott Salamon and spoil his second shutout of the season with four seconds remaining.
“They did a good job shooting from wherever,” Salamon said. “They definitely didn’t waste any opportunities. It sucks they scored with four seconds left, but I wouldn’t expect anything less with us.”
Salamon is 3-0 on the season, but his teammates have scored 28 goals in support of him in three games. Salamon rebounded nicely after giving up five goals to Wagner on Oct. 17.
Bonora experienced that fate in the first period when he gave up a 5-0 lead. Bonora settled down in the second period before giving up another goal in the last couple minutes of play and suffering a sprained ankle. Bonora would not return, and backup goalie Andrew Terracciano finished the game.
Terracciano did not fare much better in the third period as the Owls added four more goals.
Temple did without captain Greg Malinowski and forward Patrick Golden, as they are both dealing with lower body injuries. The Owls are now 5-1 at home, but they hit the road again Sunday night when they face Wagner at 8:15 p.m.
Stephen Godwin Jr. can be reached at stephen.godwin@temple.edu or twitter @StephenGodwinJr.
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