The NOVA hockey team lost the “Battle of Northern Virginia” to Atlantic Division foe George Mason University, 6-3, on Oct. 9 at the Mount Vernon Recreation Center. The large crowd, composed mainly of NOVA supporters, had its cheering limited mainly to the upending of GMU players.

Coach Barrett Haga attributed the loss to the overachieving play of George Mason’s goalie, an excessive number of penalties and take-aways from NOVA players, and to the lack of two players including the team captain who were not able to play.  However, he thought his team played well for this early in the season.

On the other hand, the GMU team had to be encouraged for their solid play in this their first game of the season.

The first period saw no scoring until NOVA’s Michael Pighini scored a 2 on 1 power play at the 6:25 time remaining mark with an assist from Eli Khalife. NOVA had four penalties to GMU’s one during the period which limited their scoring opportunities, but they were able to keep GMU scoreless.

The second period saw GMU dominate during the first half as they benefited from several takeaways. They evened the score quickly at 1-1 at the 18:21 time mark and scored twice more after successive two minutes periods to go up 3-1 at 14:05. NOVA’s Scott Johnson scored at 10:05 to make it 3-2, but GMU came back to score on a take-away at 6:13 and then on a power play goal at 5:15.  NOVA ended the scoring during the frantic period with a short range goal by Eli Khalife at 0:44 to give NOVA some hope at 5-3.

However, the third period saw NOVA take numerous shots with no success as the GMU goalie kept up his strong performance. GMU finally benefited from NOVA’s second penalty of the period to score a power play, open-net goal at 0:59, ending the scoring at 6-3.

For the game, GMU narrowly outshot NOVA 39-37, and the GMU goalie Keelan Carpenter registered 36 saves to NOVA’s goalie Justin Reich’s 32. NOVA had seven two-minute penalties to GMU’s three.

With the loss, NOVA slips to 1-2 on the season. Its next game is Oct. 16 versus James Madison University in Charlottesville. GMU’s record is now 1-0.

By: Arch Scurlock

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