NOVA's Eli Khalife moves puck versus VCU.

NOVA’s ice hockey team is in its second year playing in the Atlantic Division of the Blue Ridge Hockey Conference, a conference which has three divisions. Since last year they couldn’t compete in the playoffs, NOVA’s goal was to become eligible this year. In its division, they compete against four year colleges VCU, Catholic University, VMI, Radford, GMU, William & Mary, and JMU.

NOVA began its season in September, losing a close contest to Atlantic division foe VMI 6-4. It played GWU, which is in a stronger division, in its next game and got blown out to end the month at 0-2.

In October, NOVA played rival GMU but fell 6-3, behind a masterful effort by the GMU goalie. Next came JMU, which NOVA quickly fell behind early 3-0 before mounting an exciting comeback to win 7-6 to make its first victory of the year a memorable one. NOVA next fell to another  strong division rival Catholic U. 13-3, before ending October on a winning note against VMI, 5-3. After October, NOVA was 2-3 in its division, 2-4 overall.

November saw NOVA unable to recapture the magic of its earlier game against JMU, falling badly, 12-4. Next, they journeyed to Johnstown, Pa. to play the University of Pittsburgh in the big local arena.  They put up a good fight in the first game before losing 7-3, and then lost the next day’s game, 13-4. The month ended again on a winning note as  they beat Radford in an uncharacteristically low-scoring game, 1-0, and then won its second one goal margin game in a row, beating area rival Montgomery College-Rockville 6-5. Through November, NOVA was 3-4 in its division, 4-7 overall.

December saw NOVA losing some of its team members as it lost again badly to Catholic University and then GWU, as it ended the 2009 year 3-5 in division, 4-9 overall.

After the first semester, NOVA lost a few more players and gained back some former players. In its first game in January, contrary to the first low-scoring game,  they lost to Radford in Roanoke, 10-8.

NOVA played strong division rival VCU at Woodbridge on January 22. It looked like it could be a good night for NOVA, as Ryan Pace and Scott Johnson scored in the first eight minutes for a 2-0 NOVA lead. VCU finally did manage one goal as NOVA led at the end of the first period, 2-1, in spite of being outshot 15-6.

A re-energized VCU squad came out on the ice for the second period, and scored successive goals at times 18:16, 17:39, and 13:33 to take a 4-2 lead.  Ryan Pace finally scored on a breakaway for NOVA at 12:29 to make it 4-3. VCU completed its domination with another goal at 1:07, for a 5-3 lead with a whopping 34-12 lead in shots.

VCU scored the first three goals of the last period to take a commanding 8-3 lead to clinch the win. NOVA finally scored two goals in the last four minutes, by Jacob Dillon         and Chris Altice, losing 9-5 while being outshot 45-20.

Coach Barrett Haga lamented the many NOVA penalties, but thought the team had not played badly against such a strong opponent. He also mentioned the problem of the turnover of players with the new semester. He remarked optimistically that NOVA could still make the playoffs by winning three of its last five games.

The next night, NOVA traveled to Richmond for a VCU rematch at 11:00 pm and was pummeled, 11-1.

Next on January 23, they played a rematch against GMU at Reston Skatequest. The 11:20 contest brought out a surprising number of night owl fans on both sides.

GMU scored first, on a power play goal at 17:25, and then scored again at 12:08 as the NOVA goalie misplayed a long, slow shot back into a pass right into the stick of an onrushing GMU player who gladly accepted the gift, pushing the puck into the net for a 2-0 GMU lead.

Then NOVA struck back later in the period, with Chris Altice scoring at 4:05 and then again at 2:09 on a long shot to even the score at the break, 2-2. They finished the period up in shots, 15-10.

GMU scored early in the second period, but NOVA’s Jacob Dillon scored at 15:04 to even the game at 3-3. It looked like this would be an exciting finish to the game. However, GMU scored a power play goal at 13:14, made a three-foot shot in front of the goal at 11:19, and then made a five-foot short-handed goal at 8:04 and another goal at 1:42. GMU led at the break 7-3. NOVA shots were not going into the goal, as they were only behind in shots 26-25.

In the third period, GMU left little doubt about the outcome, scoring two goals for a 9-3 lead, before NOVA’s Matt Jin scored at 6:54, his first of the season, and Scott Johnson scored on a breakaway shot at 2:41. Olivia Gonzalez scored her first points of the season, assisting on both goals. Another goal gave GMU a convincing 10-5 win, ending NOVA’s chances for a playoff spot. NOVA was outshot 41-36 for the game, which ended about 1:30am.

Afterwards, Coach Haga lamented about how the loss and gain of players during and after the first semester and the new players in the second semester made it difficult for NOVA to develop any team chemistry, which he noted was especially apparent in the first two periods, in which he was unhappy with the sloppy play. He also remarked about the number of shots in the second period which were rebounding back off the goal posts.   He said that the team finally began playing with some chemistry in the third period. He did reiterate that they were building a program, now only it its second year.

At the end of January, NOVA stood at 3-9 in the division, 4-13 overall and was the sixth out of the eight teams in the Atlantic Division.

NOVA’s final two division games are against a strong William & Mary team in Williamsburg on February 5- 6, before it ends its season with a charity game against a military team on February 13 at 6:30pm at Prince William Ice Center.

NOVA scoring versus GMU

Chris Altice 2 goals, Jacob Dillon 1 goal 1 assist, Scott Johnson 1 goal 1 assist,

Olivia Gonzalez 2 assists, Matt Jin 1 goal, Ryan Pace 1 assist, James Powers 1 assist,

Lucas Grunwald 1 assist.

By: Arch Scurlock

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