The NOVA ice hockey team, after its convincing 6-0 exhibition thrashing of VMI, began its regular season on the night of Oct. 1 at the Rockville Skating Center against the Roanoke College Wildcats.

The team not only had a half dozen more team members dressed for the game than Roanoke, but also had several players in their NOVA hockey jerseys in the stands acting as a very vocal cheering section.

The aura from the VMI victory was still apparent after the opening tip-off. With backup goalie Phil Helm in goal, NOVA quickly rattled off five shots at the Roanoke goalie in the first three and a half minutes, none of which found the net though. Then Roanoke gained the puck, and its first shot from just in front of the goal went in.

A NOVA penalty gave Roanoke a power play opportunity, and in just 20 seconds it again scored from just in front of the goal to go up 2-0 as reality set in.

Still, within a minute, NOVA countered on a shot just in front of the goal by Grady Little.

Two NOVA penalties left NOVA two men down, and it only took Roanoke 25 seconds to score again — its third goal on only three shots — at 13:21 left in the period as Roanoke was now up 3-1.

NOVA kept its shot barrage up and scored four straight goals to go up 5-3 after the first period. Goals were scored by Charles Witt at 6:51, then defenseman Will Newman scored twice in a row at 6:11 and 4:35, the second unassisted, and finally Adam Oberheim scored with 56 seconds remaining.

NOVA had outshot Roanoke 19-7 in the period and it looked like the game would be a defeat.

Though there were plenty of shots taken by both teams in the second period, the game quickly became a defensive one. Captain Chris Altice of NOVA scored at the 11.06 mark to make it 6-3, but Roanoke came back to score with just under two minutes to go to make it 6-4 after two periods. Shot taking was much closer as NOVA led 18-15 for the period.

For the third period, one question was whether the outmanned Roanoke team members would suffer from fatigue versus their NOVA counterparts. However, it seemed to have little or no effect during the period.  The period again saw plenty of shots by both teams. There was no scoring until the 3:04 mark when another NOVA penalty led to another Roanoke power play goal, its third of the game, making it 6-5 and suddenly leaving the outcome in doubt.

Roanoke had several shots on goal in those last three minutes, including one rebound shot for which no Roanoke players were close to knock it in, but none went in, as NOVA eked out a 6-5 win.

NOVA again led in shots in the period 24-15 and led for the game 61-37. Goalie Phil Helm had 32 saves.

The happy coach, Barrett Haga, said afterward, “It was a good victory with a backup goalie tonight. We’ve come a long way…We’re much deeper than last year.”

NOVA is now 1-0 for the season, while a determined Roanoke team fell to 0-1.

By: Arch Scurlock

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