NOVA's Devon Carter has a shootout shot blocked by the Radford goalie. Photo Credit: Arch Scurlock

Since the last newspaper report, the NOVA ice hockey team has played four games, winning one. Against Atlantic Division rivals, it was 0-2, dropping to a 2-2 record in the division, tied for sixth among the eight teams.

After a Nov. 16 postponed game against William and Mary, NOVA traveled to Lynchburg to play Atlantic Division rival, Liberty University, on Nov. 30, and were soundly trounced 8-0. Quickly reversing its scoreless game that was played Nov. 6 at Reston, NOVA scored 11 goals in vanquishing Old Dominion, 11-5, a team it had earlier lost to on the road.

On Nov. 12 at Mount Vernon Ice Rink, NOVA challenged unbeaten (3-0) Atlantic Division rival, Radford University. Before an enthusiastic late night crowd, Radford’s Scott McDougal scored unassisted with 8:00 to go for a 1-0 Radford lead in the first period. NOVA had several scoring chances in the second period, but capitalized on none as the score was still 0-1 after two periods.

In the third period, the game got livelier. NOVA’s Scott Murname’s 30-foot shot from the right side — against a probably partially sight-blocked goalie — tied the score with 9:22 to go. Radford’s McDougal scored another unassisted goal from 10 feet away to make it 2-1. But again, NOVA would not give up as Murname scored again, from about 10 feet out, to make it 2-2 with 3:35 to go.

Radford’s McDougal answered a third time in less than a minute to put Radford ahead again, 3-2. It looked like that score might have been it for NOVA, but in 43 seconds Ricky Davidson scored from about 15 feet out to tie the score, which ended the regulation scoring.

With another late night overtime game, NOVA was hoping for a similar result as in its previous overtime game against GMU. This time there was no scoring in the five-minute sudden death overtime, so the game went to a shootout, in which an opposition player would start at one end of the rink and try to score one-on-one against the goalie, with the teams alternating tries.

Radford always shot first, but the first three shooters for each team were unable to score.

Finally, on its fourth attempt, Radford’s Brian Bock scored and NOVA’s Murname, despite scoring twice in regulation, was unable to score, giving Radford its hard-fought win.

There was some dispute about whether the Radford shootout goal had crossed into the goal, but the referees ruled that it had. During the game, the NOVA coaches seemed to be questioning a number of referee calls, judging by the number of times the referees came to the NOVA bench after making them.

After the game, Coach Barrett Haga remarked, “It was a gritty game. The guys played hard. We should have won this one… There were some interesting calls. It was a tough loss.”

On the following Friday night, Nov.19, at the Rockville Ice Arena, NOVA took on the non-conference team from Gettysburg College. Giving some reserves the chance to see more action, NOVA quickly went out to a 1-0 lead on a goal by Taylor Witt, who was busy that night. Gettysburg scored with just under eight minutes to go, and at the end of the first period, it stood at 1-1.

In the second period, NOVA’s captain, Chris Altice, scored at the 17:34 mark for a 2-1 lead, but Gettysburg scored two goals before Witt scored his second goal, with just under a minute to play to knot the score at 3-3 after two periods.

In the deciding period, Gettysburg quickly took the lead with 19:38 left as a shot dribbled   through goalie Joe Aronhime’s uniform and into the goal. Nova’s Witt did not take long in scoring his third goal of the night, with 18:43 to go to tie it again, 4-4.

Then, after such a tight contest to that time, the game got away from NOVA. Gettysburg scored on another shot dribbling through Aronhime’s uniform at 9:14, and a Gettysburg shot about 20 feet in front of the goal deflected off a Gettysburg player and high into the goal at the 8:10 mark to make it 7-4 Gettysburg. Another Gettysburg goal left the final score at 8-4.

Coach Haga remarked, “Not a bad loss. This was reserve player weekend. They didn’t play bad. We wanted to give some JV players who will be playing varsity next year some ice time. They played pretty well. Fundamental breakdowns killed us. We wanted to rest players for our upcoming important game in a few weeks. It really wasn’t a bad loss.”

With the loss, NOVA dropped to 3-6 overall for the year.

The final game of the year is Dec.11 at division rival William and Mary. At the beginning of January, tryouts will be held for next semester’s team.

By: Arch Scurlock

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