The Marquette club hockey team rebounded after getting swept the previous weekend with a sweep of their own against Northern Illinois. The Golden Eagles (11-5-1) were on cruise control each game, winning 10-3 Friday and 11-3 Saturday.
Head coach Will Jurgensen was pleased to see how his team responded to the losses the previous weekend.
“I think we needed this weekend without a doubt,” Jurgensen said. “You’ve got to score a lot of goals to get that confidence back and something we needed (to know) was that we could score a lot of goals.”
Freshman Marc Shipbaugh and sophomore Colin Telmanik played arguably the best hockey of their respective Marquette careers, each recording a hat-trick in Saturday’s rout and four goals across both games. Jurgensen was thrilled with their individual offensive outputs.
“Colin the last couple of weeks has honestly been one of our best players,” Jurgensen said. “His intensity has picked up drastically and he’s been rewarded for it throughout the last couple of weekends. And obviously with Shipbaugh being a defenseman, his ability to jump into the offensive play was great; it’s way good to see that.”
Telmanik credited the offensive showcase to his group’s line play. The second line of sophomores Will Podewils, Adam Benkovich, and Telmanik scored a total of six goals during the weekend and has arguably been Marquette’s most effective line through the first third of the season.
“My line’s off to a quick start and we scored the first goal in both games,” Telmanik said. “I found myself being in the right places and my linemates were able to set me up and I capitalized on those chances.”
Both of the games were decided by the end of the second period. Friday night, seniors Matt Vuoncino, Tyler Zanon and Tyler Schwichtenberg, along with sophomores Chris Morrow, John Stillman, Kellan Buddy, Podewils, Telmanik and the freshman Shipbaugh all recorded goals in the blowout victory. It was a special day for Morrow, as his second period goal was the first of his short collegiate career. A few late goals in the second and third periods from the Huskies (3-6) made the game look more respectable in the 10-3 Golden Eagle victory.
Saturday’s matchup started much tighter than the previous game. Two quick goals from Benkovich and Telmanik at the 5:14 and 11:14 marks were answered with a Northern Illinois response a minute later. However, that would be the last time the game was within reach for the Huskies.
A goal from sophomore Corey Quinn with 47 seconds left in the second period started a string of five unanswered goals from Schwichtenberg, Vuoncino, Shipbaugh and two from Telmanik that ran until the 12:12 mark of the third period, when the Huskies scored their third goal. Two more goals from Shipbaugh and one more from graduate student Ken Yamashita sealed the 11-3 victory.
After sweeping the Huskies, Marquette will start preparing for its home Halloween series with Robert Morris-Peoria. The annual sellout game pits Marquette against its biggest rival with an opportunity to reach the 13-win mark before the first American Collegiate Hockey Association rankings come out next week. Jurgensen is excited to renew their highly competitive rivalry with Peoria.
“They asked specifically for this Halloween game because it’s going to get really, really rowdy,” Jurgensen said. “We’re going to have to work really hard this week. We have a tendency of kind of taking a night off when the crowd’s into it and we can’t do that because Peoria is a good enough team that will capitalize off our mistakes.”
