After a 4-0 start on the season against silver division teams Northwestern

and Purdue, Eastern’s RSO hockey lost two games to silver division McKendree

College this past weekend.

Eastern came out firing after their first loss to McKendree as they took a

commanding 5-2 lead during in the second period. It seemed that Eastern had

that second game won.

Unlike the first game, Eastern scored first with a shot under the legs of

McKendree fourth-string goalie Ryan Ahlemeyer. To close the first period,

forward Dan Seachrist completed his second goal off assists from Kevin Hicks

and Matt Gross with 31.1 seconds remaining.

But that was not all. Forward fourth lineman Danny Delvecchio scored on

Kevin Kraus’s assist with two seconds to go to push Eastern to a 3-1 lead

going into the second period.

Eastern started out hot in the second as Seachrist scored on a breakaway for

a hat trick and a 4-2 lead. Eastern goalie Nick Maggio later blocked a

penalty shot attempt, and forward Dale Michonski backhanded one in for a 5-2

lead.

Then hockey-style “Bad News Bears” syndrome set in.

After a few key power play goals, which had hurt Eastern throughout game one, the Bearcats had a 5-4 deficit. Then, on another power play that caught

Maggio on the wrong side of the net, McKendree tied the game for the first

time in nearly a period.

The Bearcats went on to score two more goals in the second, leaving four

unanswered for the period. McKendree had 10 more shots on goal than Eastern

had in the second period and led 7-5 going into the third.

Eastern went dry with the puck for about 34 minutes, only scoring one more

goal the rest of the game. Meanwhile, McKendree shot through on Eastern

goalie Brian Blake three times, mostly on the power plays.

By the end of the weekend, all the players wanted to think about was facing

McKendree again. On Feb. 9-10, they will have that chance at home at David

S. Palmer Arena in Danville.