WSOU

Recap: Seton Hall Men's Hockey Defeats NJIT 9-1 in Pink the Rink Game

Date: October 24, 2021

By: Joey Nardone

The Seton Hall men's hockey team skates on the ice during a game.

Seton Hall Hockey

The Seton Hall men’s hockey team took on the NJIT Highlanders at home Saturday night at Richard J. Codey Arena. The Pirates were 5-0 going into the night while NJIT was 1-2. These teams played only six days ago where Seton Hall won 9-2, and this time around, the Pirates were able to secure another nine goals performance in a 9-1 victory.

Seton Hall was raising money for breast cancer research and held a “Pink Out” for the game.

The game had a slow but physical start, but Seton Hall hit their stride and started putting on pressure. With 13:54 left in the first period, Junior Nick Serapiglia netted his first even strength goal of the night.

NJIT had two strong penalty kills midway through the first where goalie Nick Facchuni made some impressive stops. With 6:20 left in the first period, the Pirates took a penalty, but only a few seconds after, the Highlanders took one themselves, leading to four-on-four play for a minute and a half.

Right as Seton Hall approached the powerplay time, Jimmy Griffin scored on a two-on-one. Only about a minute later, with 3:08 left in the first period, Serapiglia launched one from the point and went in with a screen to get his second of the night, now giving the Pirates a 3-0 lead. Seton Hall ended the period with a penalty kill and still maintaining a three-goal lead.

After only 46 seconds into the second period, junior Cam Toussaint made a nice move and sent a wrister to give the Pirates a 4-0 lead. After this goal, the game started getting even more physical, with plenty of hits being thrown around by both squads.

With 13:44 left in the second period, sophomore Tyler Fearon scored on a rebound, giving Seton Hall the 5-0 lead and led to NJIT changing goalies from Facchuni to James Bond.

Seton Hall goalie Adam Spitz still had a busy time and made a great save from a breakaway with 12:22 left in the second period. Serapiglia topped off his hat trick with a big hit and then a top shelf backhander with 9:27 left in the second.

Near the end of the second, senior Robby Anderson scored out of a scrum in front of the net to give Seton Hall a 7-0 lead.

Seton Hall had another strong start to a period when Luke Kirkowski scored a goal on a breakaway with 17:39 left in the third period, giving the Pirates an 8-0 lead. Mike Volpi capped off Seton Hall’s goal scoring after making a strong move in front of the net then burying it to make it number nine on the night.

Later in the period, with 7:11 left in the game, sophomore Cam Adamec was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct after a hit to the head on Dennis Sikorjak. Then, senior Nick Mangano took a penalty, giving NJIT a five-on-three powerplay for 1:24 with 3:31 left in the period. Spitz came up huge during the five-on-three, making a remarkable cross crease kick save and a total of seven saves within a minute and a half.

It was looking like Spitz was going to secure the shutout, but with 14 seconds left in the game, NJIT scored on a rebound, ending the game with a final score of 9-1 in favor of the Pirates.

Overall, Seton Hall had a very strong game, putting up nine goals and only letting up one. The penalty kill was strong, but the powerplay lacked slightly going on a 20% success rate, which is still solid, but did not have as many high quality chances.

There was an onslaught of shots on both ends the ice, as Seton Hall ended with 44 shots, and NJIT with 36. Spitz had a very strong game, holding the Highlanders to only one goal, barely missing out on the shutout.

On offense, Serapiglia led the team with a hat trick, and the whole team looked very strong during even strength play. Looking ahead, the Pirates will go on to play Monmouth at home again at Richard J. Codey Arena next Saturday night (Oct. 30) at 8:45 p.m.

Joey Nardone can be reached at joseph.nardone1@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Sports, WSOU

Seton Hall

Seton Hall

Merchandise

wsou store