By Dave Diamond
The small but energetic crowd at Long Beach Arena witnessed just what was expected, another outstanding effort on the ice. The Pride ice hockey club displayed a masterful performance of two-way hockey en route to an 11-2 drubbing of division rival Fordham Saturday.
The Rams came into the game tied with the Pride for second, making the lopsided victory all the more impressive.
The win pushed the Pride to 5-0 in the Metropolitan Collegiate Hockey Conference (MCHC), keeping pace with undefeated SUNY Albany.
Coming off a non-league game less than 24 hours before the opening face-off against Columbia in Mount Vernon, the Pride showed no ill effects from travel or lack of rest. The best evidence? Jumping out on the Rams less than four minutes into the game.
Assistant captain Brian Manolakes, playing his first game at defenseman after starting the season at forward, scored from just inside the blue-line at 3:51 of the first period. About a minute and a half later, Monolakes struck again, this time on the power play, setting the tone for what would be a productive night for the Pride.
The offense then began displaying the skill that has produced 46 goals thus far in five division games. Already 3-0 midway through the first period, senior Chris Hogan and junior Vin Kelly put on a dazzling show. At 13:30, Kelly backhanded a pass to Hogan, who dumped it in for a 4-0 cushion.
Early in the second period, Hogan and Kelly came in on a two-on-one break, featuring another beautiful feed from Kelly over to Hogan, who buried home the Pride's fifth goal, upping the lead to 5-1, as Fordham managed a late first period goal. Hogan completed the hat trick with his third goal later in the game.
As the second period continued, the Pride's offensive onslaught became borderline ridiculous, and the brunt of it came off the stick of junior Rob Gleckler.
Gleckler took a pretty center-ice pass from senior Matt Orenstein in for a breakaway goal at 9:53. At 10:29, Gleckler made this shift memorable, scoring again in a 36 second span, giving the Pride a six-goal lead and three players with multiple goals.
It seemed any way the Pride could score a goal, it did. When pretty passing was shut down, they banged away at countless rebounds. Orenstein, the Pride's leading scorer, banged home a loose rebound during a big scramble at 11:20 of the second.
The Rams scored late, not nearly enough to overcome the lead, giving tremendous credit to the Pride defense and goaltender George Lorenz, who made 25 saves.
The lackluster third period was merely a formality as the Pride protected its lead successfully. Co-head coach Ron Reif said the team corrected a lot mistakes, most notably staying out of the penalty box and maintaining the man advantage.
"Something we talked about before the game was a number of people taking unnecessary penalties, so we came into the game looking to play more disciplined and play a more respectful game," he said. He also praised the play of freshman Ryan Drudy, the Brooklyn native who scored the Pride's final goal.
This win was more than just a division victory, especially to the Pride, which was eliminated by Fordham in last year's playoffs, 11-1. Captain Brian Ferrara agreed that revenge was on the players' minds before the game.
"I would have liked to have it 11-0 instead of 11-2," Ferrara said jokingly "But the key was the victory and staying undefeated in the standings."
He also gave credit to Fordham, seeing its flat performance as just a bad night. "This is a team that is legit in the league, this is a top-notch team," Ferrara said.