The number eight-ranked Dickinson team started the 2013 season with two blowout wins. On Wednesday, Feb. 20 the Red Devils beat Lycoming College 15-6, before beating St. Mary’s College 19-5, on Saturday, Feb. 23.
Against Lycoming, Dickinson started off slowly as they could not find the back of the net for a majority of the first quarter despite a 13-4 shot advantage. With nine seconds left in the period, Tyler White ’15 scored the season’s first goal to give the Red Devils the lead. Dickinson began to open things up in the second quarter as captain and All-American Christian Beitel ’13 scored back-to-back goals. The next two came just eight seconds apart when White capitalized off a pass from Kobi Frankel’16. Then, off the ensuing face-off, Carter Moore’14 won the draw and sprinted down field to find Brian Gleason ’14 who quickly found a cutting Will Scott’14. Scott drilled a shot and extended the lead to 5-0. By the end of the second period, it was 6-0 Red Devils.
After another five unanswered goals in the third period (Chris Menard ’16 twice, Rob Kendall ‘16, Jack O’Connor ‘13, and Brian Cannon ‘13), Lycoming got on the board with 1:30 left to bring the score to 11-1. Following another goal by Kendall, Lycoming scored again to make it 12-2 at the end of three. In the fourth, Lycoming made a run of their own as they scored the period’s first four goals to make it 12-6, but, Dickinson would score three times in the final 2:30 to cap the game off at 15-6. Nick Leon ‘13, Scott, and Chris Pianko ‘13 put the last three in, respectively. Goaltender Greg Hanley’13 came out after three quarter of actions, making eight saves on the day. Moore went 13-17 on face-offs.
Last season, St. Mary’s upset Dickinson in the season’s second game, 12-9. The Devils made sure it would not happen again this season as they scored at least three goals in every period, highlighted by six in both the first and third. The Devils fell behind early, 2-1, before erupting for a 5-0 run to close out the first quarter leading 6-2. The first quarter goals were scored by Menard twice, Brett Parker ‘15, Beitel, White, and Kendall, respectively.
Following an early second-quarter St. Mary’s goal to cut it to 6-3, Kendall scored again to make it 7-3. Leon scored to make it 8-3, before Menard scored his third of the day to make it 9-3. In the third quarter, Kendall became the second Red Devil to record a hat trick and added a fourth goal at the end of the period. In between, Cannon scored twice, along with Leon and Menard (his fourth). Leading 15-3 entering the fourth, Dickinson scored first on a Gleason goal. St. Mary’s answered with two of their own, but goals by Gleason, Mike Reid ‘13, and Gleason finished the game at 19-5.
The wins started the Red Devils at 2-0 overall. “We can attribute our strong 2-0 start to mentality that coach has been reiterating: ‘hungry and humble,” said Beitel. “Last year we started a little tense with an expectation of our team that we couldn’t sustain. This year we are happy to win games no matter how good our opponent is, regular season or post season. Our new guys have all bought into our mission and are incredibly talented.” They have their home opener against number-five ranked Cabrini, who they host on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at 4 p.m.