Schultz, Kotowski lead 49ers in 10-goal attack against Palmer

Hockey • 49er Forward Matt Schultz scored three goals over two games last weekend. Schultz leads the team with eight goals on the season. Claire Howie/Online Forty-Niner

 

By Claire Howie
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer

The Long Beach State ice hockey team traveled to San Jose last weekend where they went 1-1, losing to San Jose State, 3-1, and defeating Palmer College, 10-4.

LBSU (4-2) faced the SJSU Spartans (4-0) Friday night. The 49ers skated onto the ice in front of a crowd of over 300 people at Logitech Ice in San Jose.

The rowdy crowd was quickly drowned out by LBSU fans; all 10 of them, when 49er Matt Schultz scored the first goal of the game just a minute and a half after the first face off. Schultz received a pass from Kevin Lighter and fired it at the goal. The shot was deflected by SJSU goaltender, Ryan Lowe, but Schultz recovered his own rebound and found the net.

San Jose was not willing to be down 1-0 at the period break. Sean Scarsbrough controlled Mason Nave's rebound and found the net behind LBSU goaltender Mike Bergman to score the game-tying goal.

Both teams played strong defense throughout the second period holding each other scoreless.

The 49ers' defense couldn't contain the Spartans in the third period. SJSU registered two goals within seven minutes. At 7:07, Spartan Tommy Lee scored off a pass from Skyler Yu to give SJSU a 2-1 lead.

The last goal of the game was scored at the 13-minute mark. The Spartans capitalized on a power play as Jon Barney sent the puck to Andy Whiteside for a slapshot goal, handing The Beach a 3-1 loss, their second-consecutive loss of the season.

"We are the better team, but they out worked us," forward Phil Brown said. "They played to win and we made too many mistakes to prevent a loss."

Head Coach John Cacciatore changed the lines heading into Saturday night's game against Palmer College. The changes made a difference as the team generated more offense than it has all season. Seven different 49ers scored in the game leading The Beach to a 10-4 victory.

The 49ers scored the first three goals of the contest making it the sixth-straight game the 49ers have scored the first goal. Alex Florio scored first at 11:35 with an unassisted backhand.

Next, Pete Kotowski scored his first of two goals against Palmer when he sent Kevin Lighter's rebound into the net.

Joe May redirected a rebound from Ben Mitchell's slapshot to score the final goal of the first period and send Palmer into the locker room down 3-0.

The 49ers started the second period with a one-man advantage, and for once, the power play produced a goal. Matt Schultz recovered a lose puck and found the net behind Palmer goal-tender Kevin Bruinsma to give The Beach a 4-0 lead less than a minute into the second period.

Shortly after Schultz's goal, Phil Brown scored his first goal of the season, assisted by Andrew Kobzi.

The 5-0 lead may have given LBSU a little too much confidence as the team became sloppy. Over the next 12 minutes Palmer exploited every defensive mistake LBSU made and sent 12 shots towards 49ers' goaltender Duncan MacEwan, making his first game appearance of the season. MacEwan managed to make nine saves in the second period. Cory Hewko scored the first goal for Palmer off a pass from Dave Smaldonne. Smaldonne tallied another assist seven minutes later when he found Chris Wood for Palmer's second goal of the game.

Wood followed his goal with an assist to Bront Brown on the power play, just the third power-play goal given up by LBSU this season. Brown's goal narrowed the 49ers' lead to two as they headed into the locker room.

LBSU dominated the third period outscoring Palmer 5-1. Florio, not playing on his usual line, sent the puck to Schultz on the left side. Bruinsma was out of position, and Shultz directed the puck in on the short side to tally his second goal of the game, third of the weekend and eighth of the season.

Kotowski was keeping traffic in front of the goal and when Brian Weinstein's slap shot rebounded, Kotowski controlled it for his second goal of the game.

The 49ers were up 7-3, but Dave Smaldonne was not ready to give up. Smaldonne tallied two assists in the second period and with 6:51 left to play added a goal to his stats.

"We get pumped off the fans, especially on the road," assistant captain Ryan Feesago said. "It fires us up big time when family, friends and alumni come on the road to support us."

The adrenaline rush produced three goals in the last three minutes of the game. Gene Schneider and Andrew Kobzi each scored their second goals of the season while Chris Northy registered his first to close out the game in double digits for the first time in two years.

The next game is just under a month away as the 49ers will host San Jose State for a rematch on Nov. 11 at 9 p.m.