The Gustavus men’s hockey team never got on track in a disappointing 4-0 loss to Marian College at Don Roberts Ice Rink on the Gustavus campus on Saturday night. The Gusties were unable to generate much of any offense against the Sabres and put little pressure on goaltender Jason Jadczak, while Marian on the other hand made the most of its chances scoring four goals on 20 shots. Gustavus has now lost three consecutive games and falls to 6-7-0 on the season, while Marian improves to 8-5-0.
The two teams battled to a 0-0 tie through most of the first period, however Marian took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Brendan Hull with just over two minutes left to play (17:58). The Sabres then extended their lead to 2-0 when Brandon Blair tallied a power play goal with just :04 left on the clock. Marian held an 8-5 shot advantage in the first period.
Neither team could manage to score in the second period despite Gustavus outshooting Marian 9-2. Most of the Gustie offense came during a 5-on-3 advantage (for a minute-and-a-half) seven minutes into the period. The Sabres took their 2-0 lead into the locker room after 40 minutes of play.
Marian put the game out of reach with a goal early in the third period when James Goodfellow scored at the 2:01 mark pushing the lead to 3-0. The Sabres put the finishing touches on the shutout with a power play goal by Todd Collins at the 7:18 mark, which made the score 4-0.
Josh Swartout suffered the loss in the nets for Gustavus as he allowed four goals while making 16 saves. Jason Jadczak picked up the shutout in the nets for Marian. He recorded 20 saves.
Gustavus has gone into a bit of a scoring slump recently scoring just two goals in its last three games, while allowing 11 goals.
The Gusties will travel to the Duluth/Superior area next weekend for a game against St. Scholastica on Friday night and a game against UW-Superior on Saturday night.