New York, NY -- The NYU ice hockey team crushed the University of Pennsylvania last Sunday, bouncing back from their first loss of the season to Life University.
"They were small but fast guys," co-Captain Ryan Hughes said of UPenn's players.
The teams played evenly in the beginning, but in the third period NYU's offense woke up and piled on the goals, boosting the final score to 10-3. The win lifted the team's overall record to 12-1-2.
"We picked it up in the third period and just shut them away," freshman Drew DeWitt said. "Up until then, it was pretty sketchy, because we should have been killing them. We were a much more highly skilled team than they were."
The Violets lost to their toughest competitor, Life University, 9-4 in the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Jamboree on November 18, but came away with a 2-1 record over the weekend.
"We can beat them, which I think we didn't show that game," Hughes said. "It was tied 3-3, and we took two bad penalties."
Unlike varsity teams, graduate students are allowed to play for club teams. This rule hurt NYU in the game against Life.
"They're an older team, so they got a lot of ringers who can play well, pass well, do the fundamentals well," DeWitt said.
"They get all these kids from Canada who just want to get a good education," Hughes said, adding that some were even married. "It's pretty much like grown men playing against, like, young men."
DeWitt felt they could have done better.
"It was a pretty even game. The score didn't really reflect how the game went," DeWitt said.
NYU's next big test will be on Jan. 20 against Siena College, which is ranked No. 1 in the Northeast according to the American Collegiate Hockey Association poll. NYU is No. 2.
"It's always a close game. We always play each other very tight," co-Captain Ben Maniere said. "They have fast forwards and strong defense."
Some Violets, including Maniere and Hughes, used to play on teams with Siena players. DeWitt's brother, Ewen, even plays for Siena.
"Everyone kind of laughs about it," Maniere said.
This Saturday, the Violets play what they expect will be one of their most exciting games of the season, taking on Columbia University. The cross-town rivalry always draws enthusiastic and spirited crowds.
"They come with all their fans and they're yelling and screaming," Hughes said.
Hughes said Columbia fans shout things like "safety school" at NYU fans.
"They always come out hard and it's always a battle and it's really full of emotion," Hughes said. "We always end up winning by a pretty good margin to silence their fans."
In a recent editorial in the Washington Square News, the editors recognized the absence of support for the teams. The hockey team has tried to drum up support by handing out flyers about the game and posting notices.
"NYU does lack school spirit. We're trying to get something going," Hughes said. "We tell [fans] we have hockey versus Columbia, and they say, "We have a hockey team?"
The clash between the fans gets pretty intense. A police officer patrolled the stands last year, but Columbia still yelled and threw things, such as fish, onto the ice, Hughes said.
"They stole one of the NYU signs last year and we had to go steal it back," Hughes said. "It's a real college atmosphere. The kids have a great time."