It was a tough end of 2002 for the men’s ice hockey team.
Although the annual Codfish Bowl was an overall successful event, the men in Beacon blue enjoyed very little of it. UMass Boston has not won its own tournament since 1997. After dropping both of their games in this year’s tournament, the Beacons finished the month of December with a dismal record of 0-8.
However, there were some entertaining moments in the nation’s second oldest invitational. The Beacons’ first round game against the University of Southern New Hampshire (SNH) was a penalty filled affair that showed the tenacious and at times chippy play of both teams. The game saw a combined total of 20 power plays.
Michael Ciarletta was UMB’s most productive player during the Codfish Bowl and he made his presence felt in the opening period in the SNH game, connecting for his second goal of the season at the 15:26 mark. In the second period with the game tied at one, Ciarletta set up teammate Dan Noonan on the power play to give the Beacons their only lead of the game.
The third period saw little go right for the Beacons. With the contest 2-2, SNH team leader in goals James Crank popped in his eighth goal of the year early on to take the lead at 3-2. A series of penalties on both teams provided inconsistent play. The Penmen of SNH provided a little comfort room when the team boosted the lead to two with a little less than five minutes remaining. Craig Paster of the Beacons played a solid game in net, recording 28 saves in the loss.
The next day’s game against St. Michael’s got off to a roaring start. First Dan Costa scored his first goal of the season seven minutes into the game. Four minutes later, Noonan showed his deft touch again on the power play by burying a feed from Ciarletta to give the Beacons a 2-0 lead.
That was good as things were going to get for the Beacons that day as the Purple Knights tied the game up before the conclusion of the first period. The second period saw the Beacons give up three more while scoring only one, Stephen Chin’s third of the year from Luke Niemic and Ciarletta. The third period was no better as Peter Gross of St. Michael’s tallied his third goal of the game for a hat trick, and Martin Hyuk and Justin Quenneville each scored their second goals of the game. Noonan of UMB scored his second of the game and third of the tournament to give the final score of 8-4.
The new year has not exactly been kind to the Beacons either. The team managed its first tie of the season against Framingham State 3-3. However, the following weekend’s contest saw little good fortune for the Beacons as they lost to a highly ranked Bowdoin College , 4-3, on Friday, January 10 and then to Colby, another talented squad, 8-0 the next day. The team’s record stands at 0-10-1. The Beacons will be on the road this weekend as they travel to Vermont to face off against top ranked Univerisity of Norwich on Friday and St. Michael’s for a rematch on Saturday.