The Seawolves extended their winning streak to five games this past weekend with a pair of victories against the UNLV Rebels in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Stony Brook handed UNLV its first home losses of the season and leaped 10 spots in the National Rankings, moving up to No. 11.
The Seawolves struck first in Friday night’s game, with sophomore forward Filip Pomianek putting his team on the board less than five minutes into the game. UNLV went on to tie it 1-1 a few minutes later, but junior forward Chuckie Peck gave Stony Brook back a lead that it would never surrender.
A trio of second period goals including senior forward Devon Palmieri’s first of the year pushed the Seawolves’ lead to 5-2 through 40 minutes of play. Though the Rebels battled back within one goal of the Seawolves’ lead in the third period, a late empty-netter secured Stony Brook’s 6-4 win.
The Seawolves showed resilience in Saturday’s game, going down 2-0 early in the first period and trailing for the majority of the night. Despite UNLV maintaining a lead throughout the game, Stony Brook stayed within striking distance. Heading into the third period the Rebels held a commanding 6-3 advantage, but the Seawolves refused to give up.
With 12:53 remaining in regulation, sophomore forward Dustin Rinaldo found the back of the net to bring the Seawolves within two goals of the Rebels’ lead. Senior forward Kevin Murphy made it a 6-5 game with 7:37 and 27 seconds later, senior forward Nick Belger scored on his backhand to tie the game at 6-6. The offense didn’t stop there, as less than a minute later freshman defenseman Davin Van de Zilver fired one top shelf to take a 7-6.
Stony Brook’s four unanswered goals in the final thirteen minutes of the game earned the team its fourth straight win against UNLV who entered the weekend ranked No. 14 in the nation.
The Seawolves finished the first half with an overall record of 12-6-0. They will return to the ice in January when they travel to Michigan for a two-game series with the Michigan-Dearborn Wolverines on Sunday, January 19th and Monday, January 20th. The games begin at 6:00 p.m. and 12:00 p.m., respectively.
