Following an underwhelming showing last weekend, the hockey team headed out on a weekend road trip, starting with a Friday night 6-1 thrashing of the University of New Hampshire Wildcats at the Whittemore Center in Durham, New Hampshire and ending with a 5-2 win in Massachusetts against Boston College
on Saturday.

In the Friday night game, the Violets were on the board after an early penalty kill thanks to freshman forward John Kowalewski, with assists from junior forward Peter Jorgensen and senior defender
Gabriel Gollette.

Both teams were dealt a slew of penalties, which ended with another goal in the back of the UNH net when freshman forward Hamilton Whyte scored at 10:43, with help from freshmen defenders Connor Finocchio and Gabe Regan. The Violets were out to prove that last weekend’s loss was an anomaly when Kowalewski got his second goal of the night at 12:25 from an assist by sophomore forward Michael Conslato. Sophomore goaltender Jack Nebe kept out some traffic late in the period to keep the Violets’ 3-0 advantage going into the second.

The second period began with some back and forth action that led to a string of weird penalties being handed to both teams, including a bizarre major to NYU that no one on the Violets bench could quite understand. Both teams’ penalty kills remained solid, however, and the second period was scoreless.

Conslato turned it on in the third to score two back-to-back goals for a 5-0 advantage. The Wildcats got one on the board eventually, but it was too late for it to matter.

Emotions ran high late in the third period due to the lopsided nature of the game — even NYU Head Coach Christopher Cosentino got penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct. That paired with a Finocchio tripping call resulted in a late 5-on-3 opportunity for UNH. Not even a two-man disadvantage proved a problem for the Violets as freshman forward Max Devorris — who served Cosentino’s penalty — came right out of the box to score the Violets’ sixth and final goal of the night. After the game, Jorgensen attributed the victory mostly to discipline and focus.

“The boys got back to hard work and grinded out a couple big wins,” Jorgensen said.  “The power play was on and the penalty kill was disciplined. It was a great team effort.”

Next on the slate was BC, who presented more of a challenge in the early goings of the game than UNH did. After some early back and forth penalties and 4-on-4 play, the Violets started the scoring thanks to a power play effort from sophomore forward Steven Esposito, with the assists going to Conslato and Gollette.

While playing 4-on-4 early in the second, BC found the back of the net to tie things at one, proving they wouldn’t roll over. However, NYU senior forward Denis O’Hara came right back to score a shorthanded goal to restore the lead.

It didn’t take long for BC to respond, knotting the score at two. But O’Hara’s second goal of the night got NYU back in the lead to end the first, a period punctuated by stellar play from sophomore goaltender Alec Hardman.

Just shy of a minute into the third, senior defender Curtis Fisher netted a goal to double the Violets’ lead. In the end, a sniper from Kowalewski, who had a standout weekend, put NYU up 5-2. Freshman forward Keaton Baum said the momentum they gained this weekend has all but erased their struggles from a week ago.

“It was a really big weekend for the guys,” Baum said. “It was important we could string together two wins to get the ball rolling again. Hard work and simple plays went a long way this weekend and gave us what we needed to pull out two big wins.”

The Violets will be in action again next week when they host Northeastern at the Sky Rink in Chelsea Piers.

A version of this article appeared in the Nov. 16 print edition. Email Rachel Ruecker at [email protected].