The NYU men’s hockey team hoped to improve their stellar 11-1 record as they headed back to Chelsea Piers Sky Rink on Friday night to face Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Saturday they traveled to Poughkeepsie to play Marist, hoping to go home for Thanksgiving with a little something extra to be thankful for.

With only one loss to their credit, the Violets came into their Friday night game at home looking for a second victory against RPI after taking them 5-2 last weekend. This weekend’s result was not quite what they wanted, dropping the game 8-4 in a scrappy match.

The Violets got off to a rough start, giving up a powerplay goal at 13:23, and then losing two quick ones at the end of the frame. All was not lost, however, when NYU got one in the first minute of the second period from freshman forward Scott Mulligan for his first goal while donning the Purple shirts.

At 2:26, NYU got within one when junior forward Michael Conslato doubled NYU’s total.

The comeback effort came to a screeching halt when RPI scored a fourth at 9:18 and contributed to the onslaught at 13:56 to move ahead 5-2. With 2:19left in the frame, sophomore forward Mason Gallegos made things interesting as they headed into
the third.

The third was a messy affair and RPI took advantage of a usually foolproof Violet powerplay at 9:20 to regain their three-goal lead. They scored their seventh as an empty-netter and would go on to scored an eighth before the game’s end. Mulligan scored again for the Violets with a minute and a half left. At the final buzzer it was 8-4 RPI, and NYU dropped just their second game this year.

Saturday saw a return to form for the Violets as they took on the Marist College Red Foxes in Poughkeepsie and decimated them, 3-0.

NYU began their redemption effort early with a goal from sophomore forward Keaton Baum just under half a minute in. Halfway through the frame they doubled their lead on a Marist boarding call thanks to fellow sophomore forward
Jack Orne.

The second period was characteristically plagued by back-and-forth penalties, a Violet trademark. Freshman goaltender Adam Salisbury stayed stellar through a number of key kills. The Violets ended the second on a penalty to begin round three with a minute and a half left to kill, which they did. The third rarely saw full strength play, and NYU capped things off with Gallegos’ second goal of the night with just nine seconds left, with the assist going to Mulligan, who had very a successful weekend. Game-winning-goal scorer Baum noted that Friday night was an eye opener that motivated the team to reset their style.

“After the loss Friday night, we realized that we needed to get back to basic, simple hockey and stick to playing our strengths and what we do well,” Baum said. “Saturday that was what we did, not to mention a stellar performance from our
goaltender [Salisbury].”

The Violets have this weekend off but will be back Saturday, Dec. 3 as they head to Keene, New Hampshire to play Keene State College before traveling to Boston in hopes of going undefeated against Northeastern this season.

A version of this article appeared in the Monday, Nov. 21 print edition. Email Rachel Ruecker at [email protected].