From The Vidette
By Evan Bultemeier
Illinois State Division I club hockey suffered a 15-1 loss to Drury Friday at Bloomington Ice Center, surrendering 14 unanswered goals after briefly tying the game in the first period.
Drury struck first with a goal from Luke Davies before the Redbirds responded with one from Pavel Bakhtin to tie the score.
However, the Panthers dominated from there, scoring four goals in the first period, six in the second and five in the third to secure the 15-1 victory.
“I think we didn’t play our best game today, effort-wise included in that,” head coach Chris Prewitt said. “I think we had maybe a total of 12 minutes total of kind of being the team we could be, and when that happened, we found some success.”
Prewitt also recognized the challenge of facing a highly ranked opponent, saying the team’s performance was not good enough against the No. 1 team in the country.
He added that the team’s confidence has taken a hit following its recent performances and emphasized the importance of getting back on track.
“We’re a better hockey team than this, and I think our confidence is shattered a little bit right now between last weekend and today,” Prewitt said. “So we’ve got to find a way to hit the reset button and play 60 minutes.”
Despite the lopsided final score, Prewitt said there were some individual performances worth recognizing. He noted that certain players showed improvement over last weekend, even though the team’s overall performance was not where it needed to be.
“I think as a team, no, but as individuals, I think we had some guys that played better today than they did last weekend,” Prewitt said.
He also stressed that individual accountability will be important as the team looks to improve.
“The thought process is right now we’ve got to be a better me before we can be a better us,” Prewitt said.
Looking ahead, the Redbirds will need to rebuild their confidence and make adjustments to improve their performance.
“When you have this type of outing, it’s just forget and move on is kind of what you hope for,” Prewitt said.
(Originally published at https://www.videtteonline.com/sports/illinois-state-hockey-dismantled-by-panthers-in-15-1-loss/article_61e784d8-d405-46a7-ada6-e122c3190c9b.html)
