Hockey Upends Buffalo State, 4-3

Senior All-American Jeremiah Ketts (Foristell, Mo.) scored with just :38 seconds remaining to give the Johnson & Wales University hockey squad a thrilling 4-3 victory against Buffalo State in a non-conference contest at the Lynch Arena on Friday evening.

Johnson & Wales jumped out to the early lead when sophomore Guillaume Cyr (Quebec City, Quebec) put in a pass from senior Domenic Recchia (Sterling Heights, Mich.) and sophomore Eddie Patterson (Cinimonson, N.J.) just 1:17 into the contest.  Buffalo State responded quickly, however and knotted the game at 1-1 at the 2:03 mark on a power play goal by sophomore Mike Connolly (Shoreham, N.Y.).  JWU regained the lead shortly as sophomore Ian DePasquale (Buffalo, N.Y.) scored with assists to junior Jason Pietrasiak (Shrewsbury, Mass.) and junior Ryan Kelly (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) at the 4:48 mark.  Once again, the visiting Bengals responded and tied the score 2-2 on a goal by junior Trevor McKinney (Oakwood, Ontario) midway through the period.  The two teams headed into the locker room tied 2-2 after the first period of play.

The two teams battled back and forth through the majority of the second half before a power play goal by sophomore Kyle Whipple (Tonawanda, N.Y.) gave Buffalo State the 3-2 lead at the 14:42 mark of the period.  JWU then capitalized on a power play goal of their own as junior Trevor Jewell (Muskegon, Mich.) blasted in a shot from the point with assists to Recchia and Ketts with just over a minute left on the clock.  Again, the two teams headed into the locker room deadlocked.

After playing a majority of the third period scoreless, Ketts broke the tie when he had a breakaway down the ice after passes from Jewell and junior Danny Kaufmann (Scotch Plains, N.J.) and buried a shot into the top right corner with :38 seconds left to propel the Wildcats to the 4-3 victory.

Junior Matt Cooper (Perrysburg, Ohio) made 32 saves for JWU in the win while sophomore Kevin Carr (Unionville, Omtario) had 24 stops in the setback for Buffalo State.

With the win Johnson & Wales is now 9-3-2 while Buffalo State falls to 7-6-2 on the season.  The two teams will wrap up their weekend series on Saturday, January 14^th at Lunch Arena at 3:45 p.m.