Men's Hockey Downs Royal Military College, 12-3, In Exhibition Game

Kyle Atkins

WORCESTER, Mass. - Freshman Rob Linsmayer (Winnetka, Ill.) scored a hat trick and six other Crusaders had multiple-point games as the Holy Cross men's hockey team defeated the Royal Military College, 12-3, on Sunday afternoon at the Hart Center in an exhibition game. The Crusaders will start the regular season with two games versus Hockey East teams on the road as they will play at Providence (Oct. 10) and at Merrimack (Oct. 16). Holy Cross' home-opener will be with AIC (Oct. 31).

The Crusaders controlled the puck most of the first period. They broke through at the 19:19 mark when junior co-captain Everett Sheen (Lethbridge, Alberta) scored off a rebound in front of the net on the power play. Linsmayer sent the puck to the front from the goal line. Paladin goaltender Matt Beirnes made the initial save off junior Jordan Cyr (Winnipeg, Manitoba), but Sheen poked the rebound home. The Crusaders outshot the Paladins 21-6 and finished 1-3 on the power play. The Paladins were 0-2 with the man advantage.

Holy Cross erupted for six goals in the second period. Linsmayer scored 3:01 into the period on a feed from Sheen. Freshman Brandon Nunn (Fairport, N.Y.) extended the Crusader lead to 3-0 at the 8:50 mark after he poked home a rebound off a breakaway by freshman Erik Vos (Carlisle, Ontario). Linsmayer added his second tally of the game 12:35 into the period. Just over three minutes later with the Crusaders on a 5-on-3 advantage, Cyr scored from the right circle with a wrist shot over Beirnes' shoulder. Sophomore Jay Silvia (Burlington, Mass.) converted for Holy Cross 41 seconds later, also on the power play. Vos made it 7-0 with a shorthanded goal. The Royal Military College got on the board on the power play at the 18:53 mark when Matthew Cossaboom centered a pass in front that went off a Holy Cross skate and past Crusader senior netminder Ian Dams (Manotick, Ontario). The Paladins were 1-4 on the power play in the period while the Crusaders were 2-4. Holy Cross outshot RMC in the period 12-6.

Freshman Brendan Baker (Edina, Minn.) opened the third-period scoring for Holy Cross 51 seconds in with a one timer from the blue line. Linsmayer completed the hat trick at the 5:07 mark with a power play goal on a feed from senior Brodie Sheahan (Lethbridge, Alberta) to give Holy Cross a 9-1 lead. The Paladins responded with two tallies, one from Ken Morin with the man advantage and another from Justin Lacey at even strength to make it 9-3. Sophomore Kyle Atkins (Brockville, Ontario), Vos and senior Rob Forshner (Sundre, Alberta) lit the lamp for the Crusaders to wrap up the scoring. Holy Cross held a 16-6 edge in shots in the third, went 4-6 on the power play in the period and finished 7-13 overall. The Paladins were 1-1 with the man advantage in the third and ended the game 2-7.

Holy Cross outshot the Royal Military College 49-18 overall. Beirnes faced 32 shots and made 26 saves for the Paladins in the loss. Brendan Boyle also faced 17 shots for the Royal Military College, stopping 11. Freshman Thomas Tysowsky (Amherst, N.Y.) made six saves in the first period for Holy Cross, Dams faced six shots and stopped five in the second and junior Adam Roy (Feeding Hills, Mass.) faced six shots and made four saves in the third period.