Big Red Ice Hockey sweeps U of Richmond, snags playoff spot

Charlie Thompson, Staff Writer—

Denison’s Club Ice Hockey team has recently found itself rising quickly through the ranks of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA). In a dire series against regional division rival University of Richmond, Big Red Ice Hockey showed out, displaying their dominance and sweeping the Spiders in two lopsided games, 9-3 in game one and 6-0 in game two. Needing these wins to secure a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference Hockey League (ACCHL) playoffs, the Big Red rose to the occasion, and punched their ticket to the postseason tournament. 

Despite Richmond’s home rink advantage, the first game was only evenly matched for the first period. The Spiders’ starting goalie Will Hopewell was hopeless between the pipes, as in the first period alone he allowed two goals in under ten minutes of play. Just over two and a half minutes into the game, Big Red defenseman Charlie Whalen ‘26 slipped the puck into the back of the net, followed by a goal from Noah DiFilippo ‘24, assisted by John Yavari ‘25.

Richmond fired back late with two power play goals, tying the game shortly before first intermission, but as the puck dropped at the start of the second period, the Spiders lost control. Denison’s Ethan Wippf ‘25 and Yavari, who was assisted by Seth Kaplan ‘26 were both able to skate through the weak Richmond defense to score in the second, while Preston Fisk ‘25, with Kaplan assisting again, scored on a powerplay just before the end of the half. The overwhelming nature of the Big Red offense became apparent in the second, as the Spiders tallied a total of ten minutes of penalties due to their poor play. 

To seal game one, Denison’s offense scored four more times in the third period, closing out the game with a six-goal lead on the Spiders. DiFilippo scored once more, while Justin Rink ‘23, Kaplan, and Duncan Humphries ‘25 all notched goals of their own, assisted by Wippf, Nick Podesta ‘24, Yavari, and Nick Salerno ‘25, respectively.

Game two was even more lopsided for the Big Red, as they shut out the Spiders with a commanding performance from goalie Brennan Holmes ‘25. Lukas Cheris ‘26, assisted by Rink, drew first blood in the first period, leading to a scoring frenzy in the second. Fisk, assisted by Thomas Kreske ‘26 and Kaplan, was able to score twice on the flailing Richmond goalie, while DiFilippo scored his third goal of the series just before the period ended. 

The game was wrapped up with goals by Wippf and Humphries, but not before a little fun was had. Holmes, who stayed in goal for most of the game, received a delay of game penalty, and to decide who was going to head to the penalty box, the referees decided to have Denison’s players do ‘nose-goes’, with Whalen being the last to do so. It was a fun way to end the series, with Denison improving to 14-7 on the season, as well as qualifying for the ACCHL playoffs at the end of this month.

“It was a good two wins coming back from break; we played well as a team, had a lot of shots on net, and we’re looking forward to the playoffs in Winston-Salem,” Kaplan said. 

More recently, Denison beat the University of Dayton in a two-game series on Feb. 3-4, winning 4-1 in game one, and winning game two in a shootout 5-4. They will head down to Winston-Salem, NC for their first ACCHL playoff game on Feb. 17.