Eastern just got outplayed this weekend. Playing before a full-house crowd in Lexington, KY, Eastern’s RSO hockey team lost 21-5 over two games, 11-3 Friday and 10-2 Saturday.

Every time Kentucky would score, they would shout, “HEY, you Suck! Hey You Suck! We’re going to beat the F**K out of you!” They shouted it a lot.

There weren’t many highlights for the guys this weekend, minus left defenseman Kevin Hicks’ bashing of a Kentucky player in game one, which followed with Hicks motioning around his waist for the title belt as he skated by the UK crowd.

For a while in game one, things were interesting and when Eastern capitalized at 19:38 into the first with a Dale Michonksi feed to Dan Seachrist score, the crowd was relatively quiet.

The crowd was relatively quiet after UK’s three unanswered goals when Eastern whipped back with two of their own to tie the game momentarily at three. But Eastern goalie Nick Maggio didn’t receive too much help, getting 42 shots on goal in 53 minutes to UK’s 21 in 60.

The offense went flat too as Kentucky scored eight unanswered goals after the tie in the second, one with 11 seconds left in the third, a real smack in the face for EIU.

Considering playing with 14, 15 including Maggio as the benched goalie in game two, Eastern didn’t do that bad with the 10-2 loss.

Hicks was out on a disqualification from the fight in game one, along with Seachrist, Michonski and first game starter Matt Lange who were gone for personal reasons in the second game. Normal starter Derek Hay also missed the away trip due to nursing an ankle injury from the Marquette game.

Despite missing a few of their top scorers, Eastern looked as though they might at least stay with UK in the second game as the score remained knotted at zero until hot shooter Mike Barnes put one under the legs of Eastern goalie Eric Grap for the first score of the game.

Still, the score remained 2-0 at the end of the second and after a breakaway goal on the right side of the net by right wing Chris Bennett, the 3-1 score was well within Eastern’s reach.

Yet after a quick goal off the face-off by Danny Delvechhio by Dan Moore’s assist, Eastern’s scoring bout would end.

After scoring two more in the second, UK had taken a commanding 7-2 lead and all Eastern could do was shrug off the crowd’s insults and be happy the 10-2 game was over come the third. The two losses put Eastern 9-8 on the year.

“We didn’t play bad today, for being a shorter bench for what we’re used to,” head coach Cameron Estes said. “Really if you want to classify guys, five of our top eight or nine guys were not here tonight. You always hope to have more goals on the board but everybody stepped up, everybody kept together.”

Eastern will play at the David S. Palmer Arena in Danville, their home rink this coming weekend against the University of Missouri at 7 p.m. on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday to finish off this half of the year.

They return on a road trip against Southern Illinois at Edwardsville January 19.

Kevin Kenealy/Daily Eastern News Eastern forward Chris Bennett skates off in disguist as The University of Kentucky scores yet again in the second game against Eastern. Eastern would go on to lose 10-2, sinking their record to 9-8 on the season.

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