The opening weekend of Great Lakes Collegiate Hockey League (GLCHL) play for the Kent State University Golden Flashes was challenging to say the least.

     Dropping both home-ice contests against the Western Michigan Stallions by identical 5-2 tallies, the Flashes neglected to garner any points in the league standings.

     With a mere 12 games and 36 points available in GLCHL play, it was the worse-case scenario start for Kent.

     “We had an opportunity to earn some points on our home ice and we lost six valuable points to Western Michigan and that hurts us,” observed Kent State head coach Jim Underwood. “Those points are going to come back and hurt us down the road when it comes to where we will end up in the league standings.”

     After dropping the opening game on Friday night, Underwood made some major adjustments to his line up including several healthy scratches.

     “Our constant theme every week is to get guys to compete for 60 minutes and whatever the result is after that we will live with,” declared Underwood.

     “We were not getting all five guys on the ice competing at the same time. We are seven games into the season and X’s and O’s mean nothing if you are unwilling to compete for your space on the ice.”

       With a relatively short bench available for the Saturday night match up, the Flashes committed a five-minute major penalty early in the first period and the Stallions netted a trio of goals during that special team opportunity.

       “We didn’t respond very well over the course of five minutes and that was the difference in the game,” assessed Underwood.

      It is fair to say that, apart from the extended penalty time, Kent’s effort was equal, if not better than that of the Stallions.

 Next up for the Golden Flashes:

       This weekend the Flashes play a home-and-home series with Robert Morris University.

      “What our guys have to do moving forward is to understand that every day is a new opportunity,” explained Underwood. “They need to learn to put our failures behind us and start over again. We are looking for that full commitment and positive attitude moving forward.”

     “Every day at practice is like a job interview for the lineup. I am always looking for guys trending in the right direction,” offered the Kent State coach.

BLUELINE NOTES:

---After a late 9:45 PM game start on Friday night at the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center, the Flashes will host RMU at the KSU Ice Arena at 7:30 PM Saturday Night.

---Following the RMU series, the Golden Flashes will play four consecutive series against GLCHL opponents to close out the fall semester portion of their schedule.

For hockey insights and updates, follow Jim Smith on twitter @BlueLineNotes