Photo: Matt Boggs
David Almeda—Staff Writer
Coming off a two game road trip to Charleston, Kennesaw state’s club hockey team was looking to extend their two game winning streak to four in their weekend series against the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
Instead, in a testy two game series, the Owls (4-1-1) split their second homestand of the year, suffering their first loss of the season in game one, 6-4, and rebounding with a close 3-2 win in game two.
Leading scorer Larry Adegoke and Devan Bousquet directed KSU’s offense in the series, each scoring twice during the weekend.
The Owls fell behind quickly in game one. The Seahawks dominated the first period, scoring three goals and leaving KSU in a very deep hole early.
“I don’t know if the guys took them for granted or what, but we came out flat and found ourselves behind the eight-ball early,” head coach Sean Bernhardt said. “We weren’t a very physical team. We were letting them have too much time with the puck.”
After the first intermission, KSU finally began to get on the board when Chris Snyder scored with 16:08 to go in the second. Cory Prinzbach added a score later in the second frame to cut UNCW’s lead to 3-2 by the end of the period.
In the third, after UNCW responded with another score, Adegoke brought KSU back to within one with 12:55 left to play. Bousquet added another goal with 1:02 left in the contest, but the Owls couldn’t dig themselves out of their hole. KSU allowed two more goals in the final frame and eventually took the 6-4 loss.
“We laid into them pretty good after the first period and the guys responded,” Bernhardt said. “We had a solid second, didn’t have a bad third. When you put yourself in a 3-0 hole, there’s only so much you can do, it’s an uphill battle.”
After a scoreless first frame in game two of the series, KSU continued their improved play from the last two frames of the first game. Adegoke opened scoring with 8:27 left in the second frame before UNCW knotted things up in the last period with 16:06 left in the game.
Then, with 13:14 to play, Bousquet scored the go-ahead goal off an Adegoke assist to put KSU ahead late before Cody Durrwachter added an insurance goal with 6:58 left. The Owls would allow a late Seahawks score, but would hold on to take game two of the series, 3-2, splitting their second homestand of the year.
“The first period of the first game was just terrible,” Bousquet said. “The second game was just a continuation of the second and third period from last game. Our D did way better and we were forcing their D to make bad plays.”
The Owls will now travel to Vanderbilt before taking on Tulane University at home Oct. 11 at 10 p.m. at the Ice Forum.
