Photo: Matt Boggs | The Sentinel
Chris Raimondi, Sports Editor
While Wiz Khalifa was getting the crowd jumping at Fifth Third Bank Stadium on Saturday night, Kennesaw State’s club ice hockey team was across the street at the Ice Forum rocking out on their own during an 11-2 blowout over Tulane.
Fan-favorite Larry Adegoke netted four goals and glided through defenders all night, causing problems for Tulane’s goalie. After falling Friday night in a late defensive collapse to Vanderbilt, the team responded rousingly.
“It was a good bounce back,” head coach Sean Bernhardt said, “We started a lot quicker than we have in the past.”
After Adegoke put the Owls up 1-0 with 15:17 remaining in the first period, the Green Wave battled a consistent onslaught of shots for the next 10 minutes, holding the deficit to one. However, Taylor Gipson broke the drought with a crafty behind-the-net goal, placing the puck in the top right corner after carrying it from behind the goalie’s back. The highlight score put the Owls up 2-0, with 5:15 to go in the first.
KSU added two more goals before the first intermission, while conceding one. Adegoke scored his second goal of the night with 4:08 left in the first period.
After the first period, the Owls headed to the locker room, up 4-1.
Five minutes into the second period, Adegoke completed the hat-trick, putting KSU ahead 5-1. The Green Wave again parked the bus for much of the second period, resulting in a 10-minute scoreless drought.
Tempers flared halfway through the second, after a scrum broke out in front the KSU goal and a player from each side received a double penalty. With 5:31 remaining in the second, Cory Prinzbach joined in the scoring after intercepting a lazy pass in Tulane’s defensive zone and put away the easy one-on-one opportunity. The second period finished with the Owls ahead, 6-1.
Things got ugly in the final period. Adegoke scored his fourth and final goal of the night, just seconds after a faceoff in Tulane’s defensive zone skipped to his right. Adegoke calmly placed the puck in the lower-right corner of the goal, off of a wrist shot from roughly 25 feet out, giving the Owls a 7-1 advantage with 12:44 remaining.
Less than 10 seconds later, the Owls won the faceoff at center ice, and rapidly turned into a two-on-one break that ended with Devan Bousquet scoring, off a Prinzbach assist, at the 12:36 mark. Now up 8-1, the Owls scored their third goal in less than 30 seconds, after Prinzbach slapped his second goal of the night to advance the lead to 9-1.
Ryan Patel and Rick Fiorillo netted two more goals for the Owls and Tulane grabbed its second goal of the night with less than a minute left before the final buzzer.
Though KSU skated off the ice with an 11-2 victory, there was no shortage of physicality from both sides. “We got pucks deep and banged bodies, and really made them hesitant to go in the corners,” Bernhardt said. “We have to be even more physical. We have big bodies and a lot of speed, and if we can be more physical that’s a huge combination for us to have more success.”
The club hockey team will look ahead to playing Clemson University in Taylor, South Carolina Friday and Saturday, before returning home Oct. 25 for a 10 p.m. game with Life University.