Friday night hockey began with NHL All-Star John Scott and family dropping the ceremonial puck at the John MacInnes Student Ice Arena. Friday night the Huskies hockey team won the home opener against Alabama Huntsville 7-3.
Goaltender Matt Wintjes stopped 21 of the 22 shots on goal in the first two and a half periods. At 11:40 in the game junior defenseman Mark Auk took a shot through traffic to make it to the back of the net. This goal, assisted by freshman defenseman Mitch Reinke, came under review but was found to be good. Fifteen seconds later junior forward Dylan Steman, assisted by sophomore defenseman Dane Birks and sophomore forward Jake Jackson, hit the rebound to add another tally for the Huskies.
Senior defenseman Shane Hanna helped the Huskies to a 3-0 advantage just three minutes later with an unassisted goal on the power play. Another power play goal was scored by sophomore forward Jake Lucchini, assisted by junior defenseman Matt Roy and Auk.
Senior Chris Leibinger scored on a shot from the point to bring the Huskies up 5-0. Assisting were Roy and freshman forward Chris Gerrie, for whom this was his first collegiate game. Senior forward Tyler Heinonen set up senior forward Reid Sturos for a power play goal in the second period.
Scoring his first collegiate goal in the third period on the power play was freshman forward Alex Smith, as he connected with a passing play from Reinke and Hanna. Freshman goalie Angus Redmond took the ice for the first time for the Huskies on Friday stopping five shots in the final 12 minutes.
Saturday’s matchup was a nail-biter with the first two and a half periods going scoreless. Roy finally broke the tie with a shot from the blue line that found its way to the back of the net. Junior forward Joel L’Esperance assisted on the power play goal.
University of Alabama-Huntsville (UAH) retaliated with a similar shot just 50 seconds later. The Huskies outshot UAH in the first overtime 3-0, and had plenty of great scoring chances all around. Starters for the final 3-on-3 overtime period were Hanna, senior forward Michael Neville, and Sturos, who had the game winning goal. “Goals were hard to come by. It was a hard fought game,” said Head Coach Mel Pearson about Saturday’s game. “There’s some real positives coming out of the weekend.”
Hancock native and sophomore goalie Devin Kero got his first start on home ice Saturday and stopped 21 of 22 shots. “To have my name called in the starting lineup in this arena is something I’ve been dreaming about since I was little,” Kero said.
The Huskies are still doing some switching to create the ideal lineup. An all senior line and an all freshmen line were in play on Saturday. When asked about their performances, Pearson responded, “I was happy with them, especially the freshmen line, I thought they created some good energy.”
Member of the all senior line Reid Sturos responded to the changes as well, “We’re playing good as a line with Neville and Heinonen. We’re just clicking. Coach put us together last week and I like it and I like playing with those guys.”
Sturos was named WCHA Offensive Player of the Week this Monday. Sturos’ Saturday goal will be one for the history books as it is the first regular season, double overtime game winner in WCHA history. Saturday’s match was the WCHA’s first ever 3-on-3 overtime. This award will be the fourth of Sturos’ career but is the first since winning Rookie of the Week 3 times in the 2013-2014 season. Sturos boasts 53 points on 20 goals and 33 assists in 110 career games.
