Cool Cats split weekend games against Dayton
November 18, 2013
By Char Grimm
UK hockey (4-12-1) split a pair of games with the University of Dayton (10-5-0) on the weekend, beating the 12th-ranked Flyers 4-0 in Lexington on Friday before dropping the second game 5-2 in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday.
UK got on the board quickly to start the game Friday night when UK senior defenseman Pat Wittman fired from the slot to beat Dayton sophomore goaltender Oliver Flesher with just under two minutes played, giving the Cats a 1-0 lead.
Less than two minutes later, UK senior forward Bronson Dodd would score his first career goal at UK to double the Cats’ lead in the first period.
“It was nice to finally get one,” Dodd said.
Despite opportunities on goal for both teams, the second period was scoreless and the Cats still led 2-0 after two periods.
With 18:05 left to play in the game, senior Jake Boss slipped a shot past Flesher to give the Cats a 3-0 lead.
“That one was a long time coming,” Boss said, scoring his first goal of the season.
Nine minutes later, Boss fed the puck to UK sophomore forward Dylan Higgins. Higgins would fire back door on Flesher to give the Cats the 4-0 lead.
Strong defensive play by the Cats would ensure the shutout for goaltender Aaron Tenfelde.
The Cats were very physical throughout the first game, something the team had been lacking in recent weeks.
“We’d been putting games together for the last few weeks. It was nice to finally see all the pieces fall into place,” said senior goaltender Aaron Tenfelde, who recorded his first shutout of the season Friday night.
Saturday night, Dayton wasn’t going to let the Cats beat them quite as easily. Within two minutes to start the game, the Flyers jumped out to a 2-0 lead courtesy of senior forward Michael Trick and sophomore forward Andrew Parilli.
Despite being thrown back on their heels for part of the first period, the Cats weren’t going to allow the Flyers to run away with the game. With five minutes left in the first, junior forward Corey Kopach would fire backhand on Flesher to get the Cats on the board. UK would exit the first period down 2-1 in Dayton.
Just over four minutes into the second period, Parilli would score his second of the game, giving Dayton the two goal advantage once more.
With 5:08 to play in the period, a scramble around the net would give the Flyers another goal and the 4-1 advantage.
Senior forward Ryan Thomas would net his own goal with 15 seconds left in the period to cut the Dayton lead to two goals to exit the second.
With just under ninety seconds remaining in the game, Dayton would send the puck down the ice and into the Cats’ empty net on the penalty kill to finalize the score at 5-2.
The Cats play Cincinnati in a home-and-home series next weekend in their final games before Thanksgiving Break. Friday night the Cats will take on the Bearcats in Lexington at midnight before traveling to Cincinnati on Sunday for a 2 p.m. start.
