The Georgia Ice Dogs fell behind quickly in Friday’s season opener in Duluth, GA opening the door for the Kennesaw State Owls to take home a decisive victory on the road. With two goals in the first three minutes, KSU effectively took control and didn’t look back. With several players from last year’s Division 2 team playing on the Division 3 team this year, the Owl’s looked fast and sharp.
Barron Sluder ignited the Owls offense a minute and a half into the first period with a five-hole goal. Less than a minute later, Taylor Gibson followed beat Vince DiCarlo’s rising blocker to go up by two.
The lead grew once more in the first period when Daniel Tari was fed a quick pass in the slot and deposited a snap shot past DiCarlo in the Georgia nets.
Peter Kacer said “We waited too long to move it up on the breakout. We weren’t prepared. That’s what it comes down to. We weren’t prepared for this game.”
Throughout the first period, Georgia struggled to get the puck out of its own zone.
Georgia picked up their play in the second and third period, but was shut down on several prime scoring opportunities. The Ice Dogs also hit the post three times.
DiCarlo made some excellent saves fighting to keep his team in the game.
The Dogs broke onto the scoreboard with a power-play goal from Brian Nahodyl assisted by teammate Jared Reeves at 14:31 of the second when Nahodyl stuffed the puck into the net.
Kennesaw replied minutes later with a breakaway goal by winger Ian Klip. The Owls scored again when Will Galucki capitalized on some confusion in DiCarlo’s crease, poking in a puck that appeared to be frozen.
“This is their first year in this division,” said Kacer. “They had something to prove. They proved it.”
The third period grew increasingly chippy as both sides struggled to gain the upper hand. At times intensity turned into lack of discipline. The game ended with a total of 70 penalty minutes.
Galucki scored the final KSU goal mid way thru the third making it 6-1, but it was the former Owl, Kacer, who rounded out the tallies, scoring on the power play.
Kacer performed well against his old school’s new team generating breakaways and odd man rushes, including a two-on-none chance late in the second period.
Georgia travels to Knoxville, TN to take on Tennessee this Friday night, and to Louisville, KY to play Louisville University on Saturday.
