By Blake McDaniel
ATHENS – In their third home game and fourth overall , the Ice Dogs welcomed the Kennesaw State Owls to Athens for their first ever meeting at the Classic Center. In a back-and-forth physical battle, that featured 36 combined penalty minutes between the teams, Georgia fell 7-6 in overtime to their interstate rivals.
“We had a great effort overall, but this team needs to be able to win these one goal games,” Ice Dogs head coach Eric Linkowski said. “Unfortunately, tonight the puck ended up in the back of our net one more time than it did in theirs.”
Both squads exchanged opening goals within in the first five minutes with Georgia grabbing an early 1-0 lead in the first three minutes. Forward Lucas Warner scored his first goal of the season deflecting defenseman Dixon Babb’s point shot puck to the top right past KSU goalie Christopher Nix.
KSU would counter moments later as the Owls leading scorer, Larry Adegoke, scored his first of five goals on the evening to tie the score at 1-1 off a shorthanded feed from Ryan Patel.
The Owls took their first lead of the contest Joe Tarri deflected a point shot past starting goalie Andrew Bray, who 33 of 40 shots he faced. KSU would increase their lead to 3-1 with their first of four power play goals on the evening as Adegoke went end to end to put home his second of the night.
Santa Maria brought the Dawgs back within a goal as he put home John Wutschel’s point shot to cut the Owls’ lead to 3-2. UGA would tie the game 3-3 with a goal from defenseman Michael Pearson, who snuck in from the point to finish a tic-tac-toe play with assists going to sophomore forward Alex Carey and junior forward, Ryan Bray.
In the second period the Owls would regain the lead within four minutes as an Adegoke snapshot from the left circle past made it 4-3. KSU made it 5-3 with as Devin Bousquet one-timed a feed from Adegoke with just under four minutes to go in the middle stanza. Georgia would put themselves within a goal heading into the third period as Santa Maria and Carey executed a give-and go on a 5-on-3 power play making it 5-4 heading into the final period.
Carey got the third period started off with a bang as his hat trick goal tied the game at 5-5. Georgia would regain the lead less than two minutes later as Pearson’s second goal, a wrist shot over Nix’s outstretched glove made it 6-5 in favor of the Ice Dogs.
The physical play would increase as Georgia looked to close out their rivals. With just over six minutes to go, KSU would tie the game 6-6 on a power play goal from Greg Giles.
In the extra period, the Ice Dogs a multitude of chances including a breakaway by Santa Maria. In the waning seconds, Adegoke brought the puck up the left wing and fired a quick shot from the half boards to give the Owls the overtime win.
The Ice Dogs will look to bounce back in their second “Pink in the Rink” game when they take on the Life University Running Eagles.
Following the game against Life, the Ice Dogs will auction off their Breast Cancer Awareness Jerseys as part of their “Pink in the Rink” weekend to promote breast cancer awareness. The team is donating all proceeds from the auctions to the St. Mary’s Health Care Women’s Health Fund.
