Power plays vital to Icers' continued success

With the game tied at 4 with two minutes and 30 seconds left in the second period, Jeff Adams scored a power-play goal with assists from Brad Hamel and Todd Dakan to give the Icers a 5-4 lead.

It proved to be the turning point in the Icers' game against West Virginia on Saturday.

West Virginia would score one final goal in the third period, as Icers Don Coyne and Mike Pietrangelo added another goal apiece to earn the No. 1 Icers the second victory of the two-game weekend series over the Ice Hounds.

Although Saturday afternoon's game could be characterized as sloppy, it was a win nonetheless. Three of the nine goals were scored on power plays.

"The power play came through for us today, as it has all year," Icer coach Joe Battista said. "We outshot them (26-6) second period."

However, Friday night's matchup consisted of a virtually consistent offensive surge, particularly in the second period.

The team's first period play was sluggish and was dominated by inconsistent passing. The Icers made up for their lack of focus in the second period, when the team scored seven straight unanswered goals.

"The defense was solid," goaltender John Sixt said. "My job was pretty easy. When we scored those couple of goals at the beginning, that kind of took the wind out of their sails."

Although the defense gave up two goals in the third period, it seemed to feed off the offense and dominate the ice.

Among the players who contributed significantly to the offensive dominance were Dakan, Pietrangelo and Alon Eizenman.

West Virginia's offense never really posed a serious threat in Friday night's game, with most of the action taking place near its own goal.

The Icer defense's only real mistake of the weekend series was giving up a short-handed goal to West Virginia on Friday night.

"I really would have liked to see a shutout," Battista said. "The offense scored 17 goals (in the two games). We didn't play as well defensively as we should have. Buff Shuttleworth is playing great hockey right now. Don Coyne and Jason Zivkovic are playing very well, too."

Penalties at inopportune times seemed to hinder the overall effectiveness of the team.

But as a whole, with the team plagued by injuries (of 29 players, seven are hurt) and dealing with the pressure that comes with being No. 1, the Icers played well enough to secure the two wins offensively and defensively.

"It wasn't our best two wins," Coyne said, "but they were wins."