FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The No. 11-ranked Indiana Tech men's ice hockey team sealed the regular season sweep of WHAC foe, Cleary, this past weekend by scores of 5-2 and 9-3.
On Friday night, it was the Cougars who were revved up at the start of the contest, netting two first period goals to go into the intermission with a 2-0 lead to put the Warriors on upset alert. However, it was all Warriors from then on.
Joel Holmberg kicked off the second period with a goal off of assists from
Axel Low and
Fabian Granqvist. Just four minutes later, Granqvist scored one of his own, this time he would receive the pass from Holmberg (and
Malik Ali) on the power-play. With just 25 seconds remaining in the 2nd period,
Zach Bennett would put one in the back of the net off of assists from
Cam Chabot and
Matej Krasny. Holmberg would strike again at the 11:40 mark in the third period, and
Axel Low would wrap the game up with just over two minutes to play, making it a 5-2 Warrior win.
Riley Tucker would earn the win, finishing with 25 saves on the night.
On Saturday night, the Cougars once again would start off with the lead, but it would only last a little over three minutes before
Alex Potter tied the game up at 1.
Joel Holmberg and
Malik Ali would score on back-to-back power-plays to put the hosts ahead 3-1 going into the intermission.
Joey Fata and
Cole Barney would score just one minute apart from each other, making it a 5-1 contest, before
Mitchell Forton and
Fabian Granqvist would do score back to back as well, as the Warriors would make it a 7-2 score heading into the final period.
Zach Bennett would earn his 150th career point, scoring off a Cleary turnover and Chabot assist.
Alex Potter would put the hosts ahead by six on a power-play goal with 9:27 remaining in the game to wrap up the scoring, with Tech winning 9-3.
Ty Barnhill earned the victory, and made 14 saves on the night.
Tech (13-2-0, 11-1-0 WHAC) is in for a busy week, as they'll head to Hudsonville, Mich to take on Grand Valley State before their weekend series with Rochester (0-8, 0-8 WHAC), with the home contest being on Friday at 7:30 PM at the SportONE/Parkview Icehouse.
