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The Freezing Eagles remain undefeated

D2
The Florida Gulf Coast University D2 hockey team looks to soar past the Liberty University Flames at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24 at Germain Arena.  Game two of the weekend matchup will continue at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25.
Liberty travels to Florida dragging a solid 7-3 record, scoring 52 goals and allowing 26 in their first ten games. The Flames’ top scorer, Paul Ingles, look to bounce back from a 6-1 loss to the Eagles in their last meeting at the ACHA D2 hockey showcase in Lynchburg, Virginia.
“The top two teams in our region get a bye to nationals,” coach Bob Brinkworth said. “These regional games are very important, more so than the Michigan and Michigan State games, who are going to have very good teams, because we don’t play a lot of them. We’re 3-0 in our region, so two more wins are needed.”
The Eagles hosted the Boston University Terriers at their home opener at 8:30 p.m. Friday Oct. 17 at Germain Arena. The Eagles sent the Terriers home with their tails between their legs with scores of 12-7 on Friday and 10-1 on Saturday.
Boston University’s, Nick Lupo, started by putting the weekend’s first goal past Eagle’s goaltender Tyler Tracy. Returning the favor, assisted by Bryan Valancy and Ed Leon, Colton Baily buried the puck behind Terrier’s net minder Joe Kelly. Shortly after, unassisted Boston forward, Scott Woods, scored his first of the night. The Eagles’ Mike Chemello, Dillon Duprey and Nick Houser retaliated with three unanswered goals, closing out the first period of play.
Houser continued FGCU scoring with another goal, assisted by Dan Echeverri, to start off the second period and forcing the Terriers to make a goaltender change. Terrier’s Parkinson and Lupo put another two goals past Tracy, bringing the Terriers just behind the Eagles by a score of 5-4. With a goal from Echeverri followed by two from Dillon Duprey, the Eagles expaned the gap between the two teams. Boston defender Nick Denzi buried one before Eagles’ Echeverri closed out scoring for the second period with his second of the night.
The Terriers came out strong, in the third period. In the sixth minute of play, Parkinson put his second goal behind the Eagles’ net minder. Freshman Jordan Klotz came back and stuck two back-to-back goals past Boston goaltender Paul Sliwinski. In the seventeenth minute of the period, BU’s  Woods buried his second of the night. In the final minute of regulation, Eagles’ forward Nick Schilson blasted his first of the night past the Boston goaltender, sealing the victory for FGCU.
“There were some nerves involved, with some of the newer kids,” Brinkworth said. “We made way too many turn-overs in casual plays.”
The ice was heavily tilted in favor of the Eagles for Saturday night’s game. FGCU scored 10 goals on 41 shots.
The first period commenced with two goals buried by Mike Boyd and assisted by Echeverri and Anthony Yezek. Closing out the first period scoring, forward Jordan Klotz put his first of the evening past Terrier goaltender Jared Hynes, assisted by Schilson.
During the second minute of the second period, Leon put his first on the board sniping one past the wavering Terrier goalie. Echeverri followed that with a goal assisted by defender Rob Marlinski. Prompting a Boston goalie change, assisted by Echeverri, Valancy put his first behind Hynes. Valancy then went on to put the puck past Terriers replacement goalie, Kelly, ending the second period of scoring for the Eagles.
The third period continued with a second Eagles’ goal from Klotz, before Dillon Schuyler got the first and only goal for the battered BU. FGCU went on to put two more past Kelly. An unassisted goal from Colton Bailey and another from Leon, assisted by Bailey, would put an end to the weary Terriers.
Backed by impressive goaltending from Tracy and Reed, Eagle’s defenders were steadfast at keeping Boston’s scoring opportunities to a minimum.
D3
The Florida Gulf Coast University D3 Eagles travel to Orlando to take on the University of Central Florida Knights at 10:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24 at the RDV Sportsplex. The weekend double-header continues again at 10:15 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25.
UCF brings an impressive 9-1 record to the matchup against the Eagles. The Knight’s high-scoring offensive leaders will test the FGCU defense. Matt Pierson, leading UCF’s offense with 10 goals and 12 assists, looks to be a potential challenge for Eagles goaltending. Knight’s Brandon Palacio and Will Roos also pose a huge offensive threat with a combined 34 points. The Eagles need to capitalize on the experienced UCF goaltenders. Blake Lozinski brings a notable 1.67 GAA to the match against FGCU, while Dominic Calandra and Kyle Scorcia both bring a 3.4 GAA.
“We know they are one of our biggest competitors, but we can’t focus on them,” coach Kevin Mixon said. “We focus on ourselves, how we play the game, and bring that to the rink this weekend.”
The Eagles tallied another win of the season, in an away game on Friday, Oct. 17 in a battle against the struggling Florida Atlantic University Owls. Following a 9-1 win on Friday, the Eagles returned home to shutout the Owls on Saturday with a score of 13-0. Over the weekend, FGCU took a total of 97 shots towards Owls goaltender Theo Slocum. The Eagles also accumulated a combined 28 penalty minutes in their weekend of play against FAU.
“Penalties were definitely a problem this weekend that were addressed and will be fixed before games against UCF,” Mixon said. “If we don’t clean that up, then we could find ourselves on the wrong end of the scoreboard.”
In the seventh minute of the first period, Eagles’ scoring commenced with a goal scored by Zach Capco, assisted by Dan Sbrocchi and Jimmy Williams. With less than two minutes remaining in the first period, the Owls answered back with their only goal of the evening from center, Jon Fuhrman.
Second period scoring started off when defender Mike Gutowitz put the puck behind the Owls’ Slocum. Matt Gross, assisted by Eagles’ goaltender Tyler Toyota, put a third tally on the board with a powerplay goal. Seconds later, FGCU scored again with a goal from the starting center, Trevor Mullaly assisted by Ryan McAleese and Eric Mabie. Scoring in the second period came to an end with nineteen seconds remaining with a snipe from Gutowitz, his second and final of the night.
The third period started with an unassisted goal scored by Eagles’ captain Mike Piatek followed by two goals from right-wing Ryan McAleese. A goal from Mabie assisted by Mullaly and Gutowitz finished Friday’s scoring.
Scoring for Saturday night’s game started in the tenth minute of play with a goal from left winger Brett Sutton assisted by McAleese and Mullaly. The same line scored again with a goal from McAleese followed by a goal from Mullaly.
The second period began with another goal from right-wing McAleese. In the last three minutes of the second period, the Eagles’ Paul Moneuse, Tyler Reichl and McAleese managed to put three more goals past the struggling Slocum.
The insistent Eagles lit the lamp four more times in the third period with goals from Moneuse, Sutton, Sbrocchi and Gross, forcing an Owls goalie change. Shortly after, Owl’s goaltender Dylan Harrison allowed two more Eagles’ goals. The first came from Moneuse in the tenth minute of the third period and a second from Reichl to finish up the period.
McAleese scored five goals over the weekend, three coming from a hat trick Saturday night. Paul Moneuse also tallied a hattrick this weekend. Jared Burch, Eagle’s goaltender, was on-point holding on to the shutout.

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