After sweeping the University of New Hampshire Wildcats at Hertz Arena, the FGCU DII hockey team added two more wins to its record, now at 18-4.

The Eagles started Friday night at a deficit when Wildcats’ forward Liam Martin scored the game’s first goal. Forward Jaiz Barner tied the game up, scoring FGCU’s first goal before intermission. 

Both teams traded the game’s following four goals. Wildcats’ forward Jeff Melanson put the puck in to open the period, while Eagles’ forward Adam Beauvais scored a goal off the advantage of a power-play by  New Hampshire’s Melanson in the penalty box for holding.

FGCU defenseman Shane Romback scored his fifth goal of the season to give the Eagles their first lead in the eighth minute. However, Owen Hueghs, a forward for New Hampshire, tied up the game.

In the remaining nine minutes, goaltenders Keegan Wise of the Eagles and Cam Holbrook of the Wildcats blocked attempted shots on both ends of the rink, putting the score at 3-3 to end the period.

Fresh out of the locker room, FGCU forward Andrew Castello scored early in the third period. Forward Jake Court netted the next goal for the Eagles. Keeping Court’s momentum, forward Shayne Tomlinson benefited from a power play and put the Eagles up by three. 

Nine seconds after Tomlinson’s goal, Martin retaliated with a goal to sway the momentum. At 14 minutes in, defenseman Andrew Jensen assisted Court with a short-handed goal. This was the last goal of the night, bringing the Eagles to a 7-4 final score. 

The Eagles took a second-game shutout win, with FGCU goaltender Mason Decaire between the pipes. While he blocked all 29 puck shots on goal, the Eagles made seven goals. 

“He’s [Decaire] been pretty consistent for us, and coming in as a freshman, he’s definitely earned his starts, and he’s going to continue to get more going forward. I think that Saturday night was one of our more well-played defensive games,” said head coach Eric Mabie. “I think we did a good job of keeping the place to the outside and making it easy on him, but he still had to make the saves, and he did that.”

FGCU kicked off the second game with two goals from power plays. Forward captain Jack Cohen scored the first of these goals in the seventh minute due to UNH’s Martin’s roughing penalty. Tomlinson took the second via a slashing penalty from the Wildcats. 

Cohen led the second period with another power-play goal. Two minutes later, forward Jordan Comilla scored a shorthanded goal. At 14:18, Cohen came back to put the puck in the net on another power play. This goal solidified Cohen’s hat trick of the night and his seventeenth goal of the season. He scored all three goals on power plays. 

“We have guys that can execute on the power play, and they know what we’re trying to execute,” Mabie said. “We have a bunch of trigger points that we’re trying to get, and when we’re hitting those and firing on all cylinders, it’s a good plus for our team.”

Just over a minute into the third, Beauvais scored. With Momentum still high, defenseman Kyle Lindholm netted the puck again, solidifying the 7-0 shutout. 

FGCU left the weekend with an 18-4 record and will return to Hertz Arena to play Miami (Ohio) University on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.