The Gamecocks roll into Knoxville this weekend in search of their second consecutive, and first conference, victory of the season.
Like Carolina, the Tennessee Ice Vols lost their leading scorer from 2016-17. But unlike Carolina, Tennessee is riding high on a pair of easy conference wins last month to help build a four-game winning streak going into Friday.
Last season's matchup between these two got out of control quickly as Carolina defeated the Ice Vols 9-3 at Knoxville on Sept. 25. Nine different Gamecocks scored, including five in a 10:19 span during the second period as Carolina improved to 3-0-0-0 in conference play.
While the Gamecocks advanced to the SECHC semifinal against Georgia, Tennessee's tournament run ended with an 11-0 loss to Vanderbilt in the first round. A close loss to Auburn in a consolation game followed.
Despite a 9-3 loss at the hands of the Georgia Ice Dawgs last Friday, Carolina will come into Friday's game with momentum after making their largest offensive output of the season in a 7-1 victory at The Citadel on Sunday night.
At the same time, Ian Schneider has been invaluable to the Carolina power play this season, with four goals on the man advantage through last Friday including one against Georgia that gave the Gamecocks an early 3-1 lead. Capitalizing on power play chances will be a crucial this weekend if Tennessee properly uses the home-ice advantage and gets out to an early lead.
On Tennessee's side, any overview of the Ice Vols would be incomplete without mention of the triplet Despins brothers, forwards Lucas and Gage and defenseman Dane, of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Lucas, who played his final season in 2016-17, led last year's Ice Vols with 28 goals and 25 assists in 23 games, followed immediately by Gage with 18 goals and 14 assists. The Despins brothers have been key to the Tennessee offense for the past three seasons, but the loss of Lucas could make a difference if either game stays close.
Even without Lucas Despins, the Ice Vols have offensive firepower to spare in brother Gage and Lithuanian import Justinas Joksas, who recorded 26 points in 18 games last season. The team is also under a new coaching staff following the retirement of the Despins triplets' father Rob in May. Jason Schaake of Farragut High School in Knoxville stepped behind the bench for Tennessee.
As an assistant, Schaake coached Farragut to a 17-1-1 record and Tennessee state title in 2016-17.
Despite the shakeup, the Ice Vols have started strong, racking up four consecutive wins with weekend sweeps of Mississippi State and UAB to start the year 4-1-0-0. The Ice Vols easily dispatched Mississippi State with a pair of double-digit showings on Sept. 22 and 23 but needed to push the Blazers into an extra period on both occasions, coming back from down 4-2 in the third period on Sept. 30 to win 5-4 in overtime.
Tennessee's only loss came to the University of Richmond in a Sept. 15 charity game held in honor of late Virginia State Trooper Berke Bates. Bates died in a helicopter crash Aug. 12 while monitoring the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Bates played for the Ice Vols while attending UT in the 1990s and coached youth hockey in the Richmond area. A GoFundMe page for the Sept. 13 charity game, set up by Ice Vols forward Jake McKamey, is still active as of Wednesday afternoon.
The SEC's most anticipated match-ups of the weekend get underway Friday and Sunday at Knoxville Civic Coliseum.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story listed the Icearium in Knoxville as the site of this weekend's games.