The Daily Gamecock

Tengi nets pair of game-winners as Ice 'Cocks sweep Coastal

Penalty kill holds off Chanticleers; Carolina rolls into Georgia rematch above .500

South Carolina improved to 5-4-1 on the year with a weekend sweep of two hard-fought games against Coastal Carolina on Friday night and Sunday morning in Irmo.

The Chanticleers entered the weekend 7-1-0, fresh off of two-game sweeps of Clemson and College of Charleston. South Carolina came in 3-4-1 but shut down the Coastal power play and capitalized on two strong performances from goaltender Bobby Lombardi to take victories of 4-2 and 4-3 and improve to a winning record for the first time this season.

Friday night's game got off to a slow start but did not disappoint Gamecock fans in the least. At 15:25 of the first period, Jim Hatton put home a Geoff Kostrezbski pass just 33 seconds into South Carolina's second power play of the game to give the Gamecocks an early 1-0 lead.

With 25 seconds left in the period, Gamecocks goaltender Bobby Lombardi took exception to a Coastal player's stab at the puck after the whistle and retaliated, touching off a brief scrum in front of the South Carolina net. Lombardi, Ian Schneider and Coastal's Sayer Zimmerman each took minor penalties for roughing on the play.

Coastal opened the scoring in the second when forward Jeff Lyford buried a cross-ice pass from Ricky Cincotta just beneath Lombardi's pads to make it 1-1. Five minutes later, the Chanticleers' Steve Kaufmann took advantage of a Cory Hawkinson interference minor to give Coastal the lead and their only power-play goal of the weekend.

Only 13 seconds after Kaufmann's goal, Ian Schneider beat Coastal goaltender Joe Grout on a 2-on-2 rush with Kostrezbski to put Carolina back in the game.

After being stopped by Grout on a breakaway and ringing another close shot off the post, South Carolina's Jake Tengi finally lit the lamp off passes from Alec Martone and Bobby Van Dusen to put South Carolina ahead for good just 1:42 before the final horn. Martone followed up with an empty net goal with 20 seconds remaining to ice it for South Carolina, which improved to 4-4-1 on the year.

Scoring came much quicker Sunday morning. Just under seven minutes in, Martone took a brilliant pass from Tengi and beat Grout on the breakaway for his second goal of the weekend and the Gamecocks' first of the game, but the lead would not stand for long.

Only thirty seconds later, South Carolina defenseman Evan Hoey gloved a Chanticleers clearance into the offensive zone but lost the puck to Lyford, who skated in on goal uncontested and beat Lombardi to tie it up for Coastal. Kaufmann scored again on a close rebound with 1:14 to go in the first period to give the Chanticleers the lead.

With time running down in the period, Jack Watson took a pass from Alex Kranis in the left faceoff circle and scored with a quick wrist shot to tie it with just 45 seconds to go in the first.

Following a scoreless second period, the Chanticleers took back the lead early in the third. Lyford blocked a South Carolina shot from the blue line which redirected to Cincotta, who found Lyford with a breakaway pass that led to Lyford's second goal of the game and third of the series to put Coastal up 3-2 with 14:36 to play.

But South Carolina's special teams shined once again with 8:09 remaining. With Coastal killing off a Zimmerman minor for hooking, Kostrezbski took a long shot from just inside the blue line that was tipped in by Nick Pizzo to tie the game.

The Chanticleers managed to kill another penalty two minutes later but couldn't get past Lombardi, who finished with 36 saves on 39 shots Sunday.

Following a late Coastal timeout, Tengi took a long pass from Hoey at center ice and skated down the left boards, cutting to the net through the faceoff circle and beating Grout high to the blocker side for the game's final goal with 43 seconds left. The goal was Tengi's third in four games and second consecutive game-winner.

"Their goalie's real good and he takes up a lot of net," said Tengi after the game. "So I figured the only place I was gonna be able to go was up high, and it opened up a tiny bit. Snuck it in there and got lucky a little bit, but, obviously, [I'm] happy that it went in."

Grout finished Sunday's game with 39 saves on 43 shots.

Aside from stellar performances from Lombardi and Tengi, South Carolina's penalty kill dominated the series, holding Coastal to one goal on 12 power play opportunities. 

"I couldn't be more proud of them," said South Carolina head coach Allan Sirois following Sunday's game. "They battled the entire time."

After the final horn Sunday, Cincotta speared Watson in front of the South Carolina net, causing a melee involving Martone that was broken up by officials amidst team handshakes. Cincotta took a major penalty for spearing and disqualification on the play, which will likely result in a suspension from Coastal's Nov. 3 game at Virginia Commonwealth.

Cincotta's disqualification mirrored an incident in which Coastal's Cole Anderson was disqualified with 16 seconds remaining in Friday's game after a confrontation with an official.

The Gamecocks next head to Athens for a Friday night rematch with Georgia. South Carolina dropped a 9-3 decision to the Ice Dawgs at home on Oct. 6 and are seeking their first victory against the defending SECHC champions in over three years.

"We just gotta take this to Georgia," Sirois said. "They got a really good team, but if we play like we did today, we got a good chance to win."


CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that the Gamecocks will play Georgia in Athens on Nov. 3 and Nov. 5. According to the team schedule, the Gamecocks will only play Georgia on Nov. 3.


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