Despite key injuries to a slew of starters, the South Carolina club hockey team split this weekend's series against Vanderbilt.
Goalie Bobby Lombardi has been sidelined with a broken finger that he sustained on Nov. 3 and is expected to miss the rest of the semester. In his absence, freshman Jared Ward has been thrown into the starting role.
"I wasn't really expecting to be starting goaltender this year," Ward said after the 7-1 win on Saturday.
Ward admitted he had a rocky start when he was first put in, but said he thought he was really "starting to pull it together."
Ward stood on his head Friday in a 3-2 shootout loss. He had 19 saves in the losing effort. He said it was hard for him to get into a rhythm while the Gamecocks held Vanderbilt without a shot for long stretches during the game.
Head coach Allan Sirois said without Ward in guarding the net, the game could've been a lot more lopsided.
"We lost the game in the first period ... Jared kept us in the game in the third period."
Sirois went on to say that neither of the goals Ward allowed were his fault.
The Commodores scored less than four minutes in to take a 1-0 lead. After a goal from Alex Siegfried and a second from Ian Powderly, the Gamecocks found themselves up 2-1with 7:29 to play in the opening period. The lead lasted all of three minutes as Vanderbilt tied the game on a deflection. That was all the scoring the game would see. In the shootout, Vanderbilt shot first and scored on its first two attempts while the Gamecocks could not score on either attempts.
The Gamecocks went 0-for-3 on power plays, including one in overtime. As of Nov. 22, South Carolina and Vanderbilt were 13 and 14 in the ACHA division three south rankings with the Commodores holding the slight edge. With the teams being so close in the rankings and only the Top 10 teams getting a ticket to regionals, Sirois stressed how important Saturday's game was. He also stressed how important it was for the team to play a full 60-minute game on Saturday.
The team did just that.
With the game tied at 1, South Carolina went into the power play with 8:44 remaining in the second. Alex Kranis scored to give South Carolina a 2-1 lead with assists going to Alex Martone and Sean Davis with 7:26 left in the second period. This would start a barrage of four goals in the last 7:26 of the period. Ben Smith took a high-sticking penalty that could've given Vanderbilt momentum, but that was quickly put to bed as Davis scored shorthanded to give the Gamecocks the 3-1 lead.
Late in the period, the Gamecocks were on another power play, in which Geoffrey Kostrzebski fired home a pass from Mike Borst, extending South Carolina's lead to 4-1 with 11 seconds left in the period. Davis got the secondary assist on the goal.
Seven seconds after the Kostrzebski tally, Corey Hawkinson scored to give South Carolina a 5-1 lead that put the game to bed with still a period to play.
In the final frame, the Gamecocks scored goals via Brian Sohr and Kostrzebski for the 7-1 victory.
Sirois said the key to Saturday's win was figuring out how to score on Vanderbilt goalie Ary Furman.
"We found a way to score on [Furman]," Sirois said. "We made him move ... It was huge from the power play aspect."
Sirois said he thinks the Gamecocks should "step over" Vanderbilt in the rankings after taking three of four possible points.
Next up, the Gamecocks will take on Kennesaw State on Friday.