D’Amico’s Hat Trick Powers Kentucky to 5-3 Win Over Indiana

From Kentucky Hockey

 

Kentucky beat Indiana 5-3 behind a hat trick from Gabe D’Amico.

D’Amico’s first goal came less than three minutes after Indiana’s first goal. With 10:30 showing on the clock, D’ Amico scored from point blank off of a pass from behind the net, courtesy of team captain Gary Eastlack.

“It was great to finally see Gabe get his hat trick,” Eastlack said of his teammate’s success, “I know he’s been struggling in the past, usually gets two in the first. He finally found that third one. So it was good to see him break that cherry and hopefully there’s many more.”

Like Eastlack mentioned, D’Amico scored his second of the night in the first period. With 5:41 left in the period, D’Amico capitalized on a 5-on-3 powerplay and found the back of the net off of a Brett Quinn cross-crease pass.

The second period was slowed by a total of six penalties called. Halfway through the period, Kentucky scored on a powerplay, extending their lead to 3-1 on an Eastlack goal. Assists were recorded by Brett Quinn and D’Amico.

“We had a little breakdown coming back into our zone, Riley had a great save… Gabe was able to find me coming out of the zone, I found Brett. They collapsed everybody low, we were able to get a 2-on-1 and find the back of the net,” Eastlack said of his goal.

Two more goals were scored in the second period. The first was by the Hoosiers with 6:38 left in the period. Kentucky’s Michael Suppan scored with less than a minute left to end the period with a score of 4-2. Jonah Kocan and Jackson Good recorded assists on Suppan’s goal.

The third period started slow, with no scoring for the first 13 minutes of the final period. With 6:48 left in the game, D’Amico capped off his hat trick with another powerplay goal. A Hoosier tried to clear the puck out of Kentucky’s offensive zone, but bounced the puck off D’Amico’s neck, setting up the scoring chance.

“Powerplays are always a great aspect of game, we gotta take advantage of them when we can,” D’Amico said. “We switched some things up in practice and they’re definitely working out.”

Indiana would score one more before the final horn, ending the game with a score of 5-3.

(Originally published at https://ukhockey.com/2022/10/29/damicos-hat-trick-powers-kentucky-to-5-3-win-over-indiana/)