From The Vidette
By Lucy Tomlinson
Illinois State Division I club hockey built on its tournament win Friday and Saturday night with strong wins over in-state rival Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
ISU dominated on day one, but day two was a thriller, featuring a come-from-behind victory and a game-winning goal from Brody Neish.
Game one: ISU 6, UIUC 2
The scoresheet stayed blank during the first 20 minutes of action in game one, but the Redbirds came out hot in the second period.
Angelo Massaro controlled the puck before connecting with Neish in ISU’s offensive zone. Neish found Robin Kuusik in front of the net to make it 1-0 in favor of ISU.
Just over two minutes later, Jaycob Bland converted on a pass from Pavel Bakhtin to give the Birds a 2-0 lead.
ISU kept the pressure on with its two-goal lead, and certain players shined on their own.
Lucca Weinkauf kept the puck close to him on the ice, and when the moment came, the forward struck with full force to make it 3-0.
The Wisconsin native ended Friday’s matchup with one goal and one assist.
Leaning on its momentum, ISU extended its lead to four goals in the first two minutes of the third period after Weinkauf, Hunter O’Neal and Carson Pishkur worked together on the ice, with Pishkur finding the back of the net.
The Illini kept fighting, and Arthur Pawlik did the work himself in the eighth minute to put UIUC on the scoreboard for the first time all game. Kuusik answered 46 seconds later to make it 5-1.
Anthony Varrassi made it 5-2 after beating Kason Yamada in net, but Neish closed out game one with assists from Blake Becker and Ryan Callahan.
ISU carried its winning momentum into day two, but it came with challenges.
“Just from watching their games sometimes if they lose the first night, the second day they really get going,” Neish said. “They hadn’t lost a second game in a while, so we knew they were going to be coming.”
Game two: ISU 4, UIUC 2
Weinkauf got to work immediately, earning his second goal of the weekend off an assist from Neish to give ISU a 1-0 lead within the first minute of action.
The Redbirds held their lead until the final two minutes of the opening period.
The Illini’s David Etingen and Henry Feeley worked together to tie the game just before the first break.
Three minutes into the second period, the Illini took the lead with a goal from Feeley, giving ISU its first deficit of the weekend.
UIUC held the lead for the rest of the second period, but the Illini were in for a rude awakening after the Redbirds had a long talk in the locker room heading into the final period.
“I don’t think we played very well the first two periods, so a lot of the talk is related to getting back to what has found success for us over the course of the year,” head coach Chris Prewitt said. “Reminding them of that, pushing them to break out of the bad habits we had and get them to play to our standard.”
Neish took his coach’s words to heart. After a missed shot, he took the puck from behind the net and slipped it into the right side of the goal to tie the game at 2-2 with 6:05 left on the clock.
The tying goal was all the Redbirds needed to finish the job. Two minutes later, Kuusik connected with Neish again for the game-winning goal.
The Illini kept the pressure on, trying to tie the game once more, but Noah Van Herik protected his net.
“I think we had some struggles in the first and second period, but once we settled in, the guys made it easy,” Van Herik said. “I tell myself, ‘Control what you can, and that’s all you can do,’ so I just had to make the simple saves.”
With 46 seconds left in the game, Weinkauf secured ISU’s fourth goal to put the game away.
Neish ended the weekend with three goals, tying Weinkauf for the team lead.
“I can’t thank my teammates enough. If they’re not out there, I can’t get that job done,” Neish said. “The talk before the third period was that everything is on the line and find a way to win. It doesn’t matter how you played the first two periods.”
(Originally published at https://www.videtteonline.com/sports/illinois-state-fights-off-the-illini-in-a-weekend-sweep/article_56d880b3-afbf-4cb9-a395-f9f0f43057cc.html)
