Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
1-1-0, 1-1-0AHA
Sacred Heart
1-1-0, 1-1-0AHA
Hockey Falls to Sacred Heart
October 12, 2014 | Hockey
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WEST POINT, N.Y. - Tyler Pham scored his first collegiate goal for the Army hockey team on Sunday afternoon, but Sacred Heart jumped out to a three-goal lead in the second period and earned a 5-1 win over the Black Knights.
Army (1-1, 1-1 AHA) finished the weekend with a split against Sacred Heart after winning on Friday night. Pham became the third rookie to tally a point this season and first with a goal. Classmate Blake Box was given the assist on the play for his first point of his career. Parker Gahagen got the start and made 31 saves in the loss.
Sacred Heart (1-1, 1-1 AHA) scored three goals in an eight-minute span in the second period and all three were from different skaters. Ben Lake ended up as the first star with two goals, including a shorthanded score in the final frame. Spencer Grabowski finished the afternoon with two points on a goal and an assist. Alex Vazzano stood on his head most of the game with 39 saves with 15 coming in the first period.
"Discipline is definitely one take away from today," head coach Brian Riley said. "The other thing is coming off of a win Friday night the team had time to figure out how to win and you can't be satisfied. You have to have that hunger to put you in the situation where the other team is going to have to work really hard to come out here and get the win, and I'm not sure we did that tonight."
Sacred Heart earned six power plays, including a 5-on-3 advantage in the second period. For the second-straight game, Sacred Heart and Army went into the first intermission with no goals on the scoreboard. However, that didn't mean there was no action. Sacred Heart had five minutes of power play time, but couldn't solve Gahagen. The Black Knights had a 15-11 shot advantage in the first frame and had a few chances while shorthanded. Vazzano kept the home team off the board with 15 stops.
The second period was all Pioneers with three goals in the first nine minutes. Luczyk got it started 3:33 into the frame with a shot from the slot on a feed from Kory Kennedy. Sacred Heart added to the lead with Jordan Minello scoring his first of the season with a one-timer from the slot. Spencer Graboski dropped a pass back to Luzyck and then he spotted Minello for the shot.
The lead increased to three with Ben Lake scoring with 19:16 left in the frame. Mitch Nylen intercepted an Army pass in the neutral zone and fed the puck to a charging Lake at the blueline. He broke into the zone and fired a shot that tipped off a Black Knight stick and into the upper left corner.
Army got back in the game with Pham tallying his first collegiate goal with an assist to Box. It was Box's first collegiate point as well. He found a streaking Pham at the defensive blueline. The rookie went around one defender and fired a shot that beat Vazzano between the pads to make it 3-1 midway through the final frame.
The Pioneers added two more in the last eight minutes with Lake scoring his second of the day, while Grabowski tallied his second point of the day and first goal of the season to close the scoring at 5-1.
Sacred Heart was 1-for-6 on the power play and Army went scoreless on six chances. The Black Knights posted 40 shots on goal and the Pioneers had 36 on net.
The Black Knights are back at Tate Rink next weekend as the Black Knights welcome conference foe Canisius for another Atlantic Hockey weekend. Friday and Saturday games are set for a 7:05 p.m. start and tickets are still available.
To order your tickets, visit www.goARMYsports.com/tickets, call 1-877-TIX-ARMY or stop by the Army Ticket Office located at Gate 3 of Michie Stadium. Visit goARMYsports.com/tickets for more information.
Game Notes: Army and Sacred Heart faced off for the 54th time in the series history ... plebes Nick DeCenzo and Andy Faust saw their first action of their careers ... Pham became the first plebe to score a goal for the Black Knights ... in all, four plebes scored this weekend.
