Texas A&M ice hockey handed TCU the second loss of its season Friday night in front of an electric home crowd at Spirit Ice Arena as the first game of a two-game series became a 6-3 Aggie victory.

Delayed by a broken Zamboni, the first period was action-packed but scoreless. Both teams came out aggressive in Period 2 and the Horned Frogs scored first, but the Aggies answered on a power play in the final five minutes and added another goal to end the second period. Both teams swapped scores in the third period, but the Maroon and White came out on top with 6:25 remaining for the final score of the game.

With multiple attempts at power plays, there were seven penalties against TCU and eight against A&M for elbowing, tripping and a game misconduct penalty called against a TCU assistant coach with 11 seconds left in the first period. The Aggies are now 4-7, and the Horned Frogs are 3-2 in regular season play. The teams will play Game 2 of the series on Saturday.

General engineering freshman goalie Thomas Andreeff said he is passionate about his role and commended his teammates’ efforts to secure six goals in the game.

“I did my part on keeping the goals out, but they put in those six goals, not me,” Andreeff said. “That is what it is supposed to be for us goalies. We love doing our job.”

The Aggies were aggressive in Period 1, with close attempts by political science sophomore forward Lucas Lisciandro and nuclear engineering junior forward Nicholas Leone.

TCU kept A&M on the tip of its skates with scoring tries by junior forward Tommy Budreck and junior forward Ryan Keiper. In the last minute of Period 1, A&M nuclear engineering junior forward Mason Burdett finished aggressively with one final score attempt. Despite the persistence, neither team could get a point on the scoreboard by the end of the period.

Penalties from A&M included business administration sophomore forward Cade Willis and Blinn Team forward Brendan Pierce, as well as four penalties against TCU.

At the end of the first period, TCU sophomore defenseman Ian Finger said he thought the team was working hard.

“We played well, but we need to play better,” Finger said.

The Horned Frogs opened the second period strong with close attempts by junior forwards Tommy Budreck and Ryan Keiper. With an assist by Budreck, Finger was able to get TCU on the scoreboard first with the puck sliding past Andreeff.

In the last five minutes of the period, the Aggies scored on a power play by agriculture leadership and development senior forward Christian Spearman with assists by kinesiology senior forward Marshall Rushing and junior forward Jacob Smith.

Almost 45 seconds later, A&M added another point to the scoreboard with a goal from computer science senior forward Ethan Chen, assisted by finance sophomore forward Colson Zak.

It was at the end of the second period when landscape architecture freshman defenseman Ethan Han said he knew the Aggies would be taking home the win.

“They looked pretty tired out there, and they had a pretty short bench,” Han said, nodding toward the Horned Frogs’ team area.

General engineering freshman forward Andrew Green added that the consecutive goals were more motivation.

“We knew once TCU scored, we were going to come back harder,” Green said. “Our response was to get the two more goals to shut them down and make sure the game was over.”

The third period turned into a rally effort by both teams.

TCU scored with a goal from freshman forward Reece Peterson, assisted by junior forward Tommy Budreck and sophomore defenseman Greg Willmering. A&M quickly responded with a goal from Rushing, assisted by Smith. Less than a minute later, the Aggies scored again when Burdett found the back with assists from Chen and public health sophomore defenseman Dylan Luu.

The Horned Frogs responded with a goal from sophomore defenseman Connor White, assisted by junior forward Ryan Keiper.

Spearman fired a shot that went right to the TCU goalie. A&M quickly regained momentum, with the final score of the game on the next play by manufacturing and mechanical engineering technology senior forward Matthew Perri, assisted by Rushing.

TCU coach Michael Donovan said he knew it was going to be a battle and that the team was going to have to work hard, and that will apply to game two of the series on Saturday.

“It is obviously a great atmosphere for A&M, so we just needed to come ready to play and I don’t think we did that today,” Donovan said. “We need energy and we need some heart out there.”

As the Aggies prepare for Game 2, Andreeff said they will focus on the importance of sticking to the fundamentals by reviewing film to analyze the Horned Frogs’ scoring plays.

“We will focus on how we can be better,” Andreeff said.

Puck drops in Game 2 of the series with the Horned Frogs on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Spirit Ice Arena in College Station.

Cassandra Brewer is a society, ethics and law senior and contributed this article from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports, to The Battalion