It may have been their first time on the ice as Aggies, but several freshmen made great first impressions as the White side topped the Maroon squad 6-4 in Texas A&M hockey’s season-opening intrasquad scrimmage on Sept. 8 at Spirit Ice Arena.
Maroon started on the offensive early, and forced senior White goalie Jake Sirkus into making 3 saves in the first five minutes and a total of 12 in the first period.
Despite this, it was the White squad that opened the scoring after a chaotic scene near the goal that ended with freshman forward Matthew Filek finding sophomore forward Nate Polinsky with the pass that led to the first goal of the night with 12:26 left in the first period.
The scrimmage was an opportunity for the Aggies to experiment with lineups and allowed the new additions to make a case for themselves before the season starts, like Filek and Maroon freshman Nico Leone, who assisted junior forward Robby Sours in his goal that tied the game at 1-1 with 8:06 remaining in the first period.
“This game is great for the coaches to kind of see where everyone’s at in an actual game setting and develop the lines and figure out who’s going to be starting and who’s going to be scratched,” Maroon freshman goalie Peyton Woodlief said.
Polinsky added his second goal with 6:17 left in the first period thanks to a timely turnover, as the White forward secured the puck and skated all alone down the right side of the rink before firing home a shot that extended White’s lead to 2-1
Maroon’s second goal came off of a rare mistake from Sirkus. After a pass was mishandled by a Maroon forward, Sirkus came off his line to contain the play. The puck ended up in Maroon’s possession and a quick pass found freshman forward Colson Zak for the equalizer with 3:49 left in the first period.
Zak was another one of the freshmen to deliver in his debut, as he added Maroon’s final goal of the game late in the third period off of another defensive mistake in the form of a mishandled puck close to the White net.
“It was a good intro game for the freshmen,” White senior forward Garrett Diskey said. “They’re all looking good, they’re going to have a good season.”
White pulled away in the second period thanks to an interception-turned-assist by junior forward Matthew Rushing, whose quick pass to senior forward Ethan MacDonald just in front of the net led to a goal with 14:43 left in the period that made it 3-2 in favor of White.
The White side added another goal by way of an easy pass that found Diskey with only the goalie to beat to extend their lead to 4-2 with 5:38 left in the second, before Maroon pulled one back thanks to an underclassmen connection that included Leone’s second assist of the night and a goal from sophomore forward Mason Burdett.
Wet ice and warm conditions delayed the start of the third period, but White took it in stride and came out scorching hot to take a 5-3 lead less than a minute into the final period off of MacDonald’s second goal.
Rushing added his name to the goal sheet for White with 2:04 left in third to crush all hope of a Maroon comeback late in the game.
“[Winning] feels good,” Diskey said. “We get to make fun of the other guys, and tell them to work a little harder.”
A&M hockey opens regular season play with an away trip to face TCU on Sept. 15.