Icers end regular season with back-to-back wins

The Oxford Avondale United (OAU) hockey team chalked up two wins last week and ended its regular season on a high note.

OAU beat Fenton-Linden 3-0, finishing its regular season on February 24.

OAU recognized the contributions from its senior players prior to the game. Seniors Griffin Burk, Shane Brown and Nolan Tatomir and their parents were honored.

OAU was able to strike first at the 12:25 mark when Burk took the puck coast to coast and scored unassisted to give OA the lead. This is how the period ended with Junior Goalie Aaron Angelo making nine saves to keep Fenton-Linden off the board.

The second period saw multiple penalties that OAU had to kill including two 5 on 3’s. Angelo shut down Fenton-Linden, stopping all 10 shots that he face to keep the game 1-0 as both teams headed into the final period. OAU lost Burk to an injury during this period as he blocked a shot that hit his ankle. He would not return to the game.

In the third period, Fenton continued to put pressure on Goalie Aaron Angelo to tie the game. OAU was able to go up 2-0 on their first shot on goal in the period at the 9:37 mark when freshman Jake Billis took a great pass from junior Ben Pratt and put it in the net. Fenton-Linden continued to pressure OAU, which had to kill another penalty late in the period. Fenton-Linden pulled their goalie with a minute remaining to give them six attackers but defenseman Shane Brown stole the puck and with 22 seconds left put it into the empty net giving OAU the hard fought 3-0 win.

Goalie Aaron Angelo made 26 totals save giving him the shut out win in the team’s final regular season game.

On Feb. 23, the OAU hockey team secured yet another win against Utica, with a 5-4 score.

Utica started the scoring at the 10-minute mark of the first period while on the power play, scoring on a rebound that got past Angelo to take a 1-0 lead. OAU was able to tie the game at the 4:10 mark when Brown stole the puck while shorthanded and scored on a tremendous shot from just inside the blue line.

OAU was quick to make it 2-1 less than a minute later when sophomore defenseman JJ Poolton scored, assisted by Pratt and Billis. OAU made it 3-1 late in the period when Brown scored his second goal of the game, set up by freshman Brendan Vogler and junior Zach Rauh.

The physicality of the game picked up in the second period as both teams saw multiple penalties sending their players to the box. Utica scored at the midway point of the period, once again on the power play to make the score 3-2.

However, less than a minute later, OAU made it 4-2 when Poolton scored his second of the game while on the power play, assisted by Billis and Brown. Utica made it 4-3 with another power play goal that beat Angelo, who faced a total of 22 shots on net during the period making save after save.

If the second period was considered physical, the third period was an all-out war as both teams battled with heavy hits and multiple penalties. Utica’s aggression seemed to be more under-handed as two of their players were ejected for unsportsmanlike hits, some after the whistle. At the 7:30 point of the period, Brown scored his third goal of the game, assisted by Poolton and Billis to put OAU up 5-3. Utica made the game interesting, scoring at the 4:33 mark to make the score 5-4.

The final minutes saw multiple off setting penalties, and multiple Utica attacks on net as OAU went on to win the game.

 

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