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Kelly Kaelblein

Week 6 Rewind

This weekend, College Hockey South (CHS) saw five sweeps across two divisions to conclude the sixth week of the 2024-25 season. 


Game of the Week: Auburn University (D1) @ University of South Carolina (D1)

The first sweep of the weekend belongs to the reigning AAU Division 1 National Champions: the South Carolina Gamecocks. The Gamecocks sent the Auburn Tigers back to Alabama with two losses, 7-3 and 6-1.


In a predictably impressive performance, College Hockey South Division 1 leading point scorer John Riggins collected eight points (3G, 5A) against the Tigers, including a hat trick on Friday night, to spearhead the Gamecocks to victory. However, Riggins’ efforts did not go unassisted, as his teammates Carson Skove (1G, 5A) and Jake Puskar (3G, 1A) contributed significantly to the high-scoring affairs. Puskar — the second Gamecock to score a hat trick this weekend — tallied all four of his points in Saturday’s 6-1 win.


The weekend opened with a back-and-forth, five-goal first period bookended by goals from Riggins. He opened the scoring at 10:36, followed by a response from Auburn’s TJ Runci shortly after. The Tigers and the Gamecocks traded two more goals within the last five minutes of the frame, only for Riggins to score again with 15 seconds on the clock to give South Carolina a 3-2 lead. 


The second period featured two South Carolina goals — Skove’s first and Riggins’ third — to increase the Gamecocks’ lead to 5-2 entering the final frame. Tommy Marvin and Aiden Dunphy added two more by the middle of the third, proving Auburn’s Landon Patz closing goal to be in vain. 


The following day, South Carolina notched three goals in the first and third periods to secure its sweep. Across both games, the Gamecocks outshot the Tigers 74-38. 


With the sweep, South Carolina improves to 7-1-1 (4-0-1-0 — 9 points in CHS D1 play) on the season and remains second in the College Hockey South Division 1 standings, behind Georgia (5-0-2-0 — 12 points in CHS D1 play). 


University of Florida (D1) @ University of Tennessee (D1)

The Tennessee Ice Vols successfully defended the Knoxville Civic Coliseum this weekend, defeating the Florida Gators, last season’s AAU Division 2 National Champions, 5-1 and 4-2.


Friday night’s contest remained scoreless during the first period until Connor Frazer found the back of the net for the Ice Vols just 27 seconds into the second, assisted by Tyler Iles. Mitchell Spranklin increased Tennessee’s lead to 2-0 to head into the third, marking his first of four points on the weekend. 


Following another goal from Tennessee, the Gators found the back of the net 3:20 into the third, courtesy of Joshua Weinstein, but failed to overcome Tennessee’s lead before the final buzzer. Spranklin and Tyler Rose solidified the home team’s first victory with two more goals before the game’s conclusion.


Sunday’s game proved to be more competitive than the teams’ first. Though Tennessee struck first — and second — to establish a two-goal lead in the first period, Florida returned the favor to open the middle frame, netting two goals in the first three minutes to even the score. The 2-2 deadlock remained until 12:32 of the second period when Benjamin Falicki reclaimed the lead for the Ice Vols.


Tennessee reinforced its lead — and sweep — with a fourth goal halfway through the final frame. Reinforced by these two wins, the Volunteers continue to climb the College Hockey South Division 1 standings with an impressive 8-0-1 record (4-0-0-0 — 8 points in CHS D1 play).


University of Florida (D3) @ University of Tennessee (D3)

Like its Division 1 counterpart, the Tennessee Volunteers (D3) swept the Florida Gators (D3) this weekend in Knoxville, 7-2 and 4-3. The wins also allow the Division 3 Ice Vols to remain undefeated (6-0-0) at the top of their division. 


Friday night, Tennessee collected the first six goals of the contest: three in the first period and three to open the second. However, the Gators notched one at the end of the middle frame and another during the last four minutes of the third — the second shorthanded — in an attempt to fight back. 


Unfortunately for Florida, Tennessee struck again with 1:14 left to conclude the contest with a 7-2 victory. The Ice Vols recorded 48 shots, while the Gators only notched 19.


The Gators chomped back on Sunday, however. Though the Ice Vols took an early 2-0 lead, Florida would pull within one thrice during the contest. The first was within the final two minutes of the first period, then again halfway through the second after Tennessee reinstated its two-goal lead early in the frame.


The Ice Vols pulled ahead by two for the final time halfway through the second period, but Florida refused to quit. Christopher Zhang struck again for the Gators at 12:33 of the third, but Tennessee’s lead was too great to overcome, and Florida fell to the Ice Vols for the second time.


Austin Peay State University (D3) @ University of Mississippi (D3)

The final sweep of week 6 came out of Olive Branch, MS, where the Ole Miss Rebels (D3) toppled the Austin Peay State Governors, 5-3 and 10-4. With the wins, the Rebels advance to 3-1-0, while the Governors fall to 2-4-0.


Landon Houck netted the first of Ole Miss’s 15 goals this weekend at 5:40 of the first frame on Friday night. Though the game began slowly, it amped up during the second period, which featured five goals.


The first came just 27 seconds in off the stick of Ole Miss’s Philip Bermingham, the team’s leading scorer. Though Austin Peay’s Jackson Smith responded shortly after to bring the score within one, the Rebels increased their lead with two more before the final minute of the period, bringing the score to 4-1.


Unassisted for the second time, Smith tallied his second goal of the period, shorthanded, with 42 seconds left in the frame. His teammate, Sam Singelyn, scored again for the Governors halfway through the third period to shorten Ole Miss’s lead to one. But Bermingham struck again with 4:18 to go, finalizing the Rebels 5-3 win.


The following night, the Governors, hopeful, took an early 1-0 lead. Though Ole Miss tied the score at 1-1 to close the first period, nothing could have prepared the Governors for the impending onslaught of offense generated by the Rebels during the middle frame.


Smith gave Austin Peay a 2-1 lead eight seconds into the second period. However, Ole Miss would score seven goals, two on the power play, within the final 13 minutes of the frame to establish a hefty 8-2 lead after 40 minutes.


The Rebels tallied two more power-play goals in the third for a 10-2 advantage. Though the Governors netted two more before the game’s end — also on the power play — they remained six goals shy of a tie when the clock hit zero. Austin Peay took 11 penalties in Saturday’s game in an undoubtedly tense matchup, while Ole Miss recorded ten.


The fifth and final sweep of the weekend occured with the University of South Carolina (D3) defeating University of Alabama (D3) 2-1 Friday and 4-1 Sunday in Pelham, AL. South Carolina netminder Drew Durdov stood on his head making 92 saves (0.978 save percentage) securing both wins in his first two starts of the season.

ABOUT College Hockey South: Founded in 2008, College Hockey South is a 30-school, 50-team intercollegiate hockey conference spanning eight southeastern U.S. states that competes in AAU College Hockey. College Hockey South is a 501(c)3 not for profit organization.


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