By Jesse Vineyard
With Ice Jack fans out in full costume for Halloween, the DII NAU Ice Jacks finished off a sweep of the Northern Colorado (UNC) Bears with a 12-3 victory Friday night and a comeback 7-5 win Saturday night.
In the first period on Friday, the Ice Jacks opened a scoring barrage and made it their version of an in-game shooting practice by scoring eight goals. Taylor Dustin opened the scoring at the 15:42 mark after a long stretch of no stoppages to begin the period. The onslaught continued from there as Greg Park, Dillon Butenhoff and Ryan Greenspan each scored twice in the first. Hunter Coleman also took part in the goal parade as the Ice Jacks went into the second up 8-1 UNC switched goalies after the second NAU goal on only four shots but that did not help the rest of the way.
UNC began to gain a lot of confidence as the game progressed by slowing the pace and setting up their offense more efficiently. However, their attack was too little and too late as NAU netted one more in the second on a powerplay by Nick Short and three more in the third by Greg Park for the hat-trick, Adam Surber and James Terry to seal the 12-3 win.
The Saturday night game was a lot closer as UNC came out of the gates looking stronger and faster. With the game scoreless halfway into the period, NAU finally got onto the board with a Vinny Eck powerplay goal at the 10:18 mark. UNC answered, however, with a powerplay goal of their own three minutes later.
In the second, UNC got out to a quick start they were looking for as they scored a powerplay goal less than a minute into the period. The game continued to play even after that until Rocky DeAngelo tied it two minutes later. NAU then took the lead on the powerplay from a hard, blue-line slap shot by Dillon Butenhoff only ten minutes later. NAU was seemingly on their way to a lead going into the intermission until it all fell apart late. UNC tied it 3-3 at the 2:49 mark then capitalized on a sloppy NAU defense 16 seconds later to take a 4-3 lead going into the final period.
In the third, NAU came out flying with intensity. The Ice Jacks gained several chances to score but were shut down by Brian VanDyke, the UNC goaltender. UNC then took the lead on the powerplay with just under 14 minutes to play and it seemed to take the wind out of the sails for NAU.
However, the Ice Jacks bounced back and continued the intensity. Ryan Greenspan scored a powerplay goal four minutes later to bring NAU to within one. Then with NAU on the penalty kill, Taylor Dustin took control of a UNC turnover and put home the tying goal only 30 seconds later. NAU was not finished yet as Barrett Buckowich took a wild shot from his stomach to give NAU the 6-5 lead with five minutes to play. Ryan Greenspan then netted an insurance goal one minute later to open the Halloween weekend with a sweep.
NAU continues the homestand next weekend as they host Cal St. Fullerton. Both games can be heard live on KJACK Radio.
