The Clemson club ice hockey team handed the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders their first divisional loss of the season last Friday, snapping their 14-game win streak as a result. With a 3-1 win on Friday and a 5-3 loss on Saturday, the Tigers improved to 3-1-0 this season and now sit at No. 3 overall — trailing Middle Tennessee and Georgia Tech — in the College Hockey South Division II North standings.
Prior to Friday night, the Blue Raiders had not lost a game since dropping their first against the DI University of Tennessee Volunteers 8-4 on Sept. 20. Middle Tennessee sought to protect both its win streak and playoff position, as the team sits at No. 1 overall in the CHS DII standings, but Clemson turned out to be the unprecedented force capable of threatening its reign.
Offensively, the contest differed greatly from Clemson’s dominant win over Alabama-Huntsville last weekend, as the Tigers outscored the Chargers 24-2 across two games. The Blue Raiders opened the scoring on Friday night with a goal from Linden Palmer at the 17:31 mark of the first, but Clemson defenseman Matthew Ionta — with help from Will Ralsten — equalized the score with a minute left.
The Tigers didn’t take the lead until Mike McKeon netted a shorthanded goal with four seconds left in the middle frame, assisted by Troy Gouveia and Cameron Iacobelli. And, just over halfway through the third, captain Cade Heinold collected his fourth goal of the season, aided by Patrick O’Brien, to secure his team’s victory.
Unfortunately for Clemson, the Tigers dropped their second matchup against the Blue Raiders the following day by a score of 5-3. Santiago Diaz — who now leads the team in goals with five and points with 7 (tied with Heinold) — bookended Clemson’s scoring, netting his first goal early in the second period to tie the game at 1-1.
The Blue Raiders chalked up a 3-1 lead by the halfway point of the middle frame, and though Iacobelli capitalized on a power play to decrease Middle Tennessee’s lead to 3-2, the Blue Raiders reinstated their two-goal lead before the third. Despite Diaz collecting his second goal of the day with less than six minutes remaining in the third, the deficit was too great to overcome, and Middle Tennessee punctuated its 5-3 win with an empty-net goal in the final minute of play.
Next weekend, the Tigers will look to improve as they visit the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets for a weekend series in Duluth, Georgia.
