Rookie goaltender Cole Bruns earned his first shutout as a member of the Army hockey team as the Black Knights skated to a scoreless tie at Tate Rink to take three points over the weekend against Holy Cross.
Army (3-6-2, 3-5-2 AHA) earned the three points after scoring in the final seconds of overtime last night. Bruns joins Parker Gahagen with a shutout this season with the goaltender making 27 saves between the pipes, including a penalty shot in the first period.
Holy Cross (3-5-4, 3-1-4 AHA) seems to making these ties a habit with their fourth of the season. Matt Ginn recorded his sixth career shutout, making 34 stops with 22 in the final two frames. Tim Driscoll was the Crusader that took the penalty shot, but couldn’t solve Bruns in the first period.
Both teams blocked a total of 12 shots on the night and Army had a 34-27 advantage in shots. Each team sent one shot off the iron as well on the night.
“Cole was obviously our best player tonight,” head coach Brian Riley said. “Anytime you can stop a penalty shot like he did and not allowing them to get any momentum was a big play. He made some big saves and throughout the game, he was the best player on the ice.”
The first period ended scoreless but had some drama with Driscoll getting a chance to take the lead for Holy Cross with a penalty shot with 7:28 left in the frame. Driscoll tried to go backhand to forehand, but Bruns flashed the right pad to keep it scoreless going into the first intermission. Army was called for delay of game as a player put his glove over the puck in the crease.
The game remained scoreless into the second intermission with both netminders on their game. Army had the best opportunity of the frame with the only power play. The Black Knights managed a couple of chances, but Ginn was there to make the stops.
Army had an 11-6 shot advantage in the final period, but couldn’t solve Ginn. The teams skated 4-on-4 at the end of regulation and into overtime. Neither team generated any quality chances during that time.
Like Friday night, the overtime was all Black Knights as they put five shots on Ginn and had a lot of offensive zone time down the stretch, but were not able to pull out the victory and settled for the scoreless tie and a three-point league weekend.
“Both goalies were tremendous,” Riley explained. “I thought our team played really well in front of Bruns and throughout the weekend. It was just a really well-played game tonight by both teams.”
The Black Knights return to the road next weekend for a two-game series at Niagara.
Game Notes: The Black Knights have played 9-of-11 games at home this season … this was the 72nd meeting between Holy Cross and Army … this was the ninth tie in the history of the series and first of the scoreless variety … the Black Knights have played nine of their 17 home games this year … first opponent penalty shot for the Black Knights since Rob Tadazak stopped an RIT skater Jan. 17 of last season … Tyler Pham converted a penalty shot last weekend against Mercyhurst.
