WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army hockey team built a 2-0 lead, but couldn’t hold off a charging Holy Cross squad in the third period as the teams settled for a 2-2 tie on Friday night at Tate Rink.
Army (7-11-7, 5-9-7 AHA) was led by sophomores Tyler Pham and Conor Andrle as both recorded multi-point games with a goal and assist apiece. Mike Preston got on the scoresheet with an assist for the home squad.
Parker Gahagen stopped 38 saves in net for the Black Knights and played another stellar game between the pipes. He made 15 stops in the second period alone and pushed aside 16 in the third period and overtime.
Holy Cross (13-9-5, 11-5-5 AHA) scored two goals in the third period to force the 2-2 deadlock. Brett Mulcahy and Ryan Ferrill were the two scorers for the Crusaders. Paul Berrafato finished with 19 saves in the tie.
Army took the first lead of the game with Pham scoring his fourth of the season. The goal came right after Holy Cross had killed off Army’s first power play of the night. Andrle collected the puck and waited patiently for Pham to find a hole in the slot. He slipped a pass through traffic and Pham buried it for the 1-0 lead with 38 second left in the first period.
The Black Knights extended their lead to 2-0 as Andrle scored his fourth goal in the last three games. This tally came on the power play, which was his fifth of the year with the man advantage. The goal came on a rare 4-on-3 chance for the Black Knights. Pham found Andrle at the high slot and then cleared some traffic on the way to the net. Andrle fired a wrist shot that hit both posts and trickled into the net for the 2-0 advantage.
Holy Cross came out aggressive in the third period and tied the game in the first eight minutes. The first tally came from Mulcahy with 15:27 on the clock. Spencer Trapp put the first shot on net from the left circle that Gahagen stopped, but Mulcahy was there for the rebound to get the Crusaders on the board.
Ferrill tied the game with 12:18 remaining after a turnover by the Black Knights in the neutral zone. Army was breaking out and went for a drop pass and no one was in the middle of the ice. Ferrill was getting back in the play, but found himself with the puck in the offensive zone and beat Gahagen high and to the glove side to knot the game at 2-2.
The Black Knights were able to kill off a penalty for the final 30 seconds of regulation and into the extra frame to skate to the 2-2 tie.
The Crusaders owned a 40-21 shot advantage in the game and went 0-for-5 on the power play. Army scored once on two opportunities.
The two teams are back in action tomorrow night at Tate Rink. The game is sold out and Army West Point will honor three former players with having their jerseys retired prior to the game. Dave Merhar (USMA ’69), George Clark (USMA ’75) and Dave Rost (USMA ’77) will be honored in a pregame ceremony.
Ice Shavings: The arena observed a moment of silence in honor of Jack Riley prior to the game … there was also a video tribute … Army and Holy Cross played for the 73rd time since the first meeting in 1956 … the two schools tied for the 10th time in the series as Holy Cross still leads by a slim margin at 32-31-10 … Gahagen will start his 21st game of the season, which is a career high … Gahagen made his second-highest amount of saves this season with 38 … Josh Roberts played in his 100th game tonight, joining Joe Kozlak, Shane Hearn and Christian Pomarico as Army players with 100 or more games played … Army scored first for the third-straight game … Andrle now has 16 points in his last 16 games … tonight was his third multi-point game of the season … Pham has five points in his last three games … Army went to overtime for the 11th time this year, which is 44 percent of its games in 2015-16 … the Black Knights are 1-3-7 in those games.
