Taking place in Huntsville, Alabama this past weekend, the College Hockey South tournament concluded with the University of Georgia hockey team winning the CHS Championship Cup.
The last time UGA Hockey won the CHS tournament cup was in 2019. Within the past seven years, the Ice Dawgs have won four CHS championship titles.
This is the first CHS Tournament in two years due to the 2020-21 CHS playoffs being canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Ice Dawgs finished the regular season with a 21-4-1 record, clinching the highest seed in the College Hockey South conference.
In the first CHS playoff game, Georgia defeated No. 8 seed Auburn, 5-3 on Friday.
The first time the Ice dawgs faced off against the Tigers was an immensely close game, with Georgia winning 3-2 in overtime. The two teams played again less than a week before the CHS tournament, ending with the Ice Dawgs beating Auburn 5-4 with Georgia scoring the last goal with only a minute left in the game.
The Ice Dawgs dominated during the first two periods. Jack Gannon, who earned the title of Player of the Game, scored the first goal for Georgia early in the first period.
With less than 30 seconds left, Josh Mesaros was able to earn the Ice Dawgs another point with an assist by Jackson Katz, ending the first period 2-0.
Much like the first, the Ice Dawgs continued to overpower the Tigers during the second period, shutting down many attempted shots. The Ice Dawgs kept their lead, with Case Santa Maria and Daniel Crawford assisting a goal from Nate Michaelson.
Jackson Katz and Lleyton Poole kept Georgia’s lead, both scoring goals on power plays, bringing the score to 5-0.
Nick Newbold, Georgia’s goalie, stopped every attempted shot by Auburn until five minutes into the final period when the Tigers scored their first goal.
Auburn continued to gain momentum, scoring two power-play goals in under 30 seconds with less than three minutes remaining.
Though there was a chance that Auburn might come back, the Ice Dawgs were able to come out on top and secure a spot in the semi-finals against The University of Florida on Saturday.
The last showdown between Georgia and Florida was at the Savannah Hockey Classic where the Gators were able to pull through at the very end in a shootout, winning 5-4.
The Ice Dawgs were able to make up for that previous loss this time, beating the Gators 6-4 in a competitive showdown.
For the second game in a row, Gannon scored the first goal of the game. Less than a minute later, he assisted a goal from Trevor Gutmann.
Florida started to pick up speed, scoring a power-play goal. The rest of the frame was scoreless as Georgia led 2-1 at the end of the first period.
At the beginning of the second period, the Gators were able to tie up the score. Two minutes later, Florida secured another goal and took the lead.
About eight minutes later, the Ice Dawgs were able to tie up the game once again after Matthew Bigda scored with an assist from Katz.
Both teams continued to shoot to no avail until Katz was able to score with half a minute left as the crowd went wild.
For the first eight minutes of the third period, the score remained unchanged until Flordia scored a power-play goal that tied the game up once again.
Two minutes later, the Ice Dawgs responded with Katz scoring his second goal of the night with an assist by Poole, putting Georgia back in the lead.
In a desperate attempt to come back, Florida pulled their goalie, resulting in an empty net that Mesaros took advantage of. This brought the score to 6-4 with less than two minutes left in the final period.
Florida tried to come back but was unable to do so, clinching the Ice Dawgs a spot in the CHS Championship game against the No. 2 seed FAU on Sunday.
In the most competitive game of the weekend, FAU was in the lead for the majority of the game until the final period.
Georgia went scoreless the first period while FAU scored its first power-play goal nine minutes into the game.
The game grew exponentially more intense within the second period, with lots of big hits and both teams trading possession back and forth.
There were various heartbreaking moments where the teams had an opportunity to score but the unstable net would dislodge, bringing the game to a sudden halt.
Things started looking worse for Georgia once the Owls scored another power-play goal, bringing the score to 2-0.
The Ice Dawgs were finally able to gain their first goal of the game as Katz scored a power-play goal assisted by Gannon with less than five minutes left.
Georgia came in fired up in the final period, fighting for a comeback.
Four minutes into the third period, Georgia fans went crazy after Katz was able to tie up the game with assists from Bigda and Mesaros.
Less than a minute later, Zach Bochenek scored his first goal of the weekend with an assist from Zach Puma, putting the Ice Dawgs in the lead for the first time in the game.
FAU continuously took shots but were unable to get any past Newbold, eventually pulling their goalie in a last-ditch effort for a comeback.
Katz bagged a hat-trick in the final moments of the game, scoring in an empty net to bring the final score to 4-2.
Overall, Katz led the team in goals, scoring five goals followed by Mesaros and Gannon who both scored two. Gannon led Georgia in assists, gaining five assists throughout the weekend.
In addition to winning the tournament, Georgia’s head coach, John Camp, was awarded the title of CHS Coach of the Year.
The Ice Dawgs will play their final games of the postseason, starting on March 17, in the CHF Federation Cup national tournament where the top 32 teams will face off in Philadelphia, PA.
