Written by: Mickey Gonzalez

This weekend, the UCF Knights traveled over to Wesley Chapel to compete in the Southern Collegiate Hockey Conference Playoffs.

UCF’s first game was against the Miami Hurricanes on Friday. The Knights gained an early lead with two goals in the first period—the first from Donovan McClellan, the second from Christopher Robinson, assisted by Tyler Walkinshaw. Though UCF had a good start, Miami managed two of their own goals before the period ended, leaving the game tied going into the second. There were quite a few back-and-forth goals between the Knights and Hurricanes in the second period. Joseph Zanicchi scored for UCF, assisted by Rodney LaLonde. Miami tied it up with a goal of their own, then pulled ahead with another. McClellan tied the score once more with another goal. The Hurricanes again scored twice more, but Brandon Blaszczyk, with an assist from Liam McGrath, lessened the difference to just one goal before the end of the period. Going into the final period of the game, UCF set their full attention on getting the two goals necessary to secure victory. The Knights brought out an intense offense, gaining 16 shots on goal in the twenty-minute period. Unfortunately, none made it into the net. The game ended with a score of 6-5, Miami. With the loss, UCF earned a spot in the playoff’s fifth place game.

The Knights returned to the ice Saturday night against the Embry-Riddle Eagles. Both teams went into the game with the intent of bouncing back from the previous night’s losses and securing a fifth-place finish. Unfortunately, the passion led to some rash decisions, including one that garnered UCF’s Johnny Brockman a disqualification. The game’s first goal came with less than five minutes left in the first period—shot by LaLonde and assisted by Robinson. Hunter Chard, assisted by Walkinshaw, got another goal for UCF a couple minutes later. The period ended with the Knights in a 2-0 lead. Riddle managed to tie the game up in the first half of the second period, but UCF pushed back harder. Walkinshaw scored with an assist from LaLonde. Then Chris Zalik, assisted by Landon Gatz, scored one more. Once again, UCF went into the period with a two-goal lead. From penalties, to fights, to goals, the third period was full of action. UCF pulled themselves further ahead with a power play goal scored by LaLonde and assisted by Zalik and Gonzalo Ruiz. The Eagles tried to pull themselves back up, getting a short-handed goal, but it wasn’t enough. Shane O’Donnell got a short-handed goal for UCF on an empty Eagles net with 1:18 left in the game. At 37 seconds, Walkinshaw, assisted by Ruiz, got another goal for UCF. Then, 12 seconds later, UCF got yet ANOTHER goal, scored by Zalik and assisted by Blaszczyk.  The game ended in a definitive win: 8-3, Knights.

The seemingly positive finish to the playoffs secured UCF a disappointing fifth place.

The weekend started with a difficult loss but ended with a thrilling win. Although the SCHC Playoff left many of the Knights wondering what could have been, their attention is now turned towards the upcoming release of the final ACHA rankings. The Knights, currently #7, will hope to remain in the top 10 in order to punch their ticket to the ACHA South Regional Tournament, which takes place next month in Huntsville, Alabama.