Utah ends Alabama’s winning streak

February 2nd, 2019 Salt Lake City, UT The Skatin’ Utes decked out in pink gear on Saturday night for Breast Cancer Awareness.   Utah defense, Steven Pawlow, mentioned, “Playing in front of our home crowd gives us an immediate boost and it being Breast Cancer Night, we all had an individual reason to play tonight and it showed out on the ice.” After falling to Alabama 6-2 on Friday, Utah never gave them a chance in the rematch. Utah took initiative in the first period with a goal at 6:36. On the PP Steven Pawlow took a shot through Alabama’s defensemen, and with a tip off of Zachary Jerome the puck found the net. Alabama followed up with their own goal at 4:47.   In the second period David Barnes, assisted by Austin Tautfest, took a slap shot from the blue line giving Utah the lead again at 4:37. Within seconds at 4:16 Joseph DiBenedetto scored while Utah’s last goal was still being announced. He was assisted by Guy Petrie and Wyatt Light. Alabama responded with 52 seconds left in the period with a goal.   Utah began the third period on PK and handed Alabama several power play opportunities. Utah, however, stepped up their defensive game. They focused on blocking passes and keeping the back door closed for Alabama. Pawlow said, “We focused on getting the pucks in and deep and making them play the whole 200 feet of the ice.” Their increased defense combined with Patrick Kasper kept Utah ahead. With 10 seconds on the clock Light intercepted the puck in Utah’s D-zone, carried it through the neutral zone, and shot into an empty net ending the game 4-2. Utah found their grounding on Saturday and were able to put Alabama’s seven game winning streak to an end. “Getting the first goal is huge, and after that you can’t let up. I think we did a good job today of keep going, keep going and wearing them down and I think they were dead at the third period.” After a break next weekend, Utah will travel to meet Alabama for another hockey weekend in Pelham, Alabama. Pawlow spoke for the team when he said, “I think we are going to get some rest here first because we need it.” Goalie Match-up: Patrick Kasper picked up where he left off in the goal for Utah while Patrick Ostermann took the net again for Alabama. Kasper saved 43 out of 45 shots. Ostermann saved 19 out of 22 shots. Utah shot over twice as many times as Alabama. This was a complete flip from Friday night’s totals. Kasper made multiple key saves and many were during Utah PK. This gave Utah 100% on PK. 

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Utah 4 – Alabama 2 Utah 1st: 6:36 – Steven Pawlow (Zachary Jerome) PP 2nd: 4:37 – David Barnes (Austin Tautfest), 4:16 – Joseph DiBenedetto (Guy Petrie, Wyatt Light) 3rd: :10 – Wyatt Light (unassisted) Alabama 1st: 4:47- Ryan Johnson (Jeremy Hannah, Taylor Bowman) 2nd: :52 – Taylor Joseph (Nick Messina, Brian Seybold)   3rd: None