After narrowly escaping game one with a win, Washington State’s Van Rayner left no doubt, netting six goals in an 11-0 win over Gonzaga Saturday.

The Cougars started the first period differently than they did the night before. The game had a much more even start, with seven scoreless minutes and chances for both teams, before David Bushkin finally broke the ice for WSU.

Once Bushkin got WSU on the board, the flood gates began to open as Van Rayner claimed the back of the net twice within two minutes to make it 3-0. The start of this game was completely different than the night before, as the Cougars quickly surged to a big lead.

Just when it seemed the momentum had calmed down for the Cougars, senior Brandon Smith got on board with an unassisted goal, scoring his first of the year to make it 4-0 heading into the first intermission.

Sophomore goaltender Drew Ramsay had not been called on much by the end of the first, but for the opportunities Gonzaga did have against him, he had all the answers.

“Goals obviously are important cause it’s how you win games, but Drewski made it very easy on us,” Rayner said about Ramsay.

Starting goaltender for Washington State Alexei Kuhl was scratched from both games against Gonzaga but was behind the bench for their dominating first period performance.

“They’re up for it today. They’re angry about yesterday,” Kuhl said. “They know they didn’t do their job last night and they seem to be doing it so far, so let’s keep it going”.

After a quiet start to the second period, the Cougars kept pouring it on as Raynor lit the lamp again for a hat-trick to make it 5-0. However, Raynor was not done yet, as six minutes later he scored again for his fourth of the night, making it 6-0.

A minute later, Bushkin put home his second of the game, and at that point, Washington State was scoring at will. Another goal from Raynor extended the lead to eight and his personal count on the day to five, with just under four minutes to go in the second.

Captain Cole Carlson joined the fray with one of his own to make it 9-0, as he registered his second point of the afternoon.

“[The] whole team was going top to bottom, so, [I] love to see it,” Rayner said.

With just over a minute to play in the second period, Raynor recorded his sixth goal of the game, and fourth of the period, to put the Cougars up by double digits going into the third period.

“I definitely think last night we came out a little flat, definitely soft, just adjusting, switching up lines a little bit, coming out and taking it a lot more seriously and all in all just moving a lot better today,” Ramsay said.

The Bulldogs came out in the third period, with a goaltender change hoping it would slow down the scoring in the last 20 minutes of regulation. Although it did slow down, Samuli Sihvonen squeaked one through Jack Loveland and across the goal line to make it an 11-0 contest.

Gonzaga put up 16 shots on the cage by the final buzz

er, but Ramsay shut all of them down, registering his first career shutout in the ACHA.

“You know it’s great. It’s my first shutout in the ACHA, I didn’t have any last year, but it feels good,” Ramsay said. “Good to have a good defense in front of me.”

Washington State moves to 3-0 within their scheduled league games, outscoring their opponents 24-5 in those three battles.

The Cougars have just one game left this weekend. They are scheduled to play Milwaukee School of Engineering in Cheney on Sunday at 9 a.m.

“In the locker room, obviously they’re going right now. Everybody is pumped and we got the win song going, but once we leave here it’s straight in for tomorrow,” Rayner said.