Young stars shine for Washington State as they close out the Pac-8 showcase Monday afternoon with a 3-1 win over USC.
WSU came into this game with a 2-1 record on the weekend, with that one blemish being USC. Coming off a sweep of San Jose State and a tough 7-1 loss against USC Saturday, they were looking to even the series.
The puck dropped for game two between these two teams and both came out firing. The Trojans’ bench was sparse compared to the Cougars, but they did not let this affect them to begin the first period.
Under five minutes in, USC defenseman Akili Tulloch found the stick of Owen Ouchi on a shot from the point, deflecting and burying the rebound to give USC the first goal of the game. Tulloch continued to be a problem for the Cougs as he had been all weekend.
Although Chancey was seeing the puck well, the Cougars found a way around his seemingly magnetic glove. With six-and-a-half minutes to go, Sam Hembree let a wrist-shot from the blue-line go, resulting in a mad scramble being stashed home by Max Lazzaro to tie the game at one.
“It feels great. Last year we kinda were off to a slow start and we had a bit of a slow start this year, but this weekend definitely helped us gain some of that confidence heading into an important Eastern weekend here in a couple weeks,” Alexei Kuhl said.
After their tying goal, Washington State seemed to begin dominating in every aspect, silencing the Trojan offense and holding possession of the frozen biscuit through every zone on the rink. Despite these late efforts from WSU, the first period ended in a knot.
“We have a great culture of vets helping the rookies. I think that when you see the rookies producing, it puts an ease on the vets. They are able to focus and play their game without having to worry about us and they know eventually when they do graduate, they’ll be leaving the team in good hands,” David Bushkin said.
The second period began and the Cougs dominance continued. It didn’t take long for these strong performances from each line on WSU to break through the USC goaltender Walton Chancey.
Keagan Lucas flipped a puck from his own end, finding the stick of Matthew Taylor who buried a breakaway opportunity to give the Cougars the lead under three minutes into the second frame. A rookie-to-rookie connection gave WSU even more confidence in their depth, as they continued to dominate in every aspect of the game.
“UW was a real wake up, you know we realized we’ve got to really lock in, start playing as a team and start working hard, and every practice has been 100%,” Taylor said.
The Cougars spent most of the second period hemming the Trojans in their own zone, controlling the puck and firing on all cylinders. Although Chancey was shutting down countless chances from Washington State, the Cougars found their chance to pounce.
With under three minutes to go, Taylor led a strong forecheck in the offensive zone and caused a major turnover. He then fed a no-look pass to the slot, finding David Bushkin who added to his tallies with a goal to extend the WSU lead. With the late goal, the Cougs took their 3-1 lead into the third period.
“We need that line to just be a you know, strong grind line, that gets puck deep, forechecks hard and gets us offensive zone faceoffs and bonus they did that today. They caused icings and scored two of the goals, so we’ll take it all week,” WSU head coach John Lupinacci said.
The depth has been a major story for WSU this season, being able to score and gain momentum from each line. Lupinacci put one of his best scorers and top point grabbers, Bushkin, on the fourth line, spreading the wealth and danger of the Cougar offense against USC.
“It’s about finding your job and just us on that fourth line, we grind. We force into the offensive zone, and just grinding and playing hard, I think we’re filling that role,” David Bushkin said.
The Trojans continued to struggle, and their short bench started to become a prominent problem against the sea of crimson and white. The shots were 21-14 going into the third period, but the margin in that category widened in the final frame. Despite the continuous struggle on the power play, the Cougars were seemingly breaking the puck out of their own zone and stringing more passes together than in previous series.
“We’ve been making practice as realistic as possible. We treat any missed pass as something bad in practice and we pay the price in the game,” Kuhl said.
Although he gave up a tally early on, Washington State goaltender Alexei Kuhl held the door shut for the remainder of the game, stopping 19 shots of his 20 total faced, as he propelled the Cougs to a fitting 3-1 victory, matching their record on the weekend.
Washington State is scheduled to battle at the Palouse Friday and Saturday evening. They will take on the Idaho Vandals, as they carry an overall 7-10 record heading into the series.
