Washington State caps off a historic weekend Saturday night with a double-digit goal performance in a 10-5 win over Eastern Washington.

After ending their drought against Eastern in dramatic fashion the night before, the Cougars had more to prove, including the narrative that they can play well on Saturdays. With the Eagles still sitting close behind WSU in the Pac-8 standings, a sweep on the weekend would be detrimental to securing a fourth seed spot in the playoffs.

EWU came out firing, out shooting the Cougs 5-1 in the early going. They were now on a mission to split the series with WSU after a loss on home ice.

With a quarter of the period gone, the Eagles started the scoring off as Jacob Nickisch directed one in on a net-front pass to give the Eastern an early lead. Despite the good start from EWU, the Cougars had a response.

One of Friday night’s heroes, Cole Carlson, sent Lucas Clark on a breakaway to even the game not even two minutes later. The WSU bench called for the puck as it marked Clark’s first career goal in the ACHA. The celebration he performed after his first goal did not disappoint.

“I was just overjoyed with happiness. I was gonna hit the eagle but then uh, I just kind of like fumbled and then everything just hit the s*** show after that. It was a gong show after that,” Clark said.

With Max Lazzaro out of the lineup after an injury in game one, Clark was put in his spot and he delivered.

Proving one narrative right and another one wrong, defenseman Lex Ballard buried a powerplay goal on a wrap-around to give the Cougars the lead with 30 seconds left in the first frame. Not only did the young rookies keep showing out for the Cougars, their powerplay that has historically struggled was finally looking effective. Ballard’s late goal sent WSU to intermission ahead by one.

With a penalty to the Eagles at the end of the period, WSU began the second frame on the powerplay where they capitalized yet again. Van Rayner picked up his sixth powerplay goal of the season to make it 3-1 Cougs early on in the second.

“It’s a big weekend. These guys made a statement. But more importantly these guys played six periods of hockey,” WSU head coach John Lupinacci said. “We’ve been talking all season how that needed to happen. We got to have Friday night and Saturday night.”

Just over eight minutes into the second Luke Juergensen added to the lead with his first goal of the season, making it a three-goal lead for WSU. Less than two minutes later Nicho Umile picked up the loose trash on a rebound goal to make it 5-1 Cougars, forcing the Eagles head coach to call a timeout at around the midway point of regulation. Juergenen added another tally by goaltender Riley Anderson with under four minutes left in the second to extend the Cougar lead yet again with their sixth unanswered goal.

Although the second period was all Cougars on the score sheet, EWU forward Jared Jelinek buried one top shelf just 40 seconds later to give the Eagles a spark heading into the third.

The EWU backup goaltender Lukasz Szccubiala came in to relieve Anderson for the third and WSU gave him a nightmare start. Juergensen completed a hat-trick within ten seconds of the opening puck drop on a wrister from the blue-line to make it 7-2.

“It feels great. It’s been a long time coming. I feel like when you’re playing up with guys like Carlson, some really good things are bound to happen,” Juergensen said.

Just over a minute later the Cougars would net two more within 30 seconds of each other, with Umile then Rayner both grabbing their second tallies of the contest, propelling the Cougars to a 9-2 lead. WSU scored three goals to start the third before two full minutes were able to run off the clock.

“It was good to get on the scoreboard and help contribute to the win tonight,” Umile said.

The Eagles were down by a touchdown but it didn’t stop forward Isaac Stecher from putting them back on the board with his second goal of the year.

Eli Nickisch joined his brother in the goal column with a snap shot by the glove side of WSU goaltender Alexei Kuhl and Sean Smith added to the comeback efforts with a tip-in goal out front to bring the deficit to four.

However, with under five minutes to go Samuli Sihvonen put an extra nail in the coffin netting the Cougars’ tenth goal of the night and bringing them to a sweep of Eastern Washington going into the long Winter break.

“Getting both wins on Friday and Saturday is really huge. So, hopefully we’ll be able to carry that forward,” Juergensen said.

WSU stood five points ahead of EWU coming into this series, but have increased that difference to an 11 point lead, securing themselves a sweep and the fourth spot in the Pac-8 for the remainder of 2025.

Three rookies were able to find the back of the net in the second game against EWU, combining for four of the 10 goals scored. WSU was able to spread the wealth with not only young talent, but players like Juergensen who had not scored all year before his hat-trick in this contest.

“We can score on any line. All the guys can get goals. That was big,” said Lupinacci.

Kuhl, despite giving up five goals to the Eagles, held over a .900 save percentage for the second consecutive game and was a key component to the success of the weekend.

“I think it just sets the tone. It’ll give us a big confidence boost so we can really take it to [UW],” Umile said.

The Cougars advance to a 10-11 record on the season and are scheduled to play their bitterest of rivals in the University of Washington.

WSU will play the Huskies in the Toyota Center in Tri-Cities on Jan. 9 and Jan 10. They end one drought before the break and will look to begin the last stretch of the season by ending another against the Purple and Gold.