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LaCrosse team takes Iowa State in 2 OT's
The Husky lacrosse team travelled to Plymouth to take on Iowa State in an early season matchup.
After opening the season with a 10-4 victory over St. Thomas, the Huskies were looking to stay on their winning ways against the Cyclones of Iowa State.
The Cyclones were a surprise team last year as they came within one game of winning the league tournament and going to St. Louis for nationals. But with a 2nd place finish, they will not be over-looked again.
Penalties were a problem last week against St. Thomas and once again took the Huskies out of their game this week. While they were able to keep St. Thomas in check during man-down situations, the penalty-kill unit of the Huskies wasn't able to keep that momentum going through the first quarter of play.
The Cyclones wasted no time in jumping out in front of the Huskies as they scored three goals in early minutes of the game. Power play goals by the Cyclones' Kyle Andriga and Brent Lamm gave their team a 3-0 first quarter advantage.
The Huskies came out with no emotion, and the Cyclones took advantage of that. A goal by Ryan Thorson got the Huskies back within two scores, but that was short lived. Less than two minutes later, the Cyclones once again pushed their lead to three goals.
"We started out slow, but as the game progressed, our guys realized that there was a game at stake," said head coach Nick Thorson. "We started picking up our game. The defense tightened up and the offense started to become more efficient."
That progression proved to give the Huskies the hustle they needed to put them in position to pull out the victory. Combined with a suffocating defense, an offensive flurry led to Husky goals by Nick Van Pelt and Mike Tucker giving the Huskies the momentum going into half time only down 4-3.
The second half saw the Cyclones playing catch-up nearly the entire time; emotion from the Huskies wasn't an issue anymore.
Both teams tightened up their defenses and exchanged hits and missed opportunities such as odd-man rushes and power plays. But a late third quarter goal by Van Pelt, his second of the game, put the Huskies ahead by one going into the final quarter of regulation.
The two teams battled back and forth the entire fourth quarter. Each time the Cyclones would tie the game back up, the Huskies would add another goal to take the lead back.
That cycle ended late in the fourth quarter as the Cyclones put together back-to-back scores to reclaim the lead they hadn't had since early in the third quarter.
However, capping off a three-goal performance, Ryan Thorson's last goal came within the final two minutes, and sent the two battling into overtime.
For senior captain Mike Tucker and the coaching staff, the game went on long enough, and it was time to send the Cyclones back to Iowa. Tucker's double overtime goal came with only a little over two minutes to go.
"I was going back onto the field and my coach told me to get the ball and do something with it, and that's what I did," Tucker said. "I got the ball, made a couple of moves to fake out my defender. I then headed toward the net, took a shot and saw all of my teammates running at me. I figured I must have scored."
"Through the game, we were able to wear Iowa State down until we finally tied it and won it in double overtime," said Thorson at the end of game.
The win improved the Huskies record to 2-0 and is remained tied for first in the league. Their next game will be Sunday morning in Stillwater,Minn. when they take on St. Olaf (0-2).
Kory Ellingson can be reached at: [email protected]
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