Sarah Passick

It was a close call for the South Dakota State hockey club over the weekend. The Jacks were defeated Friday 5-6, but came on strong Saturday winning 4-3.

Head Coach Marty Schipull said the Jacks had a tough start at the beginning of the weekend.

In the first period alone, ISU outshot SDSU 13-11 enroute to 4-1 lead. Things turned around for the Jacks during the second period, when they outshot ISU 2-1 bring the score 5-3.

The Jacks came close to matching ISU within one goal before ISU put another goal pass the Jacks. ISU closed out the game with a minute and a half left and scored with 31 seconds.

Scoring for SDSU were Keith Munsell, Ben Bofenkamp and Andy Schuster. Junior Tom Foerster scored two goals for the Jacks.

Saturday, the Jacks showed the Cyclones how hockey is played by outscoring and outshooting the Iowa boys from Ames.

“Definitely needing a better showing on Saturday night, the Jacks got a stellar performance from goalie Heath Isaacson,” Schipull said.

Isaacson stopped 45 of 48 shots on Saturday.

The game lead drifted between the two teams until late in the second period when the Cyclones outshot SDSU 24-16 bring the score to a tie 3-3.

“Billy Schneider ended a personal three game goal scoring draught by netting the game winner six minutes into the third period,” Schipull said. “ISU fought back hard with a barage of shots in the closing minutes but Isaacson was equal to the task to preserve the win for the Jacks.”

Scoring for SDSU, Saturday, were Justin Moe, Billy Schneider, Schuster and Bofenkamp.

The Jacks will host Northern State University this weekend, Friday, Feb. 1 at 10 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 2 at 9:30 p.m. These are the last home games this semester.