SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - The D1 Panthers hockey team remain undefeated as they travel back from their road trip where they defeated a spirited Illinois State Cardinals team 5-1 on Friday and 9-0 on Saturday. As usual, our goaltenders were outstanding - with Jozef Kuchaslo stopping 30 of 31 shots in game 1 and Brett Sweet getting the shut out by stopping all 17 shots he faced in game 2. While the Panthers continue to get contributions across the board due to their team play, special mention has to be made of the heroics of Daniel Beaupré who was obviously inspired by captain K.T. Walters who lead the team to last weekends 1-0 and 6-3 wins over a very strong Midland Warriors team.

It was Beaupre who scored 2 goals in game 1 and followed that performance in game 2 with a hat-trick and 2 assists for a stellar 7 points over the weekend! Other goal scorers in game 1 were Truchan (who opened the scoring), Aston and Garcha who also had an assist. Other assists went to Johnston (2), Walters, Kosec and Sterling-Ponech.

In game 2, Beaupre lead the way with his hat trick and 2 assists, but Truchan wasn't far behind scoring 2 goals and having an assist. Other goal scorers were St. Clair, Garcha, Neuman, and 
Johnston! Other assists went to Sterling-Ponech (2), Johnston (2), Garcia (2), Young-Menard (2), K.T. Walters, Aston and Layden. As the stats indicate, these wins were a total team effort and the players are all to be congratulated! 

But the scores were also deceiving as the players definitely had to battle hard for the wins. Coach Law also had to work hard to keep things under control as neither team had players willing to back down! This led to a plethora of penalties in both games, especially in the 3rd periods. In game1 the Cardinals had 9 penalties for 26 minutes (6 in the 3rd) and the Panthers had 8 for 24 minutes (6 in the 3rd). These late penalties set the stage for a battle in game 2 for when it was over and the dust settled, the Cardinals ended up with 18 penalties and 71 minutes in the box or out of the game. Your Panthers were not far behind with 12 penalties and 56 penalties- largely as a result of Bowsher, Jameson, Johnston and Kosec all getting misconducts as the referees struggled to keep the play under control. 

Your Panthers now get a weekend off before heading back to Illinois for a tournament where they are going to have to play perfect games to keep their undefeated streak alive as they play no.27th ranked Arizona State, no. 4 ranked Jamestown and no. 1 ranked Ohio!