Sooners defeat Colorado State 5-4
Oklahoma returned home on a three-game losing streak after a tough loss to arch-rival UCO and two straight losses on the road to Missouri State. Awaiting OU was a matchup against the Colorado State Rams.
The Rams haven’t been having the best season. Two of their four wins on the year came at the expense of the Sooners back in October. The Rams came into tonight on a four-game losing streak.
The Sooners came out flat and allowed CSU to go up 1-0 on a goal by Max DeBeradinis. OU responded well to this and scored three unanswered goals, but CSU would respond with three unanswered goals of their own before the Sooners added two more to snatch the 5-4 victory. Playing consistently is something that head coach Austin Miller has been harping on all season.
“We’re still giving up too many scoring chances,” said Miller. “That’s the thing we have to find a way to fix. We’re giving up way too much to teams that aren’t earning it. Until we shore that up, we’re just going to win a game 5-4, or lose a game 3-1 like we did last weekend.”
The scoring chances have been giving freshman goaltender Gage Redman a lot to do in goal. Redman has been solid for the Sooners in goal after losing starting netminder Brendan Culbertson-Bond, but his first win in a Sooners uniform had eluded him until Friday night.
“It feels a little overdue. I wish I got it sooner,” said Redman with a smile. “But it’s just as sweet as I imagined.”
Redman echoed his coach’s concerns about playing a full game.
“Collectively we have periods in the game where we fall apart and take our foot off the gas,” said Redman. “Every hockey team does it and it’s just about making that adjustment. I think it comes with confidence as we start to win more games.”
The Sooners had many contributors in the offensive zone on Friday night, but the “German Engineer” Simon Weingartner stole the show with two goals: his second of which being the game winner.
“I think the most important thing is that we got the win,” said Weingartner. “I think we can easily dominate them for 60 minutes, but we let them hang in the game.”
The Sooners now sit at 8-15-1 on the season with seven games left on the schedule. They will face off against CSU one final time this season on Saturday evening at 5 P.M. Catch the action at bdehockey.com.