Meeting for the third time this season, the NC State Icepack beat UNC-Chapel Hill 8-4 in the long awaited Governor’s Cup at PNC Arena on Monday, Nov. 29.
“Overall it was a good game,” defensive and special teams coach Eric Mura said. “I think our first and third periods really showed what we were doing. We kind of had a little bit of a slow second start as we were coming out of the first, but overall a decent game. I mean it’s always fun to play Chapel Hill, especially at PNC and it’s always fun to beat Chapel Hill.”
With emotions still running high from the previous two matchups and the recent football game, it was an incredibly chippy event with multiple fights and penalties. A strong start allowed the Icepack to build an early lead, and despite the Tar Heels keeping it close in the second, NC State ran away with it late in the third.
“We came into the game, the coaches were talking about, it’s a 62 minute game today because what happened the last two minutes of the football game.” said Mura. “Anytime State beats Chapel Hill, it definitely carries over. So I’m glad that we both got wins.”
The Icepack struck first, scoring less than five minutes into the game on a powerplay goal by senior forward Parker Szarek.
Scoring again on the powerplay, the Icepack doubled that lead midway through the first thanks to junior forward Chris Solomon and freshman forward Zack Robinson tacked on another goal to go up 3-1 just a couple of seconds later.
That multi-goal lead would not stay for long though, as the Tar Heels were able to capitalize on an Icepack penalty with seven minutes remaining in the first and made it 3-2 less than thirty seconds into the second.
The Icepack regained a two-goal lead just a few minutes later off of a senior forward Colby Pederson goal, but UNC kept it close the rest of the period, allowing just one more goal off of freshman forward Charles Monteith to bring the score 5-2.
The rest of the action took place late in the third. UNC grabbed one first a little over midway through the period, but two more goals from Zack Robinson, just a minute and thirty seconds apart, secured the win and the hat trick.
“We ended up outworking them in the third period,” Zack Robinson said. “I mean it was a pretty close game for the first two periods but it was nice to just be able to come out in the third and beat it down towards the end.”
His brother, senior forward Alex Robinson, joined in on the fun with another goal to raise the Icepack’s lead to 8-3 with 19 seconds left and despite one more last-second Tar Heel goal, NC State came out with the 8-4 win.
The game wrapped up the Icepack’s schedule for the calendar year, but the team will be back in January as it hosts Liberty University in game one of the Wagon Wheel Trophy Series on Jan. 7.
