AIC notched its first win of the season in dramatic fashion.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Freshman forward Darius Davidson's overtime goal gave the American International College ice hockey team its first victory of the year — a 3-2 upset of No. 11 Penn State University— on Friday, October 20.
Here's Darius Davidson's OT winner from last night as we downed No. 11 Penn State, 3-2
— AIC Hockey (@AIC_Hockey) October 21, 2017
RECAP: https://t.co/NmT64Fj7tH pic.twitter.com/fy4J59FOU9
Penn State got on the board first at 8:58 of the opening period off a power-play tally from Cole Hults.
Freshman defenseman Brennan Kapcheck evened things up at 14:11 of the second period off assists from sophomore forwards Joel Kocur and Jared Pike.
The Nittany Lions jumped back into the lead at 8:04 of the third period off a goal from Nate Sucese, but AIC was able to tie the game again at 11:59 off a goal from sophomore forward Dominik Florian.
Here's what Darius Davidson had to say about that OT win: pic.twitter.com/AqR4KhSDEV
— AIC Hockey (@AIC_Hockey) October 21, 2017
In overtime, AIC out-attempted Penn State 6-1, and Davidson secured the victory with a breakaway goal with 1:13 left in the extra frame.
With Penn State ranked No. 11 in the most recent USCHO.com poll, this is the highest-ranked opponent AIC has ever beaten. The Yellow Jackets previously beat a ranked opponent on November 20, 2015 with a 3-2 takedown of No. 20 Robert Morris University.
With his second-period goal, Kapcheck tied sophomore defenseman Patrik Demel for the team lead in points, and also extended his point streak to five games.
!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/7kW3Eeefsq
— AIC Hockey (@AIC_Hockey) October 21, 2017
In his first appearance this season, senior alternate captain and defenseman Dominic Racobaldo had six blocked shots and was a +2 in the contest. A year ago, he led the team in blocked shots with 64.
"First off, just happy for our group here," said AIC ice hockey head coach Eric Lang. "I don't think we've worked any less hard. We've worn some scars here early, and we've kind of battled through it, battled through it, battled through it — we didn't have any self-inflicted wounds tonight, I thought we took care of the puck, we limited odd-man rushes … We've got some smiles in the locker room. We needed that."
Easy decision tonight for our Player of the Game. Good stuff, Darius. #AICommitted pic.twitter.com/kt0VZCBEW1
— AIC Hockey (@AIC_Hockey) October 21, 2017
"Darius was playing really well the entire night," he added about Davidson's overtime winner. "We often say you get what you deserve, and he deserved to be on the ice there and make a huge contribution to his team there."
"Their D-man fell and I was able to pick it up," Davidson said. "And luckily enough, I went five-hole and scored the goal. It's awesome — the team played great tonight, and everything was going our way."
AIC returns home to the MassMutual Center for a matchup with Bentley University on Tuesday, October 24. Puck drop is set for 7:05 p.m.
