Over the weekend, the Alabama Frozen Tide dominated the Auburn Tigers in a three-game series to decide the winner of the Iron Cup. Alabama won the first two games Friday and Saturday with the same score of 11-2, and then finished the Tigers off with a 12-2 win Sunday.
This was the first ever Iron Cup battle and also Auburn’s first year to have an ice hockey club team. Head coach Mike Quenneville had Alabama, in its sixth year as a club, more than ready for this rivalry before game one.
“It’s going to take hard work, discipline and a big heart to show we care enough to win,” head coach Mike Quenneville said. “The biggest thing is to out-work them and win the one-on-one battles.”
Senior captain Sass Schirmer was locked into the game plan and ready to compete on a high level.
“If we play our game, [winning the Iron Cup] should be no problem,” Schirmer said. “We have to keep our heads in it hard, and don’t let this crowd distract us.”
Quenneville was excited with the crowd present for the Iron Cup. He was confident this was the biggest crowd in club history, even a full 90 minutes before the puck dropped for game one.
Despite the record crowds, Schirmer and the Tide kept its composure and stayed true to their finesse style of play, scoring three goals in the first period and piling on another five goals in the second period.
Both of Auburn’s goals were scored by Yiannis Kapetanopolis, while Alabama had goals from Mark Wysock, David Mosier, Kory Sweatt, Chris Schmidt and Chris Heidkamp, in addition to a pair of goals each from Schirmer, Sam Bodner and Nick Snead in game one.
Game two featured two Alabama hat tricks from Zach Dailey and Tanner Himmelman and had goals added in from Wysock, Sweatt, Brandon Butler, David Mosier and Alex Dubrinsky. After another 12-2 shellacking of the Tigers, Alabama claimed the first ever Iron Cup with a total margin of victory of 34-6.
Despite such an exciting performance from the Tide, this was something the players hinted at just before game one.
“We’ve got good forwards,” Wysock said. “We have some good skill, some guys that can make plays with the puck and score goals for us.”
While Wysock was looking forward to the playmaking ability of his teammates, Schirmer was looking for just one thing.
“Just some good hockey,” Schirmer said.
The Tide played great hockey all weekend and has been on its way to a drastic improvement all season long. The Tide finished 14th in the South Region last year. This year, before the three-game sweep of Auburn, it was tied for third. This improvement can be attributed to many things, but Quenneville can single out one.
“Depth,” Quenneville said. “We have four lines that can go in and make plays, score goals for us. That’s something we haven’t had in the past.”
Alabama will take on Florida on Jan. 21 and 22 at the Pelham Civic Complex. It will be the Tide’s last game in Pelham for the year.
