The Kent State ice hockey club defeated Duquesne University Friday night after a nine-round shootout, with senior forward Chad Parise scored the game-winning goal.

“It feels good. I mean it wasn’t just me, it was a team effort,” Parise said. “We battled back and Sebastian (Ragno) held it strong in the shootout. It feels good to come back from injury and help the team get a win, but it was a good team effort.”

Although the team came out victorious, head coach Jim Underwood felt that the team didn’t perform to the best of its abilities.

“It’s always good to get wins, but to be quite honest, that was a very soft performance on our end. We didn’t play like a team. We didn’t have any work ethic out there,” Underwood said.  “(Duquesne worked) hard every single shift, and we just got outworked every single shift tonight. We are lucky to come out with that win tonight.”

The Flashes started out scoring with a goal by senior forward Jared Fielden, assisted by junior forward Curtis Swan at 6:37 of the first period. The first period ended with shots favoring Kent State 11-8.  

The Flashes’ second goal came off the stick of sophomore forward Casey Barile from sophomore forward Kyle Schaefer at 9:10 of the second period.

Duquesne responded late in the period with a goal at 17:34 to make it a 2-1 game. But under a minute later, sophomore forward Jake Haneline buried the team’s third goal of the night with the assist coming from freshman forward Xavier Sudlow. At the end of the second period, shots still favored Kent State 25-18.  

Duquesne came out ready for a rally in the third period. The Dukes buried two goals in the third period, one at 11:29 and the second coming at 13:42.  

Although the Flashes had many opportunities in the third, they couldn’t put one past the Duquesne goalkeeper. The period ended with a 3-3 score.

Overtime brought much back and forth play, but no one could seem to find the back of the net. With the score still tied at 3-3 after the five minute overtime, the Flashes headed to a shootout, taking nine shooters before Parise finished the goal on a backhand move.

Ragno, freshman goaltender, stopped all nine of Duquesne’s shooters and ended the game with 25 saves and recorded his first win as a Flash.  

“I think our guys need to figure out that no matter who you are playing, if you don’t work hard every shift, there’s going to be enough skill out there to beat you,” Underwood said. “They need to think about tonight and definitely have more energy from start to finish tomorrow.”

The Flashes take on the Dukes Saturday at 3 p.m. at Duquesne for a rematch of Friday night’s game.  

Chris Yamnitsky is a sports reporter for The Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].