For the first time in four years, the Columbus Icemen are back in the state finals.
The Icemen will face Central Indiana Knights at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in South Bend in the Indiana State High School Hockey Association Class 2A championship game. Columbus won the 2A title in 2018.
“I’m super excited to be able to go out and represent my team and our family down here in Columbus,” senior winger Andrew Clark said. “We want to go out and hang another banner.”
The Icemen advanced to the title game by going 3-0 in last weekend’s Class 2A Playdown at Fishers Fuel Tank. They were down 2-1 against Fort Wayne Carroll in Friday’s opener before scoring three goals in the third period to pull out the win.
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The No. 3-seeded Icemen then beat No. 2-seed South Bend Riley 2-0 and Leo 1-0.
“After the win, everybody was hyped,” junior center Evan Federle said. “We all got to celebrate.”
Alex Clark scored three goals, and Andrew Clark had two goals and two assists over the weekend to lead the Icemen. Brayson Bennett netted one goal and two assists, John Ferguson had one goal and one assist and Caden Graham added one assist.
“It was very intense,” Bennett said. “There was a lot of shots on net, a lot of action and few calls by the ref, so not many power plays. It was pretty much 5-on-5 straight hockey.”
“It was an intense, high-pressure game the first game,” Icemen coach Isaac Coy added. “The second game, we scored the first shift of the game, so it was 1-0 the entire game, so it makes it even more intense when you’re trying to hang on to a one-goal lead for a full three periods. Against Leo, it was the same way. We had to smother the puck and try to not allow any shots. The boys got it done, though. They did a great job.”
Sophomore Jake McMullen was in net all three games, posting shutouts in the final two.
“Our starting goaltender, Jacob McMullen, is just playing really well right now,” Coy said. “Anytime you want to go the distance in hockey, you have to have a good goaltender. He had two shutouts this weekend, which doesn’t happen very often in state playdowns, so he’s doing a fantastic job.”
Besides Andrew Clark, Bennett (a junior center), Federle and McMullen, other top Icemen players include senior winger and defenseman Joe Neal, freshman defenseman Caden Graham and sophomore defenseman John Ferguson.
“Last year, I think we peaked a little bit early, so once we got to the state (playdown), I think we were just a little tired and ready for the season to be over with and didn’t bring our best competition,” Coy said. “This year, I feel like we’re peaking at the right time. We’re well rested. We’ve have good competition here on the tail end, and it seems like game after game, we just keep getting better and better.”
The Icemen are 17-15-3 this season. They fell to 4A state finalist Bloomington Blades in overtime and beat 3A state finalist Zionsville.
“We’ve had our ups and downs all season,” Coy said. “We have a fairly large freshman class and a fairly large senior class and kind of smaller junior and sophomore classes. But we’ve beat some really great teams, and we’ve been able to compete with teams in Class 4A. I think we’re really poised to take a good shot at Class 2A.”
The Central Indiana Knights are the No. 1 seed in 2A. They Icemen split with the Knights during the regular season, with each team winning on its home ice.
“Going into this, I think that we’re a really close matchup,” Coy said. “It’s probably going to be a low-scoring game. It could possibly be an overtime scenario. But our boys are primed and ready to go, and they’re fired up and I think they really want it. If we can get a couple of goals early, I think we can certainly hang in there and take them down.”
Bennett said the main objective for Saturday’s game will be to keep the puck in the offensive zone and make sure the puck doesn’t leave.
“I’m pretty confident,” Neal said. “Our goalie has just been playing phenomenal these past couple weeks, so we hope he just continues on his hot streak, and the rest of team can follow suit and get it done and bring the title home.”
Neal and Andrew Clark were freshmen the last time the Icemen made the state finals, but neither were able to play. Clark was injured, and Neal was in Spain on a spring break trip.
“Just being able to play in it this year is such a surreal thing because I just remember watching it my freshman year and thinking I just missed out on it,” Neal said. “I was like, ‘Who knows if well ever be back,’ and lo and behold, here we are. It’s like a storybook ending. I’m just so happy to finally get to play in the game and have a much bigger impact than I would have my freshman year.”
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Columbus Icemen parents and fans can meet at Hamilton Community Center and Ice Arena at 5 p.m. Friday to decorate cars and caravan to South Bend for the team’s Class 2A state title game, which will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
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