The Aggies traveled to Oakland this past Saturday to take on UC Berkeley for the second game this season. Coming off a large 16-2 victory against SFSU, the Aggies hoped to carry the momentum with them to the Bay Area.
And they did. A quick face-off win led to a rush that saw Gordon Dickson score just 8 seconds into the first period in front of an excited crowd. That would be the end of the easy goals, however, as Cal began to push back hard. A tense first period included a 4 minute penalty kill which the Aggies completed unscathed. Later, Cal would put one away to tie the game at 1.
Moving to the second period, Berkeley would score two goals in succession as the Aggie defense lapsed. UC Davis did not relent, however, and fought back to tie the game at 3. The shots favored UCB heavily, but goaltender Niklas Braun held fast in net. The second period would end 4-4, with neither team relenting.
In the final period, the game continued its strong pace. The Aggies struck first to go up 5-4, and things appeared to be in their hands--until a turnover in the defensive zone led to a Berkeley goal. From there, the Aggies began to wane, and Berkeley would go on to score 3 more to win the game 8-5.
Overall, it was a strong performance by the young Aggie team, but ultimately small mistakes cost them. They look to rebound next week against Chapman University and College of the Canyons at home.