With rivalry sweeps, a growing fanbase and a new look on the ice, the South Carolina men's club ice hockey team's 22nd season represented the culmination of multiple years of hard work and growth.
As this year's group of seniors went from passing out pamphlets in front of Russell House as freshmen to now selling out home games and realizing the completion of a four-year jersey project, the team also achieved a 29-3-1 in Division II of the College Hockey Federation. The season also featured a handful of series sweeps, included multiple victories over each of Tennessee, Georgia and Clemson.
On Nov. 16, 2022, tickets for a Friday night game against Tennessee sold out in just three minutes, and the fans who did claim those tickets watched a 7-2 win over the Volunteers. After a day off for the football game between the two schools, Cock Hockey returned to finish the series with a 3-2 win on Sunday.
This spring, the team traveled to Georgia with both a season sweep and the regular season title on the line. With the game in overtime, senior winger Owen Thomas scored the game-winning goal, his thirteenth of the season, to give the Gamecocks the divisional championship. The game was also played in an outside rink, something that players hailing from the North, including Thomas, recounted as their favorite memory of the season.
“The UGA outdoor game, even last year when we lost, was awesome. Winning was even better this year,” Thomas said. “Athens is always fun.”
In the South Carolina-Clemson series, the Gamecocks won by an overall margin of 20-10. In the first game between the two rivals, Thomas had his first multi-goal game of the season and led South Carolina to a 5-4 victory. The second game provided both squads with the opportunity to play on a much larger stage — the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville — and Thomas put up another impressive performance in that game, scoring 1 goal and assisting on 2 others, in a dominant 7-1 win.
Sophomore goalkeeper Zach Hayes said playing in the nearly 14,000-person arena and beating the Tigers for second time was one of his favorite memories from this past season.
“(Clemson) scored that first goal, and then we scored seven unanswered,” Hayes said. “I just remember, after that goal, they were all just super proud and super excited, and they thought they had it.”
The final game of the rivalry series was the team's final home game of the year, serving as a regular season send-off for the team's seniors. The Gamecocks emerged victorious again on senior night, finishing the series with an 8-5 win.
Thomas, who was a member the 2023 senior class that never lost to the Tigers, said it was "always great beating Clemson.”
Another major highlight of the season was a four-year project in the making — a new black jersey with the word “Cocks” written in script on the front, which made its debut in South Carolina's “black tie event” win over Tennessee.
The jerseys hit online shelves shortly after their official video reveal on social media and later took home the Jersey of the Year award from the Hockey House Podcast. As of March 28, a tweet from the Hockey House Twitter account showcasing the jersey had received over 127,000 views.
“When we wear those jerseys, I feel like we represent them a little better,” Hayes said. “We know this is a big jersey. We have to prove why we’re worthy of wearing a jersey like this.”
After four seasons with Cock Hockey, Thomas set the new all-time career points record at 101, beating fellow senior winger Mike Bolger's record by just 1 point. This season, Thomas also led the team with 21 assists and 38 points over 27 games played.
“It’s cool, I guess.” Thomas said of the record. “It’s going to get blown out of the water — probably by (freshman center Jake Puskar) or (junior winger Dylan Greeley) or something, but I’ll take it for now.”
The top overall goal scorer this season was Greeley, who scored 24 goals and added 6 assists for 30 total points. Puskar was the top goal and point scorer amongst the team rookies, totaling 22 goals and 15 assists in 27 games.
However, the team came up short in postseason competition. After allowing just two goals over the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the College Hockey South Division II conference tournament, Cock Hockey fell to the University of Tampa in the tournament final 6-2, the team's largest losing margin of the season.
The team also failed to move out of pool play in the national tournament. After a 2-2 tie against Alabama and a 4-0 win against Fordham, the Gamecocks needed to win its next match against Liberty by at least three goals to advance thanks to a goal differential tiebreaker. Although Cock Hockey finished the year with a 6-5 overtime thriller against the Flames, it was not enough to progress to the next round.
Puskar said he and his teammates were motivated to play hard and win for the team's seniors.
“We realized that this was our seniors' last game — especially (senior goalkeeper Liam Gormley), he came to play in goal the last few periods,” Puskar said. “We really wanted to play hard for him so he could win his last game.”
Despite a premature ending to the season, Hayes said he and his teammates are ready to take on what the 2023-2024 season brings.
"In terms of bouncing back, we just (have to be) more hungry next year," Hayes said.