Saturday afternoon against Army, No. 8 Duke struggled to get into the game early, and was shut out entirely in the fourth quarter.
But in between, the Blue Devils used two offensive outbursts to subdue the Black Knights (6-8) in a 10-6 victory at a crowded Koskinen Stadium.
After falling behind 2-0 nine minutes in, Duke (10-3) used a five-goal run in the second quarter to take control of the game. Three straight tallies in the third period gave the Blue Devils a five-goal advantage and put the contest beyond the Black Knights' reach.
"I thought this was a very dangerous game," head coach John Danowski said. "Army is much better than their record and has four or five one-goal losses.... I don't think we played poorly as much as Army played really well, especially defensively."
The Black Knight defense particularly slowed the Blue Devil attack in the game's opening exchanges. Duke managed just two shots in the first 10 minutes, and trailed 2-1 at the end of the first period.
In the second quarter, though, the Blue Devils used strong midfield play and quality finishing to put themselves in command.
Goals from Mike Catalino-who scored his first career hat-trick-and C.J. Costabile tied the matchup at three, and attackman Max Quinzani gave his team the lead after receiving the ball at midfield and diving all the way to the net. Two more notches from Catalino and a second from Quinzani put the Blue Devils ahead 7-3 at that point, a lead they would never relinquish.
Quinzani scored twice on the day, giving him a team-high 35 on the season.
"That run was just a function of us being able to clear well," he said. "I got a freebie right out front and when goals start happening like that, it makes things easy."
Duke was able to keep possession for most of the period largely because of its success in the faceoff circle, where senior Sam Payton and the rest of the midfield won 15 of 20 draws on the day. The Blue Devils also controlled more ground balls than the Black Knights and turned the ball over less frequently in the midfield.
"It was a grinder of a win," Danowski said. "Sam Payton and the faceoff team were great. We won 75 percent of the faceoffs, which is phenomenal, and that's just being tough."
Duke put the game away for good in the third stanza. After a scoreless first six minutes, redshirt freshman Justin Turri capitalized in front of the net. And two minutes later, after Quinzani had saved the ball from going out of bounds on the right sideline, Will McKee found an opening in the middle of the attacking zone and scored.
Zach Howell's unassisted strike with 6:36 left in the period closed Duke's run and gave it a lead that a stagnant Army offense failed to threaten the rest of the way.
Saturday's win was the Blue Devils' fourth in a row, and sets them up well for an ACC Tournament semifinal matchup with No. 2 Virginia Friday in Chapel Hill. Duke earned its best win of the season last weekend when it defeated the Cavaliers, 15-10, at Koskinen.
"Some people think Virginia just had a bad day and it was a fluke, and maybe it was," Danowski said. "But we get a chance to show that that's not the case."
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