The No. 11 Arizona club hockey team won two of three games at the Ohio Showcase over the weekend, improving the team’s record to 4-1.
Yesterday’s game at 5 a.m. Tucson time game against Western Michigan was the only hiccup on the Icecats’ road trip in Youngstown, Ohio, as the Icecats fell 6-2 behind three Bronco power-play goals.
A trio of defenseman suffered injuries: freshman defenseman Austin Capobianco didn’t even dress against the Broncos after bruising his foot earlier in the weekend, sophomore Kevin West strained his shoulder in the game’s opening minutes and didn’t return and junior Max Sliwinski bruised his elbow but remained in the game.
Sophmore goalie Nicky Boddy was in net for the game and had 23 saves on 29 shots. Boddy was also called for a rare leg-check penalty that caused the Icecats to go into penalty-kill mode for five minutes.
“”That is the first time in my 29 years as a head coach that I have had a goalie get a leg-check penalty,”” said Icecat head coach Leo Golembiewski. “”It looked like the player tripped over the net more than Nick (Boddy) checking him, from my vantage point.””
Despite spending so much time on the penalty kill – the Icecats had 20 penalties in the game – Arizona out-shot WMU 32-29 and managed two shorthanded goals.
The Icecats took their games against Mercyhurst (1-1-1) and Duquesne (1-6-1) earlier in the weekend, 5-2 and 7-4, respectively.
Arizona only committed nine penalties in each game.
Junior goalie Luke Edwall replaced Boddy early in the first period of Saturday’s game against Duquesne after the Dukes took a 2-0 lead, and Edwall responded with 22 saves on 24 shots to get his third win this season.
Sophomore right wing Robbie Nowinski had a hat trick against Duquesne, while junior co-captain Craig Irwin had one goal and a team-leading five assists to record his second game of the season with at least five points.
On Friday, Edwall stopped 25 of the 27 shots he faced against Mercyhurst, and his offensive teammates had 30 shots, with five different players recording a goal, including markers from Nowinski and Irwin and sophomore right wing Matt Disney’s eventual game-winner with 1:25 to play in the second period.
Next weekend will be the Icecats’ last road trip for the semester, when they will take on Saint Louis for a two-game set before coming home to play ASU Nov. 3.
“”I think we still have a lot of question marks to answer,”” Golembiewski said, “”but I’m very pleased with our play. I think we showed we can play with anybody.””
