It was a case of the good, the bad and the ugly for the Arizona men’s club hockey team in its overtime win against ASU last night at the Tucson Convention Center.

After being down for 50 minutes of the game, Arizona rallied late to force overtime and won after a series of good, patient passing to set up a Matt Conover goal 2:15 into the overtime period, to give the Icecats a hard earned 5-4 victory.

“”We laid it all on the line,”” UA head coach Leo Golembiewski said. “”I told them exactly how they should feel letting them come into our barn with nationals a possibility and showing no intensity.””

And the Icecat response was a good one. Even though the majority of the Arizona goals came on fluke-type plays, forward Robbie Nowinski said that’s a byproduct of working hard, and the Icecats had to work extra hard to squeak out a win against a team it has played three times in seven days.

Things started out bad for Arizona (17-8-1) as it fell behind halfway through the first period after ASU (9-15-2) scored on a weird play. The puck bounced kindly to an onrushing Sun Devil player just leaving the penalty box creating an odd man rush and an
easy score.

In the second period, it turned ugly for the Icecats in an action-packed 20 minutes.

Arizona tried to get things going offensively, but all the early action took place in front of the Icecat goal. After Arizona’s Jake Allison was called for a high sticking penalty just 1:42 into the second period, ASU capitalized on a shot from the left point that took a slight deflection and beat UA goalie Nick Boddy low and to his left, extending the ASU lead to two.

Less than five minutes later, an Arizona pass was intercepted near their defensive zone and Derek Maire tallied his second goal of the night – again on a deflection – to make the score 3-0 ASU.

Arizona finally got on the score sheet with 11:30 left in the second period thanks to a powerplay goal on a slap shot from the right point by defender Max Sliwinski.

ASU snatched the momentum away with a series of quick passes resulting in a 4-1 ASU lead with 4:35 to go in the second period.

But that wasn’t the end of the scoring as the next goal came on a very odd shorthanded play for Arizona. Forward Jordan Schupan scooped up a loose puck and found captain Scott Marshall who flipped the puck toward the net. Somehow, it knucklepucked its way past Kyle Bronsteen’s right shoulder and made the score 4-2 in favor of the Icecats.

Arizona needed to make some changes to try and salvage the game, and Golembiewski made them right away as he pulled Boddy for Luke Edwall to start the third period and moved defender Evan Marro to left wing hoping to provide a spark in addition to juggling the
line combinations.

Arizona struggled to find a grove early in the period, but finally showed some patience at the end and Nowinski socred two goals in the last 3:12 of the period – both assisted by Matt Conover and Sliwinski – and that patience carried over to overtime and proved to be the driving force behind the Icecat win.

“”We always have good third periods,”” Sliwinski said. “”We were able to dig down deep and we pulled this one out.””