After going 4-2 on its three-weekend road trip, the No. 11 Arizona men’s club hockey team comes home with a bid to the American College Hockey Association National Tournament in hand, making these last two weekends of the season opportunities for adding some final touches to their play.

The Wildcats start this stretch of the season tonight, matching up against Texas Tech at 7:30 and continuing tomorrow at the same time at the Tucson Convention Center Arena.

“”We knew that our whole second semester came down to these three weekends on the road (at No. 7 Weber State, No. 9 ASU and No. 15 Oklahoma), so we really had to start winning,”” said freshman forward Robbie Nowinski.

The final ACHA rankings will be posted later today, determining the seeds for the ACHA Championship in Westchester, Penn., March 2 through 5.

With a grueling season behind the Icecats, the schedule slows down with four games left to tune up for the tournament.

“”Our practices recently have kind of been chopped up, a lot of skating, a lot of flow drills, maybe some penalty stuff, to stay fresh,”” said senior forward and co-captain Cole Dunlop. “”We’ve just about done everything we can do preparing to play games.””

The Icecats’ two losses on their recent road swing both came on the Friday games of the series after having to travel from Tucson to Utah and Oklahoma on those Fridays. Staying at home, being able to arrive at the ice at a normal time and waking up at a normal time on Friday should help the Icecats regain some of their rhythm.

“”It seems like every time we travel it’s at like 3 a.m., (and) everyone’s just wiped out.”” Dunlop said.

Icecats head coach Leo Golembiewski said the last two weekends of the season should give them an opportunity to give some people on the bench more playing time, but he said he expects the intensity level to be on par with the rest of the season for the games this weekend.