Rain may have delayed the World Series, but that won’t stop the No. 11 Arizona Icecats club hockey team’s travel plans to St. Louis this weekend to take on Saint Louis University.
But not every Icecat will make the trip.
Sophomore right wing Robbie Nowinski, who’s tied for the team lead in goals with five, won’t travel because of Friday classes.
“”Robbie’s one of our 4.0 guys, and he just can’t miss three Fridays in a row for his classes if he wants to maintain that, so he’s gonna stay back for that reason,”” said Icecat head coach Leo Golembiewski.
Without their most potent offensive weapon, the Icecats (4-1) will look to others to help fill the scoring gap – which is exactly what junior Craig Irwin, who leads the team with 14 points on five goals and nine assists, is expected to do.
“”Craig’s been doing the scoring, while I’ve been doing the passing,”” said junior co-captain Scott Marshall, who has five assists on the year.
The team’s anchor this season has been junior goalie Luke Edwall, who comes into the weekend with a miniscule 2.02 goals against average and a spotless 3-0 record. He has a 91.9 save percentage in 178 minutes played.
Also not making the trip to St. Louis this weekend is sophomore defensemen Kevin West, who partially separated his shoulder last weekend.
Freshman defenseman Austin Capobianco is a game-time decision for Golembiewski after taking a puck hard to his foot in last weekend’s 6-2 loss to Western Michigan in the Ohio Showcase.
“”We underestimated Western Michigan last weekend, and they stole a game from us,”” Golembiewski said. “”We can’t make that same mistake against St. Louis this weekend.””
The St. Louis University Billikens have had a rocky start to the season with a 0-6 record, and starting goalie Joe Siepka has a 7.90 GAA coming into the game.
In six games this season, St. Louis has only been able to score six goals, produced by only three players: defenseman Blake Busse and forwards Skipper Clark and Justin Petruska.
After returning home, the Icecats open up their home slate against No. 9 ASU Nov. 3-4.
