The No. 22 Arizona men’s club hockey team (22-8-1) closed out its season in emphatic fashion by dismantling Texas Tech (23-13-3) by a combined score of 12-0 in the two-game weekend series at the Tucson Convention Center.
UA head coach Leo Golembiewski said Texas Tech was a pretty good club and enjoyed seeing his squad end the season the way it did despite missing out on the American Collegiate Hockey Association national championships.
“”It was a tale of two seasons,”” Golembiewski said. “”Mediocrity ruled the first semester. We cleaned it up a little bit, made some adjustments to the personnel and the guys came through, so I’m very proud.””
Arizona looked superior to the Red Raiders as was evidenced in the lopsided score and the 118-64 shooting edge they held. At times it looked like Arizona was toying with Texas Tech, especially on the powerplay as Arizona notched three goals on the man advantage over both games.
Even with a man down, the Icecats had their way with the opposition. In Saturday’s game, forward Robbie Nowinski scored on a shorthanded breakaway just 11 seconds after going down a man. The Icecats killed off all 14 of Texas Tech’s chances with an extra skater, including two separate 58-second 5-on-3 opportunities.
Arizona also dominated between the pipes with stellar goaltending as junior Nick Boddy notched a 36-save shutout Friday and senior Luke Edwall made 28 saves for his shutout Saturday. Edwall also made his way on to the score sheet when he tallied an assist on Nowinski’s third goal of Saturday’s game.
“”You can’t complain when you get an assist. It’s just great to have that added on to the last game,”” Edwall said. “”I think I ended (my Icecat career) on a high note with the shutout and I think I had a pretty good game overall.””
Edwall wasn’t the only senior who had a big impact over the course of the 12-0 blowout as each senior earned at least one point. Forward Craig Irwin had four goals in the two games – three of them in the first period of Friday’s contest.
“”Three times I was in the right spot pretty early (in Friday’s game),”” Irwin said. “”I know the guys on my line definitely were (trying to feed me the puck more than usual), they were telling me that before (the game). I did get a few real good passes that I didn’t really have to do much work for the goal.””
Defenseman Max Sliwinski had one assist in each game and forward Scott Marshall had two assists in Saturday’s game. Defensemen Evan Marro tallied a goal and an assist in Friday’s contest and defensemen Devon Brady had an assist on Saturday. To make the last game extra special, every senior was on the ice for the last 3:33 of their final game in an Arizona uniform.
“”It was tiring, but that meant a lot. I tried to come off but (my teammates) wouldn’t let me,”” Irwin said. “”It was a lot of fun. I didn’t really realize what they were doing until all of the sudden I looked behind me and all six seniors were on the ice.””
