The Arizona club hockey team outplayed its opponent Saturday, but the inability to finish resulted in a 3-2 loss against Colorado in a shootout and another winless weekend at the Tucson Convention Center.
With 6:28 remaining in the final period, Cody Morin scored on an assist from Robbie Nowinski in the front of net. At that point, the Icecats took a 2-1 lead -ÿtheir first lead of the weekend.
Just when it seemed the Icecats were on the brink of getting their first home win of the season, they allowed the Buffaloes to score on a wide-open breakaway with 3:54 remaining in the third period. Arizona head coach Leo Golembiewski, who usually doesn’t let his emotions show, was irate after his team allowed the Buffaloes to tie the game late in the period.
“”We’re down the entire game then we finally get the lead, now we have to make Colorado make a play,”” said Golembiewski. “”We just can’t cough it up in the neutral zone, and let them score on a 2-on-0 breakaway.””
The game came down to a shootout and the Icecats were unable to score a goal, which could be attributed to not having their top goal scorers, forwards Robbie Nowinski and Matt Conover.
Nowinski was unable to participate in the shootout because he received a two minute roughing penalty after getting into a scuffle with a Colorado player in the last 41 seconds of overtime.
“”That guy came at me and just took me out the game,”” 0Nowinski said. “”I would have personally fought him, but I wanted to shoot in the shootout; they ended (up) putting me in the penalty box anyways which sucks.””
Conovor was unable to play for the third straight game with a left knee injury and it is uncertain whether he will play next week.
“”He’s one of the best players to ever play here,”” Nowinski said of Conover. “”He has a huge impact on our scoring effort, and without him we only had two goals.””
In the first game Friday, the Icecats allowed five goals in the second period in a game they ended up losing 6-5, despite rallying late from 6-3 in the third period.
The Icecats showed improvements on defense on Saturday, stemming from defensemen Zack Stommen’s return from a one-game suspension.
The Icecats (2-7) will attempt to get their first home win of the season and end a four-game losing streak when they play Colorado State this weekend at the TCC.
“”We played well … but next week is important for us to keep building,”” Nowinski said.