The No. 18 Arizona Icecats have a long road ahead of them – literally.

The men’s club hockey team is driving to Ogden, Utah, to face Weber State (3-10-2) tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30.

“”Everybody has taken long road trips,”” said Arizona head coach Leo Golembiewski. “”Will it affect us? Yeah. It’s a lot easier to fly out 6 or 7 in the morning for an hour(-long) flight, but that’s the economics of the sport.””

The Icecats (13-7-1) left Tucson last night around midnight for the 13-hour, 900-mile drive to face Weber State.

This will be the second time this season the teams will face each other for a two-game series. The Icecats swept Weber State 7-4 and 4-2 in Tucson to open December.

Arizona is coming off a weekend sweep over Scranton that Golembiewski said should give the team some momentum heading into this road trip.

The coach also called the next six games Arizona’s most important of the season, as it will determine its place in the ACHA National Championships in March.

The Icecats say they plan on going 11-0 to end the season after finishing last semester 10-6-1.

“”Our whole team thought we were a lot better than we (were) before the season, but (then) we got a reality check towards the end of the first semester,”” said goaltender Nick Boddy.

“”But I feel like we’re coming together and playing well, and, hopefully, we can take that into the next six games and do well.””

Boddy will get the nod tonight, and Golembiewski will make a game-time decision between the sophomore and junior Luke Edwall before tomorrow’s game.

Weber State has struggled of late, winning only two games since last facing Arizona, and the Wildcats could turn out to be the perfect recipe for an Arizona team searching to continue its winning streak after a sub-standard first half of the season.

“”We put ourselves in this hole and now we have to get ourselves out of it,”” said center Matt Conover. “”And it starts this weekend.””