The Arizona Wildcats hockey team started off its season on the right foot with a win 2-1 against rival ASU Friday evening at the Tucson Convention Center. The Wildcats were led by sophomore goalie Anthony Ciurro, who counted 29 saves for the victory.
Head coach Chad Berman made it clear how much Ciurro means to the team.
“On nights like this you need your goaltender to step up. One goal on 29 saves, we’ll take that all night,” Berman said.
Arizona fell behind at the start of the game but scored two goals in the second period to come away with a win.
The Wildcats started off the game rather slowly through the first period, as they only had six shots on goal at the end of the first. Meanwhile, ASU fired away 14 shots on goal, but Ciurro stepped up and did not allow any of those shots to get in the net.
The second period was where most of the action took place. The Sun Devils started the second period sneaking in a goal past Ciurro just 35 seconds in.
“You just gotta have a short memory, I know the boys would get it done for me. Biggest thing is having a short memory and getting back to the game,” Ciurro said.
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With the second period came the Wildcats’ time to unleash on the goal, as Bayley Marshall scored on a power-play at the 7:54 mark. The goal was set up by the assists of Ethan Stahlhuth and Chris Westlund. Westlund then found himself with a goal of his own at the 14:12 mark in the second period. The goal was set up by Josh Larson of the Wildcats.
The Wildcats did show some rust during the game as Berman was not too pleased with the number of penalties the team had throughout the game. The team finished the night with five different penalties, including one on Berman for too many men on the bench. The number of penalties were seen by Berman as a learning curve for a team getting adjusted to the new season.
“[It was] not a really clean game. I mentioned it on the ice, we’ve only had six practices, so about what I expected,” Berman said.
Despite the number of penalties by the Wildcats, they were able to prevail from their rival, something that left Wildcat fans with smiles on their faces. Ciurro said it means a lot for the Wildcats to get going on the right track.
“It’s huge, especially since we play them tomorrow. We sent a message tonight: It’s always a big game,” Ciurro said.
The crowd was certainly something that will play to the Wildcats advantage when they’re at home, as the electricity of the building was felt in this 2-1 victory. Arizona will look to continue that trend into Saturday evening’s game against ASU.
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