The No. 18 Arizona Icecats face a “”do or die”” situation in their weekend road series against No. 13 ASU.

Arizona (13-9-1) enters as a bubble team for the ACHA National Tournament, which runs Feb. 28-Mar. 4.

“”If we don’t sweep (ASU) this weekend we probably won’t be going to Nationals,”” said Icecats head coach Leo Golembiewski . “”Because we all know it’s going to be extremely difficult to sweep a very good Oklahoma team in Oklahoma.””

The Icecats and Sun Devils (11-11-2) have had a tumultuous season series, with each team winning twice. ASU walked out on the Dec. 2 game at Tucson Conventional Center because of a controversial game-tying goal by the Icecats and consequently forfeited.

The Icecats will still be without points leader Matt Conover, a sophomore forward, who is out indefinitely with a serious knee injury.

Arizona is coming off a disappointing two-game series at Weber State in which it was outscored 12-5.

“”I thought St. Louis was a good enough wake-up call for us,”” Golembiewski said of the Icecats’ series split Jan. 12-13. “”If that didn’t do it, I don’t know when it will happen.””

Golembiewski said he has been disappointed with the team’s lack of effort and inconsistency this semester.

The players, too, are noticing some languor.

“”I haven’t seen a lot of those 2-0 or 2-1 breakaways from last weekend (Weber St.) in practice, usually our forwards bring it down and pass it a hundred times before shooting, so I have time to get in position,”” said sophomore goaltender Nick Boddy.

– Savir Punia