The Arizona hockey team rebounded from a disappointing series opener to beat San Diego State 9-2 on Saturday night.

No. 17 Arizona (10-9-0) moved back over .500 with a sweep of the Division II Aztecs (5-10-1). On Friday the Wildcats beat SDSU 5-3.

“It was a better effort for sure,” head coach Sean Hogan said.

Junior forward Ansel Ivens-Anderson led the way for the Wildcats with a hat trick. The NCAA Division I transfer also had four assists, to earn seven points in Saturday’s game.

“That was good, their whole line put up points,” Hogan said.

“[Friday] night they were minus two and [Saturday] night they said they wanted to play better and they did, and it’s good to see other guys get goals too.”

Arizona’s last hat trick was by senior forward Brian Slugocki on Nov. 9 against then-No. 8 Oakland. Ivens-Anderson, who didn’t play last year after transferring from New Hampshire, said he doesn’t know when his last hat trick was.

“I’m happy, it’s a credit to the linemates,” Ivens-Anderson said.

“The whole game we were dominating. Slugo[cki] and [Andrew] Murmes had a bunch of points, so it was a good game for us and the team in general.”

Freshman goalie Dylan Hojnacki made his Arizona debut with 23 saves.

“I had a pretty bad goal that first shot, but I got the jitters out and I was good to go from there,” Hojnacki said.

The Aztecs scored first, with 11:40 left in the first, but Ivens-Anderson scored a minute and half later on an assist by Slugocki and freshman defenseman Kyle Ambrosie.

A couple minutes later, Ivens-Anderson scored on a power play assisted by Slugocki and senior defenseman Nick Stolz.

“It shouldn’t have been that close, we wanted to come out and have a statement win,” Ivens-Anderson said

In the second period, junior forward Andrew Murmes started Arizona’s flurry of five goals with a short-handed score after eight and a half minutes. Freshman defenseman Bryan Drazner had the assist.

With 10:05 left, Stolz scored a power play goal via assists by Slugocki and Ivens-Anderson.

San Diego State responded with a power play goal a couple minutes later.

With 5:56 left, Murmes scored his second goal of the night, assisted by Ivens-Anderson and Slugocki.

Ivens-Anderson completed his hat trick on an assist by Stolz and sophomore defenseman Shane Gleason.

In the third period, sophomore forward Justin Gaudino scored at the 8:28 mark, assisted by Drazner and Ivens-Anderson.

With 5:42 left in the game, Slugocki capped the scoring with assists from Ivens-Anderson and Stolz.

“Nine goals is a really good game and we really needed that after [Friday night],” Ivens-Anderson said.