When you do the same old things, you will see the same old results, as was the case for the Arizona club hockey team over the weekend. The Icecats’ continued lack of discipline and defense resulted in a winless weekend against DePaul.
After a high scoring 9-6 loss on Friday night at the Tucson Convention Center, Arizona (2-5) came out with more intensity Saturday, but the end result was the same: another loss of 2-1 to the Blue Demons.
“”We’re inexperienced on defense and it showed all weekend,”” said head coach Leo Golembiewski. “”This is a tough weekend, but maybe it’s a wakeup call for us.””
In the first period on Saturday, an assist from Jordan Schupan to Robbie Nowinski in the front of the net gave the Icecats a 1-0 lead going into intermission – a big difference from Friday, when the Icecats trailed 3-1 after the first period.
The Blue Demons controlled the puck throughout the second period and out-shot Arizona 27-7. In a period in which both teams went back and forth without any quality scoring chances, there was one incident that changed the entire game.
As Arizona defenseman Zack Stommen fell to the ice with a DePaul player with 6:34 left in the period, Stommen kicked the DePaul player in the head with his skate. The result was a scuffle between the two teams and a game disqualification of Stommen and the DePaul player.
“”He’s a tremendous kid and one our best defensemen ever,”” Golembiewski said of Stommen, “”but when you play this game you have to play 60 minutes for yourself and for your teammates.””
UA defenseman Zach Cherney was also penalized for roughing in a separate altercation with a DePaul player which resulted in a player’s helmet being tossed in the stands.
The Icecats were charged with a five-minute misconduct penalty and a roughing penalty that gave DePaul a four-on-three advantage.
With 6:08 remaining in the second period, the Blue Demons capitalized on the power play to tie the game 1-1. Less than three minutes later, they scored again from the same misconduct penalty to take the 2-1 lead into intermission.
After several scoring chances in the last 30 seconds of the final period, the Icecats were unable to score and lost to a Division II team for the second straight night.
“”It’s devastating to lose these two games,”” said UA goaltender Nick Boddy. “”We tried to put (Friday) night behind us but we just got outplayed for a number of reasons.””
Though DePaul is a Division II team, it showed far more aggression than Arizona the entire weekend.
“”D-I and D-II status is a matter of financial status, it has nothing to do with talent,”” said DePaul co-head coach Tony Capone. “”We were just on a mission and our kids worked hard for this.””
The UA was out-shot 97-60 in the two games against De Paul and played without defensemen Austin Capobianco, who was suspended for the weekend for what coach Golembiewski called a “”team matter.””
The Icecats also played Saturday without forward Matt Conover who injured his knee in the second period of Friday’s game, although Golembiewski wouldn’t confirm which knee was injured. The head coach said he was uncertain about Conover’s availability this Friday against the University of Colorado.
“”We need come to together as team and forget about the stuff that is said by everybody in order to do what we know we can do,”” Boddy said.
