No. 18 Colorado State spoiled an injury-plagued No. 10 Arizona hockey’s weekend, pulling off an upset two-game series sweep in the Tucson Convention Center.
The pair of losses dropped the UA’s record (7-7-0, 3-3 WCHL) back to .500.
Before Friday’s 5-3 loss, the last time the Wildcats fell to the Rams was Feb. 12, 2010, when Colorado State was an ACHA Division II team. On Saturday night, CSU prevailed 3-2.
Arizona lost two key forwards to injury over the weekend in their captain, senior Ansel Ivens-Anderson, and junior Michael Ferreira. Senior goaltender Steven Sisler pulled his groin and had to leave in the middle of the second period of Friday’s loss as well.
All three will be out for at least a couple of weeks, according to UA head coach Sean Hogan.
“We’re missing six guys; it was a tough weekend for us,” Hogan said, “but tough weekends happen and we just got to make sure we get out there and have a good week of practice.”
Throughout the entirety of the weekend, Arizona was frustrated with the refereeing. In total, the team racked up 21 penalties, killing 17 of them. Ivens-Anderson, senior forward Andrew Murmes and freshman forward Alex O’Dea all were ejected from the game Friday.
“I think most people here would agree the ref wasn’t calling a good game [Friday],” Ivens-Anderson said. “We were pretty upset with a lot of the calls and figured it was time to do something about it to try and get the team going. But it was really just trying to get them [the refs] to wake up a little bit.”
With sophomore goalie Dylon Hojnacki currently hampered by a concussion and Sisler now out, the team had to turn to freshman Garrett Patrick to fill in for the remainder of Friday’s contest and all 60 minutes of Saturday’s.
Patrick, who made his college hockey debut Thursday, accumulated a total 47 saves in relief on 52 shots faced against the Rams.
“The level of play was very fast, but I felt comfortable and I think I’ll be ready from here on out,” Patrick said.
Colorado State junior Alex Steidler was practically a brick wall in net. Steidler, who played for Hogan on the junior A Yellowstone Quake squad in the 2009-10 season, stopped 100 of 105 shots against him in the series.
“The amount of saves the kid [Steidler] made over the weekend was just incredible,” Hogan said.
Arizona is expected to practice on the ice six days this week, the most it has been able to all season, according to Hogan.
This weekend, Arizona faces No. 2 Minot State (13-0-1) at home in a two-game series.
—Follow Joey Putrelo @JoeyPutrelo
