The Arizona men’s hockey team swept their opening series of the season against San Diego State University in the Tucson Convention Center. The Wildcats won games on Thursday and Friday to start off the season 2-0.
Game 1:
Arizona quickly got out to a 1-0 lead with a power play goal by defenseman Nicholas Chiocca. Forward Michael Pizzo would double the lead with a goal a couple of minutes later. The team led 4-0 after the first period with a goal by Will Josephson and Pizzo getting his second.
The second period saw more stellar plays by the Wildcats’ offense. Sam Myers, John Baird, Nicholas Chiocca and Brian Ericsson all found the back of the net while Hadyn Gould continued his great play in net allowing zero goals through two periods.
In the third period, San Diego finally broke through and got a goal. Pizzo then got his third goal for the hat trick with 6:03 left in the game. Chaos broke out shortly after the goal with multiple fighting misconduct penalties on both teams. San Diego was rewarded with a four on three power play and was able to get two more goals. However, it was not nearly enough as the Wildcats still won 9-3.
“Always feels good to get a win […] some things we definitely need to clean up on film and we need to be a lot smarter at the end of a game like that,” said head coach Chad Berman after the victory.
Game 2:
Arizona started game two of the series with freshman Adam Stevenson in the net for the Wildcats. Forward Dylan Walker got the first scoring and freshman Owen Vilhauer added another score later to put the Wildcats up 2-0. Justin Hughes got another to make it 3-0, but San Diego finally answered with a goal of their own to make it 3-1 Arizona. Brian Ericsson got his second goal in two games, which extended the Wildcat lead to 4-1. Hughes then got his second goal of the game to extend the lead to 5-1.
San Diego got a late goal which made it a 5-2 final. Stevenson showed out in his first Arizona start allowing only two goals throughout the whole game.
Looking Ahead:
Arizona’s next game will be on October 4 against Arizona State at 7:30 pm. It will be a three game series that will end on October 12 with the last two games being played in Tempe.
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