SCOTTSDALE – The maintenance workers brought the shovels while the No. 11 Arizona club hockey team brought the brooms, as the Icecats swept the No. 9 Sun Devils off the ice at the Alltel Ice Den in Scottsdale over the weekend.
Arizona head coach Leo Golembiewski earned his 550th career win with Saturday night’s victory.
The Icecats (16-10) made their case for a birth to the American Collegiate Hockey Association Championships as they paid back ASU (15-12) – winners of four of five previous meetings between the teams this season – with resounding 4-3 and 5-2 victories Friday and Saturday, respectively.
After splitting time in the nets between freshman goaltender Nick Boddy and sophomore Luke Edwall, Golembiewski went the distance with Edwall, and by late in the third period Saturday, chants of his name could be heard throughout the arena.
“”You can’t help but been impressed with our goaltending,”” Golembiewski said. “”Luke Edwall was stellar in the nets.””
After taking the hard-fought 4-3 victory from ASU Friday, which saw senior forward Cole Dunlop take advantage of his last regular-season series against the Sun Devils with two goals and two assists, the Icecats filled up the net early Saturday.
After goals from freshman forward Matt Conover and an unassisted goal from sophomore forward Scott Marshall, the Icecats scored for the third time less than seven minutes into the game, with Robbie Nowinski scoring the first of his two goals at the 13:25 mark.
Arizona State head coach Mike De Angelis had seen enough from senior goaltender Colin Cook, and promptly yanked him in favor of freshman Herb Collins after Nowinski’s third goal made it 3-0. By that point it was too late, as the early hole would prove to be too much for the shell-shocked Sun Devils.
“”We made some adjustments,”” Golembiewski said. “”We changed all three lines last weekend after the loss to Weber State. We did a lot of mixing and matching the last two weekends, and you gotta be happy with three of four on the road.””
ASU pulled as close as 3-2, after scoring twice in little more than two minutes towards the end of the first period, but the Icecats responded, with junior forward Dave Cwik scoring on a short-sided breakaway goal with 2:08 left in the second, and Nowinski adding insult to injury in the third, netting the Icecats fifth and final goal of the game.
While the players and contingent of fans, one of whom “”wouldn’t let my dog go to ASU,”” were thrilled with the victories, Golembiewski said the Icecats’ merit was based on more than just beating their biggest rivals.
“”When we started this program a long time ago … we weren’t gonna base our success on ASU, we were going to base our success on what we do nationally,”” he said. “”Our teams down through the years have been remarkable – we’ll be going to Nationals for the 21st time this year.””
With the last leg of a six-game road trip, No. 15 Oklahoma, on deck next weekend, Golembiewski talked about the team’s new motto that they will take with them the rest of the year.
“”‘A Reckoning’ was our saying at the beginning of the year,”” he said. “”We switched that to ‘Get it Done.'””
