Thanks to a hat trick by senior forward Brian Slugocki, Wildcat hockey upset No. 8 Oakland Friday night by a score of 4-3.
No. 16 Arizona (6-7-0) went up on OU (9-5-2) 3-0 thanks to Slugocki’s three goals and after the Grizzlies tied it up at 3-3, UA won on a late goal. They wrap up the series Saturday night at 7:30 at the Tucson Convention Center with UA employee night.
“I’m ecstatic with the win obviously,” head coach Sean Hogan said. “We didn’t play our best hockey and I don’t think Oakland played their best hockey, but those are the wins you got to get to advance in the standings.”
Oakland is Hogan’s former team and he is best friends with OU head coach Jeremy Bachusz. The win evens Hogan’s record at 1-1 against Bachusz after the Grizzlies won 5-1 last year.
“He’s pretty pumped up right now, you can see he’s pretty ecstatic,” Slugocki said. “Hopefully we can come out [saturday] and get the sweep, so he has the edge over his friend for the next year or whatever.”
Slugocki had four points on the night, getting an assist on the game winning goal by junior forward Andrew Murmes. Slugocki wasn’t sure if he ever had so many points against such good an opponent.
“I’m not sure, this might be the most but I’m just happy we got the W,” Slugocki said. “I think just our line was really clicking, we were kinda controlling the puck down deep a lot and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. My line mates fed me and it’s a good thing to finish.”
Slugocki scored two minutes in, with assists by Murmes and junior forward Ansel Ivens-Anderson.
In the second period, Slugocki scored with 13:09 left, assisted again by Murmes and Ivens-Anderson.
Then about five minutes later, Slugocki scored his third on a power play, assisted by junior defenseman Andrew Basist and Ivens-Anderson.
Oakland got on the scoreboard with 3:41 left in the second and then narrowed UA’s lead to 3-2 with a four on four goal with 1:04 left. In the third period, the Grizzlies tied it up with a goal with 17:29 left.
“You can’t ever let up on Oakland,” Hogan said. “They play so hard and they’re so tenacious, they never stop and they never give up.”
Then with 1:08 left, Murmes scored the game winning goal, off of assists by Ivens-Anderson and Slugocki.
“I’m proud of the way the team battled,” said Slugocki. “It got a little closer towards the end, but that’s heart and we finished with the victory, so I’m pretty proud of the boys right now.”
The Murmes, Ivens-Anderson and Slugocki line scored all of Arizona’s goals.
“They’re a really talented three players and when they’re humming and when they’re working hard, they’re really good,” Hogan said about Murmes, Ivens-Anderson and Slugocki.
