By
Chris Suffecool
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Saint Louis responsible for both blemishes on UA's roster
The Arizona Icecats' 15-game winning streak came to an end this past weekend when Saint Louis University managed a 2-2 tie with UA in the team's first game following a month-long break.
If any team seems to have Arizona (18-1-1) figured out, it is Saint Louis (5-11-2). The Billikens are responsible for the Icecats' lone early season defeat and this past Friday's 2-2 stalemate.
The parallels between Arizona's loss and their tie are similar.
In UA's loss to Saint Louis on Oct. 22, the Icecats suffered from a lack of shooting precision. While UA put 40 shots on goal, the team only managed to net one goal.
This past Friday night, head coach Leo Golembiewski's team managed to score just twice despite taking 56 shots on goal.
According to Kyle Neary, the game the Icecats dropped to Saint Louis earlier this year weighed heavily in the minds of Icecat players.
"We didn't want the same thing to happen where we got millions and millions of shots but didn't bury the puck" Neary said.
Unfortunately for the Icecats, that was exactly what happened.
"We weren't making the best of our shots" Neary said. "Sometimes when you're out there, you don't think about where you're shooting. You don't take that extra second to look up and see that opening, you just fire it instead."
Back on October 22, the Icecats trailed Saint Louis 2-1 and could not get the game equalizer.
On Friday night, Arizona found themselves in a 2-0 hole early in the game.
Saint Louis forward Jordan Janes scored the first goal of the game at 2:02 of the first period. The Billikens added another goal only 33 seconds into the second period, and the Icecats found themselves trailing by two.
The Icecats then turned to senior forward "Dirty" Ed Carfora to help them pull into a tie. Carfora took a pass from Joe Boysen and beat Saint Louis goaltender Casey Martin to pull the Icecats within a single at 14:27 of the second period.
Carfora then did it again, this time unassisted, beating Martin at 18:01 of the second period to tie the game at two.
The goalies then dominated the rest of the way. Martin and Icecat goalie Jason Morgan turned away every shot sent their way during both the third period and the five-minute overtime session.
Senior forward Paul Dorn was impressed with teammate Jason Morgan's play between the pipes.
"Morgie played great in there - he kept us in it" Dorn said. "It's great to see Jason play like that. He's played like that pretty much the whole season."
Dorn said that the team's ability to rally from the 2-0 deficit made the game nearly a moral victory.
"It definitely felt good to know that we could come back from a deficit" Dorn said. "In our minds we felt we should have won that game. We played well enough to win. It was good to get a tie - at least it's not a loss."
The Icecats made sure there would be no tie when the faced the Billikens again this past Saturday night for the second game in the two game series.
Kyle McNeilance scored just 15 seconds into the game, and the Icecats never looked back. They added four more goals and never trailed, ending the night with a 5-2 victory.
The Icecats outshot Saint Louis, 47-31.
