CHRIS CODUKO/ Arizona Daily Wildcat Sophomore Don Holtz eyes the puck and an Arizona State defender. Holtz and the Icecats split the weekend series with the Sun Devils.

After a promising start to the weekend, the No. 6 Arizona Icecats had to settle for a split in their weekend series with No. 18 Arizona State.

The highly anticipated series was all it was billed to be, as both games were riddled with explosive offense and hard-hitting defense, with the occasional bit of controversy laced in as well.

The Icecats took Friday night's game by a score of 7-3, paced by senior captain Dave Loftus' two first-period goals.

ASU jumped out on top early, with a goal by captain Ian Smith just over four minutes into the game, but the Icecats took control shortly after when Loftus and sophomore forward Mickey Meehan scored 39 seconds apart midway through the first period.

Emotions boiled over late in the third period when head coach Leo Golembiewski was ejected for arguing with the officials. Associate coach Brian Meehan took over lead duties behind the bench, and helped the Icecats increase their unbeaten streak against the Sun Devils to 10 games, including nine victories dating back to last season.

The craziness continued when Sun Devil junior John Baker was given a 10-minute misconduct penalty for unsportsman-like conduct, along with a two-minute roughing penalty.

Because of the misconduct penalty, ASU junior Greg D'Amico was to serve the roughing penalty for Baker. However, after play resumed, D'Amico stood up on his seat in the penalty box and reached over the glass, dumping the contents of a water bottle onto the nearby crowd. D'Amico was then given a 10-minute misconduct penalty himself, requiring the Sun Devils to send senior Jason Clements to the penalty-box to kill the remaining time on the original roughing call to Baker.

Fans waited to see if the conclusion of the weekend set would outmatch the first installment, but not only were the fans disappointed with the lack of action, but the Icecats left the ice upset ÷ literally.

With the Sun Devils up 6-4 late in the third period, Loftus again had the hot hand for the Icecats, scoring a power-play goal to bring the Icecats to within one.

Despite a flurry of opportunities in the game's waning minutes, the Icecats could not manage to tie the game, losing for the first time to Arizona State in 11 matchups, while ending their six-game winning streak as well.

"It was a situation where we didn't play real well early," Golembiewski said. "But we came out and showed a lot of character in the last 20 minutes of the game."

Freshman center Cole Dunlop had a solid weekend for the Icecats as well, notching goals on both nights, increasing his team-leading mark to 11 on the season.

Senior Matt Naylor continued to shine for the Icecats as well, tallying a goal and five assists, increasing his team-leading point total to 28, through 13 games.

Loftus said that ASU's physical style could have given them an advantage in the latter parts of both games.

"We don't really like to play that kind of hockey," Loftus said. "We know we have to get used to it though. We have to use the loss as motivation because we are going to be playing ASU four more times."

Golembiewski added that he was pleased with the team's first semester of play, as the Icecats now take a four-week break from action, returning again on Jan. 3 and Jan. 4 against visiting Saint Louis at the Tucson Convention Center.