The UA Icecats claimed their first win of the season in a 7-2 rout of Lehigh Saturday night at Tucson Convention Center.
"It's been a long time coming," Icecat head coach Leo Golembiewski said of the win. "We've still got a lot of work to do, but we're starting to put some pucks in the net."
Senior Mickey Meehan, starting at left wing for the first time, led the offensive onslaught with four goals.
"We just came out with it," Meehan said. "With those first two goals, we had the momentum."
Arizona (1-3) jumped to a 2-0 lead and a 20-6 shots-on-goal advantage at the end of the first period on a pair of Meehan goals.
Freshman defenseman Doug Wilson scored his fourth point and first goal of the season early in the second to put the Icecats ahead 3-0.
Less than two minutes later, Meehan completed the hat trick, scoring his third goal of the game on a Don Holtz assist. He followed with his fourth 19 seconds later and UA was up 5-0.
"It feels great, especially after missing last night," Meehan said.
League rules forced Meehan to sit during the Icecats' 5-3 loss to Lehigh Friday night after receiving a game misconduct he received last week against Arizona State.
"We needed to move our feet, we needed to shoot and find our game," he said of UA's earlier performances. "That's what we did tonight."
Lehigh scored goals late in the second and early in the final period, but Arizona matched them with two goals of their own.
Meehan and junior defenseman D.J. Pelletier assisted freshman Craig Irwin in his second collegiate goal.
Defenseman Keith Mitchell rounded the night's scoring with a vicious slap shot, giving UA the 7-2 win.
Golembiewski said he was pleased with his decision to move Meehan from center to left wing and start Irwin at center.
The downside of Saturday's blowout win was the loss of Wilson and fellow defenseman Max Sliwinski, both of whom were ejected in the second with game misconducts for fighting.
As a result, the pair will miss the first game of Arizona's two-game set with No. 6 Weber State.
Sliwinski scored his first goal of the year in Friday night's 5-3 loss to Lehigh, a game Golembiewski said Arizona lost in the second period.
"We didn't play well in the second, and if you're going to have a bad period, you've got to lead by more than 2-1," he said.
UA took its first lead of the season in Friday's first period. David Cwik erased a 1-0 Lehigh lead on an Arizona power play.
Craig Irwin gave the Icecats the lead on a buzzer-beating wraparound, his first UA goal.
"It gave me chills. It felt like my first goal ever," Irwin said.
Arizona's 2-1 lead evaporated in the second. The Mountain Hawks scored three goals in the middle frame and led 4-2 going into the third.
Lehigh scored the third period's first goal before Sliwinski answered.
"That first one is always the hardest. Now that I've got that, I hope there will be more to come," Sliwinski said.
"We're getting close to putting in a 60-minute game," Golembiewski said after the weekend set. "Now we're looking to Weber State."