Just one goal separated the No. 20 UA Icecats and No. 6 Weber State Wildcats in a pair of penalty-filled games Friday and Saturday.
Arizona became familiar with the penalty box, serving the equivalent of two periods there in Friday's 5-5 overtime tie and Saturday's 6-5 loss.
"The officiating was atrocious," Icecat head coach Leo Golembiewski said. "Our guys played with incredible heart when they weren't spending the whole game in the penalty box."
Weber State capitalized on UA's misfortune, scoring six of their 11 goals on power plays.
The Icecats fought back from a wide deficit Saturday night, but fell 6-5 to the visiting Wildcats.
Weber scored the first period's lone goal before tacking on two goals in the second.
Arizona faced a 5-on-3 disadvantage early in the middle period, but solid penalty-kill defense and tenacious network from senior goaltender Bryan Aronchick prevented a Weber score.
It wasn't until Arizona suffered another penalty almost immediately after killing the 3-5 WSU advantage that the Wildcats scored.
Weber opened the door for a UA comeback less than a minute after taking its 3-0 lead.
WSU's Joe Gathers was ejected midway through the second period with a game misconduct for a check from behind, giving UA its first power play of the night.
The Icecats took full advantage of the five-minute major penalty.
Freshman center Craig Irwin began a four-goal Arizona onslaught with a one-timer, power-play goal on an assist from Anthony Capone.
A half-minute later, Meehan and junior Jerald Zivic assisted senior Tim Wochok in another power play goal.
Meehan rounded out the power play and tied WSU at three with a wraparound goal. Mike Pelletier and Don Holtz made the assist.
Arizona took its first lead of the night with four minutes left in the second when Holtz scored on a breakaway.
Weber reclaimed the lead minutes later with a pair of goals. An early third-period goal put the Wildcats ahead 6-4 and the game out of reach for Arizona despite a late goal on a Doug Wilson slapshot from just within the blue line which brought the contest to its 6-5 final score.
Not only did the Icecats lose Friday's contest they also lost the services of junior defenseman D.J. Pelletier, who suffered a possible broken hand Saturday night.
UA faced just the opposite Friday night when they led most of the way and Weber State was forced to come from behind.
Up 4-3 late in the second period, an Arizona goal was negated when the puck ricocheted off an Icecat player in the crease.
The retracted goal proved to be the difference between an upset victory and a tie.
"That goal would've put us up 5-3," UA captain Mickey Meehan said. He added, "It's up to the refs to make that decision."
"We didn't get going right away, for that I squarely take the blame," Golembiewski said.
Golembiewski said the Icecats have performance problems that need to be exorcized before Arizona reaches its full potential.
"We're going with the team concept. Anybody not playing to his potential will sit," he said.
The Icecats go on the road for the first time Nov. 12 and 13 when they head to Lubbock, Texas, for two games with Texas Tech.
Meehan said he is excited to play on the road and the next matchup.
"We've just got to put this one behind us," he said.