MICHAEL STRICKLER/Arizona Daily Wildcat UA freshman forward Scott Marshall has brought what head coach Leo Golembiewski calls "a youthful exuberance" to an Icecat team that has struggled at times this season.

Ask Scott Marshall who his favorite hockey players are, and he'll tell you Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull and Steve Yzerman, three of the National Hockey League's all-time great centers.

Watch him on the ice for the UA Icecats, and one will see that he has patterned his game after these legends.

Marshall, a native of Houston, has brought to the Icecats what head coach Leo Golembiewski calls "a youthful exuberance."

Spend some time with Marshall and you can understand exactly what Golembiewski means.

A hockey player since age 5, Marshall has an undeniable love of hockey, which Golembiewski said has carried over to his teammates.

Golembiewski first contacted him last year while playing for the SoCal Bombers at a Junior Nationals tournament in Phoenix.

"I immediately fell in love with the place and the program," Marshall said of his visit to UA.

Upon his arrival to Tucson, Scott said he was welcomed into the program rather quickly.

"It's hard to prove your status as a freshman," he said. "But the upperclassmen have been so much help."

In the season opening game Oct. 25 against Arizona State, Marshall went down with a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee after the blade of his skate broke.

He bounced back quickly, returning to the ice Nov. 12 in the first of two wins on the road in St. Louis.

"Getting back on the ice, I was just on fire," Marshall said. "I was ready to play. Getting back out there was a huge monkey off my back."

In his first full series, he scored a goal and dished an assist. However, Golembiewski said it was the things Marshall did that weren't on the stat sheet that helped UA to its first sweep of the 2004-'05 season.

In his return to the Tucson Convention Center Friday, Scott started in Arizona's first line at right wing and was a big part in UA's 3-2 upset of No. 7 ASU.

"He has a positive attitude, and that resonates on the ice," Golembiewski said. "He's the kind of player who can back up his excitement with ability and performance. You have to approach the game at any level with the same exuberance you did as a kid, and Scott does that. He has fun when he plays, and he knows fun is achieving, fun is hard work, and fun is execution."

Marshall's exuberance will be a huge part of the Icecats' pursuit of a championship in the American Collegiate Hockey

The Icecats head coach said this year's Icecats team has the caliber of players to achieve greatness, including a championship.

"They're all great players," de leaders like senior forward Mickey Meehan and defenseman Keith Mitchell and junior defenseman Mike Pelletier, the sky is the limit for this freshman and the rest of the Icecat squad.

Arizona has the winter break to prepare for the home stretch toward the ACHA National Tournament in March.

The Icecats hit the ice again Jan. 7 against the same St. Louis team Marshall helped sweep, and if he has anything to say about it, UA will do so again.