By Larry Mullenix
Arizona Daily Wildcat
The Arizona club hockey team continued its domination against Arizona State but the opener was closer than it might have wanted.
With 19:46 gone in the third period of Friday's game, Greg Mitchell skated past an ASU defender into the right face-off circle and let a powerful slap shot go that fooled the ASU goaltender and gave the Icecats the 5-4 win.
The Icecats completed the sweep with a 9-0 win over the Ice Devils on Saturday night, extending their consecutive win streak over ASU to 60 games.
"Greg is the guy that we put out there in that situation," Golembiewski said. "Tonight he made me look smart. I am glad to get a win in this type of game."
With over 37 minutes gone in the game, Greg Mitchell scored the first goal of the night and was followed by John Muntz 24 seconds later. The Ice Devils scored with 10 seconds left in the period to make it 2-1.
Arizona State tied the score with just under four minutes gone in the third, but gave up two consecutive goals by Chris Noga Ä the first on a blistered slap shot, the second on a perfectly placed backhander from the front of crease to make it 4-2.
ASU once again came back to tie behind T.J. Pilars' thunderous slap shot which got by UA senior Dennis Hands.
Saturday's game began with a tribute to the five departing seniors: Mitchell, Steve Hutchings, Ricky Pope, Nate Soules, along with Hands.
After the introductions, it was the same old story as many of the games in this series have been: Icecat domination.
Arizona overpowered ASU with superior firepower and were led by solid goaltending from Hands. Hands had 19 saves on the evening before passing the torch to freshman Joel Hilshey who sealed up the shutout, getting five saves in the process.
UA dominated throughout and scored four goals in both the second and third periods to make the final 9-0, and give the Icecats a 26-2 regular season record.