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By Shoshana Burrus
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 8, 1996
The Arizona Icecats will host a physical Rhode Island team tonight that is eager to improve on its 2-5 record.Then again, how can an ice hockey team not be physical?
Rhode Island comes to the Tucson Convention Center to face off with the undefeated Icecats at 7:30 tonight. The teams will meet again tomorrow night at 7:30. Both games will be broadcast by KTKT (AM 990).
The last time the teams met was in 1990, when the Icecats swept the two-game series, defeating Rhode Island 5-1 and 2-1 at the TCC.
Still, Icecat coach Leo Golembiewski said Rhode Island has always been a tough team.
"They're always in the top 12 to 15 teams in the country," he said. "And in the Northeast, they are one of the top three or four teams."
Rhode Island's history, however, may not be held up by this season's club. With a record of 2-5 so far this season and a team comprising 16 underclassmen, the Rams could be in trouble.
Rhode Island coach Joe Augustine said his team has no expectations going into the weekend because of the youth on the team.
"We'll have to see how they acclimate themselves to the situation," Augustine said.
It won't be easy for the young Rams to face the fans at the TCC, and Augustine said it is hard to say what will happen.
"Hopefully we'll go in and have fun," he said. "When they're that young it's hard to tell."
The Icecats' roster is nearly as young with 14 underclassmen. The teams match up just as equally in experience, too, with both having four seniors playing for them.
Senior Brian Consolino has shown that having experience can be a key in winning. The forward leads the Icecats in scoring with eight goals and nine assists.
Still, Golembiewski said he continued to emphasize shot selection in practice this week.
"Shooting attempts are one thing, but accuracy and execution are another," he said.
On the surface, Rhode Island and Arizona may appear to be evenly matched, but Arizona's record of 4-0 this season at the TCC may be enough to prove that youth hasn't hampered the Icecats so far.
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