By Larry Mullenix
Arizona Daily Wildcat
The Arizona club hockey team has run its season record to an impressive 7-0 with two victories this weekend against Stanford at the Tucson Convention Center.
In a series marred because the Cardinal's equipment did not arrive with the team Friday, Stanford was overmatched and overpowered by a quicker, more alert Icecat squad.
The opener, which started a full 21/2 hours late because Stanford's equipment didn't arrive with the team, had many interesting facets for the 4,026 fans who stayed for the duration of the delay. One was that Stanford started a female goalie, Sami Jo Small.
The freshman goaltender was beaten early in the first by Steve Hutchings on an unassisited goal with just over two minutes gone in the period.
After the Cardinal evened the score, Hutchings put in his second goal of the night on a power play. Ethan Kaulas continued the scoring with a goal off a great pass through the crease by Brian Consolino that fooled Small. Stanford scored its second goal less than a minute later to make it 3-2.
Icecats Kevin Oztekin and Consolino closed the scoring in the first after the Cardinal scored their second goal with just over nine minutes gone.
Stanford opened the scoring in the second with a goal at the 35-second mark. Once again, a goal was answered with two by the Icecats. Kiva Gippo and defenseman Mark Thawley scored within four minutes of the Cardinal goal to make it 7-3.
Oztekin scored his second goal of the game seven minutes later and Joel Nusbaum scored just over a minute later to make it 9-3.
Stanford scored its last goal of the game 30 seconds later. Hutchings then scored a hat-trick goal that ended the second period with the UA up 10-4.
Small was the story in the third, when she allowed only one goal Ä the fourth by Hutchings. However, she was barraged by 15 shots and numerous glancing attempts which were not considered shots on goal; overall she faced 63 shots while allowing only 11 to get past.
"She played a great game, no doubt about it," Icecat coach Leo Golembiewski said. "What she lacked in speed she made up in effort."
The Icecats opened Saturday's game Ä which was played in front of 5,500 fans Ä with first-period goals by Jon Muntz, Sam Battaglia, and Ricky Pope, and the first period ended with the score 3-1.
In the second period, each team put the puck in the net against the other's backup goaltenders. The Icecats scored five times on goals by Hutchings, Consolino, Peter Scott, Thawley, And Nate Soules respectively.
Stanford scored three goals in three minutes to end the second period, which featured sloppy play by both teams and ended with the Icecats ahead 8-4.
Ryan Rockabrand started the scoring with half of the
third period gone for his first goal of the series.
On what was perhaps the most questionable call of the series, it appeared that Pope was tripped and punched by a Stanford player, but he received 14 penalty minutes for the exchange, which effectively ended his night.
Kaulas ended the Icecat scoring to make it 10-4. The Cardinal ended the game with a score with just over 13 minutes gone to make the final score 10-5.
"We have a lot of work to do to get to the point that we want to be at," Golembiewski said. "It is a slow process and we are going the right way, but we aren't putting everything together right now."
Golembiewski believes the inconsistent play has been caused by the fact that he hasn't had the opportunity thus far to have all of his lines stay the same.
"We are mixing and matching all the time and that causes you to be a little inconsistent at times," Golembiewski said. "It will get better as the team gets used to it."