Oregon’s club hockey team has enjoyed a successful season up to this point.
With two games left before winter break, the Ducks don’t plan on changing that.
Oregon will play Washington (12-3) on Friday and Saturday at the Lane County Ice Arena at 7 p.m. in what is the first half of the four-game I-5 Cup series. Beginning with 2000, the Huskies lead all-time 4-3, with all of Oregon’s wins coming in the last three years.
The Ducks (10-3) don’t see this weekend as a major threat to their early success, however, due in large part to the teams’ recent histories, with both teams occupying different ends of the Pac-8 standings.
“I think because they’ve been so weak recently, it hasn’t been as important,” forward Tom Stocklin said. “I’d say a loss would be horrific going in to winter break.”
Goaltender Ryan Pinckard said the series is an extra accomplishment for the team.
“It’s just an added bonus that we can put on our résumé at the end of the season that we won our rivalry cup,” the junior said.
The Ducks stand in second place in the conference after splitting their matches against league-leading Arizona State on Nov. 16 and 17 in Eugene. The Ducks won’t face the Sun Devils until the Pac-8 tournament in February. The Ducks also have the challenge of looking ahead to the team’s most important stretch of games all season, which happen during a Colorado road trip in January. The Ducks will play Colorado, Colorado State and Denver University in a weekend stretch.
“We’ve talked about how those are our most important games the rest of the year,” Pinckard said. “We have to play well and try to secure a regional berth.”
Thus the importance of not letting this weekend become a “trap” game for the Ducks. Stocklin believes the Huskies’ improvements from last year will be motivation enough for Oregon for a weekend sweep.
“I think it’ll be a pretty exciting game, better than last year’s I-5 Cup ’cause we swept them,” Stocklin said. “Like I said, they’re as unprepared for us as we are for them. For a team that’s 10-2, we might want to mentally prepare a little bit harder than we would, say, against Cal. I mean we’re already talking about Colorado – it’s our most important game of the year.”
Through its four Pac-8 games, Washington is undefeated against conference doormats Cal and Stanford, teams Oregon beat up against in the early season. “I don’t know that they’ve really been tested,” defender Jeff Gibb said.
However, the Huskies enter the weekend set having not lost a game in more than month, with the last loss coming against Eastern Washington on Oct. 27. Since then, the Huskies have ripped off five consecutive wins against fellow Washington schools Walla Walla, Western Washington and Gonzaga. Robbie Maxwell has led the Huskies so far with 53 total points on 25 goals and 28 assists, both team-highs. Not far behind is Sobiek Stefan who has tallied 22 goals and 25 assists so far this season for 47 points.
Oregon players agree on two things: Washington is an improved team but they can’t match the Ducks’ depth.
“They’ve got a better team than last year, but they won’t be as deep for us,” Gibb said.
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