The Oregon club hockey team (20-3, 12-2 Pac-8) extended its win streak to five games after earning two more victories, this time against Montana State on the road last weekend, 6-2 and 4-1.
It’s a shame not many got to see the team play as the season winds to a close, because Coach Scott McCallum said his Ducks are just as good and just as focused as the squad he began his coaching career with in 2004-05 – a team that won the Pac-8 Championship.
Surely, neither the Ducks nor the Icecats played for fan affection this weekend at the neutral venue in Kennewick, Wash. It was all about gaining momentum for what remains ahead for the Ducks.
“There were not many fans from either side,” McCallum laughed. “Maybe a few parents from both teams.”
No matter. From the Ducks’ nine-game win streak to their third-consecutive I-5 Cup win against Washington, McCallum is seeing parallels with his current roster to that of the model Oregon team of two seasons ago, which still gives players and fans a reason to care about hockey in Eugene.
“Everything has stemmed from that year and having that success,” McCallum said. “It opened a lot of hockey player’s eyes. Now that we are a winning program we are bringing in more players and have established a reputation in the Pac-8, and now in the region.”
In a well-balanced scoring effort, the Ducks’ Eric Steinmann and Cale Myer netted goals to give Oregon a 2-0 lead in game one. The Icecats responded by scoring off a power play, but McCallum said Cameron Forni, who scored a team series-high three goals and also had three assists Friday, only needed seven seconds to take the face-off at center ice and score a crafty shot on one knee that drove the score up to 3-1.
After Montana State, which McCallum said was a big, physical team that came out playing a style his team hadn’t seen before, scored again, Tom Stocklin, who also had two assists, Steinmann and Myer landed decisive goals in the third period to seal the win.
Forni accounted for half the Ducks’ offense with two goals in the game-two victory. Brian Fowler and Mike Hideghety also contributed scores, with Hideghety’s coming off an assist from Colton Clay. Hideghety, the lone senior on the team, camped out on the blue line, behind the defense, and cashed in on a deep pass from Clay in the third.
The Ducks are now officially seeded second in the Pac-8 Championships and slated to play third seed UCLA in the first round of the tournament in El Segundo, Calif., at the Los Angeles Kings’ practice facility. First-ranked USC (19-8-1, 15-3 Pac-8) will begin its defense of the conference crown against fourth-ranked Arizona State.
Oregon swept UCLA 3-2, 5-2 this year. McCallum said the Ducks dominated those battles, and he feels like they now have a leg up on the Bruins.
“People can finally sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel,” McCallum said. “You start out the season with the goal to make the regionals and now we control our own destiny. They have worked really hard to get there and now they can see they are almost there … the season isn’t over.”
In the most updated American Collegiate Hockey Association West region rankings, Oregon still stands at ninth with 71 points. USC is seventh with 54 points, while Arizona State and UCLA sit outside looking in at the top-10 regional spots, ranked 11th and 12th, respectively. BYU, which split a series against the Trojans 4-6, 5-2 over the weekend, gripped onto 10th position with 77 points.
McCallum said the team shouldn’t slip out of the top 10, but Oregon won’t know until the Friday before the Pac-8s if they can keep the season alive by playing at regionals in Logan, Utah, Feb. 16-17.
Oregon will finish its regular season with two battles against Western Washington, which they defeated twice last year. Games on Friday and Saturday both start at 7 p.m. at the Lane Events Ice Center.
“We haven’t lost to them in as long as I have coached,” McCallum said of his three years of experience strategizing against the Vikings. “Anything can happen in a hockey game, though. We still have to go in and play the game.”