Story by Forrest Welk
Photo by Ben McBee
A season after a second place finish in the PAC-8, Oregon Hockey renewed their pursuit of a championship with a recent home stand against Utah and Washington State.  Ethos Sports’ Forrest Welk caught up with Danny Cockriel after a tough October 17th loss to the Utes. Here’s what the junior goalie had to say:
Q: Are you pumped up before games or quiet and focused?
A: Definitely quiet and focused, I like to stick to my own self. I like to get in a zone. Goaltending is a focus position and I like to picture myself making saves to try and get a little confidence going.
Q: Do you have any pregame rituals?
A: I have a lot of superstitions actually.  I always put my left pad on first, left skate, always the left side.
Q: When did that start?
A: When I was little, I actually read an article about it. Patrick Roy did it. I tried it out and had a good game after that. I figured I’d stick with it. That’s how a lot of superstitions come. You play, and you have a good game after you do something and decide to keep with it. I do the same stretches before every game, kind of separate from what the team does. I also listen to music and eat a Subway sandwich.
Q: When did you know you wanted to play hockey?
A: It’s actually a funny story, my mom and my grandma took me to skate a few times. This is like my first time skating, and I came off the ice balling and crying, hated it.  They took me home and after that I just wanted to go back every single day. I don’t know what it was. I kinda just stuck with it and kept going and going and going. I started to love it and played goalie too, basically from day one. I kinda said, “I want to be a hockey player. This is the sport I want to play.” That’s basically the only sport I played too.
 
Q: What made you want to come to the University of Oregon?
A: My old coach actually; growing up; he came to the University of Oregon. He played hockey here and was a goalie too; Wren Arbuthnot was his name. And so he told me about the school. I came out and toured it and fell in love with it basically. I wanted to keep playing hockey for fun. I didn’t want to go necessarily to play juniors or anything. I wanted to go get an education at the same time, and the University of Oregon is perfect for that.
 
Cockriel and the Ducks take the ice again on November 1st at the Lane County Ice Rink, when the Portland State Vikings come to town.  The Ducks are 4-2 on the season.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Utah celebrates after their first goal in the first period.