The Oregon club ice hockey team earned the top seed in next week’s Pac-8 Conference tournament by holding off Arizona State, a team that has beaten the Ducks in three of their four meetings this season.
Such a season has become a staple for head coach Scott McCallum, who has led the Ducks to the tournament title game each year since he took over three seasons ago. In 2004, the Ducks won the Pac-8 crown.
The last two, however, were one-goal losses to USC. They’re the reason why Oregon enters the tournament cautiously optimistic about its chances of winning.
“Anything less than a Pac-8 championship would be a disappointment because we know we’re a good enough team to obtain that,” said goalkeeper Matt Nuernberg, a senior who was on the last Pac-8 winning team. “I think that’s motivation enough.”
Oregon (17-7-1 overall, 13-4 Pac-8) topped Arizona State by two points to wrap up the regular season title. Along with the Ducks, the second-seeded Sun Devils join third-seeded USC and host Washington State as the tournament’s four-team field. The tournament will be held in Kent, Wash., from Feb. 14-15. All games can be followed by a live broadcast online at www.pac8hockey.com/tournament.
Oregon will have the next week to rest and, according to Brackin, find the cohesiveness and heart that it has been lacking.
“We have way more skill than last time but we’re just missing the heart,” said Brackin. “On a club team, it’s really hard to develop that unless you work really hard.”
The Ducks will open the tournament against the team with the fewest points in the conference in the Cougars, a team Oregon beat 12-4 in early October.
“We haven’t seen them (WSU) since the beginning of the year, so it’s quite possible that they’ve gotten better,” said goalkeeper Wren Arbuthnot.
For the five seniors who celebrated Senior Day last Thursday by beating Walla Walla 3-2, the tournament is a chance not only to move on to the Division II regional tournament, but to get the chance to add another Pac-8 title. Besides Nuernberg, only Cal Brackin and coach McCallum were on the Pac-8 winning squad.
“There are five of us this is our last year it’s our last chance, and for me especially, because I was gone and haven’t won a Pac-8,” said senior assistant captain Matt Lutsch. “Losing to USC was pretty sour. We talk about it in the locker room all the time.”
In 2006 and 2007, USC beat Oregon in overtime 4-3, with the 2006 win coming in a shootout.
The latest American Collegiate Hockey Association rankings for the Western division have Oregon at No. 10, which is the last and final spot for a trip to the regional tournament in Oakland, Calif., on Feb. 22-23. The final rankings, which will come out this week, can allow a team to advance to regionals without necessarily winning its conference tournament. It’s a chance the Ducks don’t want to take, though.
“If we get to regionals with our ranking right now that will be a good opportunity but we’re focusing on winning Pac-8s,” said Nuernberg.
Though the season finale against Walla Walla was a non-conference game, the Ducks came out too “flat” said Nuernberg, falling behind 2-0 in the first period. A three-goal flurry in the final period put the Ducks ahead for good. Lutsch saw the game as a wake-up call before traveling to Kent.
“For the most part, it shows we really need to pick up our play for Pac-8s and just run over everybody,” said Lutsch. “We have to prove ourselves all over again.”