The Oregon club hockey team dropped two disappointing games to Washington, 5-3 and 4-1, in Seattle last weekend.
Although the scores may suggest a wipe out, the games were closer than they appear.
“Friday was an awesome game,” Oregon captain Tyler Shaffar said. “I’m so proud of the guys and how we pulled it out. It’s just unlucky play that made us lose.”
The Huskies were 3-0 going into the third period, but the Ducks evened the score at 3-3 on a power play with seven minutes to go, which lasted until there were 45 seconds left on the clock. Nathan Vogel scored two for the Ducks before a number of unlucky circumstances enabled the Huskies to win 5-3, Shaffar said.
“It hurt a lot to lose that game. It was rough,” Shaffar said.
Oregon goalie Joe Fagliano did an outstanding job defending the Ducks’ net, playing the entire game on both nights while Josh Hardin remained injured.
“We’re happy with what Joe did,” Shaffar said, adding that the defense worked hard as well. “Offensively, we didn’t come through this weekend. We didn’t put the points on the board and that’s what we were missing.”
Oregon played too aggressively on Friday, Shaffar said. “We let a lot of cheesy goals go in.”
On Saturday, the Ducks tried to adjust their game to the larger rink, playing more passively. But the Huskies used their giant-sized home turf to their advantage.
“They know how to play that surface,” Shaffar said. “They were all over us.”
At the start of Saturday’s third period, the Ducks were trailing by two points when Brett Ledder shoved the puck in Washington’s goal, netting Oregon’s only goal that night. The Ducks were then pressing hard and thought they could tie it up, but the Huskies got a grip on the Ducks and played into 4-1, the final result.
The Washington goalie was disqualified after Friday’s game, so the Huskies fielded their back-up goalie Saturday.
While the Ducks may have been closer than the stats reveal, Shaffar said he could probably count on his fingers how many opportunities they had.
The Oregon defense in particular is hurting after the games, and everyone is looking forward to a gameless weekend coming up.