The Oregon Ducks’ club hockey team swept the Washington Huskies in a two-game series over the weekend, moving its record in conference play to 11-0 and extending its lead in the Pac-8 Hockey Conference to three points over USC.
The Ducks won 5-3 on Friday night and 6-2 on Saturday to keep the I-5 Cup in Eugene for the fifth year in a row.
The I-5 Cup wasn’t the only award for Oregon head coach Scott McCallum. He also received a photo of the team that read “Congratulations coach on 100 wins” on Saturday; McCallum, who has coached the Ducks since 2004, said the team was able to use the prospect of his 100th win as a way to stay motivated even after they took a 3-0 lead after the first period of the second game.
McCallum deemed senior goaltender Wren Arbuthnot the best player for both games of the weekend series. Arbuthnot stopped 52 shots over the weekend and moved his career record against the Huskies to 10-0.
McCallum was quick to note that “it wasn’t one player (who won the games), the whole team played well.”
Offensively, the Ducks were led by senior forward Cameron Forni, who had a goal and an assist Friday and another goal and two assists Saturday, senior forward Sam Cehula, who scored an acrobatic goal Friday and had three assists Saturday, and by junior forward Tyler McCarty, who scored a goal in both games. Senior defenseman and team captain Jeff Gibb also joined these men in the goal column, logging his first goal of the year Saturday.
For Washington, forward Arne Krogh had two goals Friday night, including one with just four seconds left in the second period to tie the game. McCallum said that Cehula’s goal early in the third period brought the momentum back to the Ducks.
“After the first period, we knew we were the better team,” McCallum said. “We weren’t going to lose because of skill, but by taking bad penalties.”
For the season, Forni is the team’s leader in goals and assists with 13 and 24, respectively. McCarty, who also logged four penalties against the Huskies, has now crested the century mark
with 102 penalty minutes this season.
The major theme for both games was sloppy play. Washington had 71 penalty minutes between the two games, including 53 on Saturday night, while Oregon had 48. There were eight unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and seven roughing penalties in the series; these easily avoidable penalties are a byproduct of the rivalry.
Forni offered his take on the I-5 Rivalry, saying “Washington is a huge rivalry for us. It seems more intense when we play, both teams are going 110 percent, and it makes it a lot of fun.”
McCallum said Washington is beginning to make the rivalry competitive, but “there were years where it wasn’t even close.” McCallum instead said USC was Oregon’s biggest rival in hockey because they’ve met each of the last four years in the finals of the Pac-8 Tournament.
The 2009 edition of the Pac-8 Tournament is Feb. 12-14 at the Lane County Ice Arena in Eugene.
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