The Oregon club hockey team started 2011 right where it left off in 2010 — winning games and scoring in bunches. The Ducks swept non-conference opponent Portland State over the weekend to improve to 14-2 on the season.
The Ducks had little trouble with the Vikings in the first game of the series, and cruised to an 8-4 win in Beaverton. Head Coach Eddie LeRoy said the Ducks played well against Portland State, but he acknowledged that the team got away with some mistakes that might have been more costly against a superior opponent.
On Saturday, the Ducks and Vikings skated at Portland’s Rose Garden before a Portland Winterhawks (Western Hockey League) game. The Ducks came out of the gates slightly sluggish and found themselves down 2-0 early, but scored eight unanswered goals to coast to an 8-2 win.
“Playing at the Rose Garden was unquestionably a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” senior forward Erik Brody said. “Getting the chance to skate on the same ice as players who have made it to the NHL and sharing the same building that Brandon Roy does definitely gets your blood pumping. I think we all thoroughly enjoyed it and took it for all it was worth.”
This weekend, the Ducks will take one of their longest road trips of the season when they head to Utah for a Friday night game against Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and a weekend series with BYU in Provo.
While the Ducks are no strangers to playing on the road (only four of their 16 games this season have been in Eugene) LeRoy warns that tilts against Weber and BYU present an additional challenge to the Ducks because of the high altitude.
“Playing in places like Utah pose a problem physically,” LeRoy said. “Since we practice at barely above sea level, the lack of oxygen at higher elevations weighs on you, tires you faster. So our shifts will have to be even shorter than normal. It will take at least the first game to become acclimated to it.”
LeRoy said he expects both Weber and BYU to present tough tests for the Ducks, but he is confident the Ducks can skate with anybody on their schedule.
These non-conference games are important for the Ducks if they plan to qualify for the ACHA regionals, but LeRoy said he wasn’t treating them any differently than Pac-8 games.
“Every game is important, regardless of whether we’re going to make regionals this year or not,” LeRoy said. “I think that we just take every game the same way that we have been; we play hard and basically we look at every game we play outside the Pac-8 as a warm-up for Pac-8 teams and the Pac-8 finals.”
Jan. 21-22, the Ducks return to Eugene for a pair of games against rival Washington Huskies. Earlier in the season the Ducks traveled to Seattle, where they split a two-game series with Washington.
Next weekend’s series is especially important because it will determine the winner of the I-5 cup. The trophy is annually given to the winner of the season series between Oregon and Washington. In the event that the season series is tied 2-2 after Saturday’s game, the Ducks and Huskies will have a shootout to determine which team hoists the award.
LeRoy said the team has some work to do in order to have success against the Huskies.
“We need to get back in shape, physically and mentally,” he said. “We need to have stronger first periods, play a more complete game and capitalize ontheir mistakes.”
After the series with Washington, the Ducks will close out the regular season with two games each against Washington State and Santa Rosa Junior College before heading to Seattle for the Pac-8 tournament Feb. 11 and 12.
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