For much of the season, head coach Scott McCallum continually raved about his Oregon Club hockey team and its chances of winning the Pac-8 Championship.
It appears he had legitimate reason.
After capping off the most successful season in school history, the Ducks rode momentum into the Pac-8 tournament and defeated California and Washington to claim their first ever Pac-8 Championship.
“We set a goal at the beginning of the season to go to the Pac-8 Championship game,” McCallum said. “They put in so much time. They deserved it.”
The third-seeded Ducks, after nabbing two victories against Boise State to end the regular season, marched into the first round of the tournament in Berkeley, Calif., to take on Cal, the second seed and last year’s tournament winner.
Cal managed an early 1-0 lead in the first period, but Oregon’s Nate King, the tournament MVP, quickly responded to knot the score at one apiece. The Ducks again fell behind moments into the second period, but it would be the last lead for the Golden Bears.
Down 2-1, Oregon tacked on back-to-back goals to take its first lead of the game. Oregon’s deep bench wore out the Bears as the Ducks reeled off four goals to close the game with a 7-3 win.
King, Ted Martin and Scott Tedrick came up big for the Ducks, accounting for five of Oregon’s seven goals against Cal. King finished with three, Martin with two and Tedrick pitched in one. Cal Brackin scored the other two goals for the Ducks.
“Every team in our league has one or two really good lines,” senior captain Mike Tornabene said. “The difference is how well the third line plays, and ours put the puck in the net.”
The victory set the stage for a final-game battle of Northwest rivals as the Ducks met the fourth-seeded Washington Huskies, who also recorded an upset in the first round by defeating No. 1 UCLA, 6-4.
The Husky offense was quiet against the Ducks in the first period, as Oregon mustered an early 2-0 lead. Justin Savich scored the first goal nearly 11 minutes into the game and then assisted on a Ryan Jones goal to give the Ducks a two-point advantage.
In the opening minutes of the second period, Washington cut into Oregon’s lead with an early power-play goal, but Martin responded to reestablish the Ducks’ two-goal lead. Another Husky goal on a power play in the final minutes of the second period brought the score to 3-2 and set up the dramatic final period.
Clinging to a one-point lead, the Oregon defense remained intact and preserved the 3-2 victory to claim the Pac-8 Championship.
“Normally, a one-goal lead is not good enough against a team like Washington, but we shut them down,” King said. “It just made it that much sweeter of a victory that it was against UW, our biggest rival.”
As the horn sounded, the Oregon bench erupted onto the ice and rushed to the goal to surround goaltender Matt Nuernberg, who finished with 52 saves in the tournament.
“We came a long ways,” Jones said. “No one in the Pac-8 expected us to be near as good as we are.”
Oregon, which finished with a record of 22-4-2, also claimed many individual accolades for its impressive season. McCallum, in his first year as head coach at Oregon, received
Pac-8 Coach of the Year honors. Tornabene, who has led the team in goals the past five seasons, was named to the All-Pac-8 first team. In addition, Mike Roley was a first-team defense selection, and Jones and Nuernberg were selected to the second team.
While the first Pac-8 Championship may have been the highlight, it was a season of many firsts for Oregon hockey. The Ducks secured the first 20-win season in school history, as well as the first I-5 Cup victory over Washington.
For the veterans, the season quickly erased the memories of a two-win season a year ago.
“All these seniors have seen the lowest low for a team, but we turned it around in a single season,” Tornabene said.
“I think before this, we were sort of overlooked and no one paid attention to us,” McCallum said. “That won’t happen anymore.”
Luke Andrews is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald