The Oregon Club hockey team won the battle for the I-5 Cup for the first time in school history last weekend versus Washington — albeit in dramatic fashion.
After sweeping the Huskies in two games at home earlier this season, the Ducks needed one win in two contests to take home the best-of-five series.
Yet the tables turned in Seattle as Washington defeated the Ducks on two consecutive nights, 6-5 and 3-2, forcing a shootout after the second game to decide the winner of
the series.
Oregon proved its resilience in the shootout, defeating the Huskies to claim the cup.
“It felt great to have a positive twist on such a tough weekend,” head coach Scott McCallum said.
In the first game, both the Ducks and Huskies came out firing with offensive game plans, and Oregon held a two-goal advantage in the third period. Showing resilience of its own, Washington battled back and managed to take a one-point lead,
eventually winning 6-5. Center Mike Tornabene scored two goals for the Ducks, and Cal Brackin, Mike Roley and Ryan Jones each had one apiece.
“Washington surprised us and played much better than we were expecting,” Tornabene said. “They had very good systems and were obviously well coached.”
The scene shifted in game two as both teams upped their defensive efforts. Washington held a 3-0 lead for the majority of the game until Tornabene and Roley scored to get the Ducks within one. However, the Husky defense was able to thwart the Oregon comeback and hung on to a 3-2 win.
“I feel like we outplayed them for most of each game,” McCallum said. “We had many chances to score but just couldn’t seem to put the puck in the net.”
As if two one-point losses weren’t enough, the real drama had
just begun.
After nine attempts by both teams in the shootout, Oregon’s Justin Savich, scored followed by a clutch save from Oregon goaltender Matt Nuernberg to give the Ducks the shootout and 2005 I-5 Cup victories.
“We lost two battles, but we won the war,” Tornabene said. “This is the first time we’ve won the cup, and no matter how we got it, we still got it.”
Before Savich’s shootout winner, Tornabene, the team’s leading scorer for the past five seasons, scored his fourth goal of the weekend, and newcomer Matt Olsen scored another for the Ducks. Nuernberg allowed just two goals and saved eight shots in the shootout.
The Ducks, who were ranked 10th in the American Collegiate Hockey Association polls coming into the weekend against Washington, sit near the top of the Pac-8 in record, winning percentage and points awarded. They are in third place, just points behind UCLA and Cal.
Oregon faces Puget Sound at home this weekend.
“I think that we had a much needed wake-up call to get us ready for the Pac-8’s (tournament),” McCallum said. “I hate to lose, especially to UW, but we will regroup and be stronger in the end.”
Luke Andrews is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald