Ice Jacks letting the game go to ASU

Oct. 6, 2013

FLAGSTAFF-- NAU's Division III hockey team had its home-opener games this weekend against the ASU Sun Devils and got more out of them than they expected. The Ice Jacks took a win on Friday night at Jay Lively 3-1, but by the time they were feeling confident about their playing, they gave it up the next day.

Friday was a good day for the Ice Jacks as Forwards Daryl Belanger, Chas Scott, and Marcus Velasco all scored for NAU. Goaltenders Matt Bertsch and Chris Snowden switched out during the first intermission, but together made an accumulative 40 saves. Bertsch allowed ASU to score in the first period, while Snowden refused to let a puck get by him in the second and third. 

On Saturday, the crowd was patiently waiting for the Ice Jacks to come back by the time it was the beginning of the third period, and they were already down 4-1. The Ice Jacks had a difficult time together as a whole, losing to the Sun Devils 5-1.

"I think we just need to keep our consistency of play, playing a full 60 minutes. We can outwork any team we face, it's just keeping our play at a high level the whole game is going to be key," NAU goaltender Anthony Caruso said afterward.

The Ice Jacks were only able to score their one goal by Chas Scott on their power play in the first period. The Ice Jacks need to work on staying in the zone the whole game and playing more aggressively. There was a lot of bad talking and fights that broke out between the two teams mainly because of sloppy playing.

Part of NAU's sloppy playing is shown in its lack of puck control. Every time one of the forwards would take the puck down the ice for a goal attempt, they would either slip, or lose control of the puck.

On the other hand, the Sun Devils were playing the puck very well, which is the reason for their four goal win over the Ice Jacks.

These two teams will not meet again until late November, but until then, the Ice Jacks D-III team will have a week to regroup and prepare for its home game against UCLA.

Double Header, Double the Drama

FLAGSTAFF-- Last weekend both the NAU Division II and Division III Ice Jacks had games to prepare for.  The DII team would go against Loyola Marymount University on both Friday and Saturday, and then on Saturday, the DIII team showed up to play UCLA.

Friday night consisted of high energy and determination with the DII team.  The previous weekend they took huge wins against California State Fullerton winning 12-1 on Friday night, and then again 9-1 on Saturday. 

This weekend was not necessarily the case as these boys had more to work with.

Friday night, the boys got their gear on as usual, and by the time they hit the ice, it was nothing but great performances by Forward Gregory Park and Goaltender James Korte.  Park would score four goals in the entire game that night, while Korte would make 21 saves. 

The other four goals were scored by Kyle Mair, Jack Manning, Zach Vachris, and Dedrick Wiese. Their performance was looking good on the ice, minus all of the penalties.

 

DII forward Ben Russell stated later after the game, "We did pretty good overall.  We still had lingering issues with stupid penalties.  My line especially couldn't get things clicking."

Saturday night was a whole different game at the rink against LMU.  After taking an 8-1 win over the Lions Friday night, this rivalry began to heat up even more.  Forward Connor Sperry scored two goals for the game, followed by Adam Surber, defenseman Dillon Butenhoff and Nathan Kundla.

Korte was starting goaltender for the first period before suffering another collarbone injury.  He was replaced by S.J. Graupensperger who made 18 saves, allowing four goals to get past him.

With just seconds remaining in the third period after Mair put up the sixth goal for the Ice Jacks, the Lions pulled their goaltender for an extra player as one of their forwards had the puck headed towards the neutral zone.  He would lose control of it handing it off to NAU when Sperry would slap shot it into the empty net.

LMU's goaltender Connor Evans did not like NAU putting seven points onto the board.  Right before Sperry would get another goal,  Evans  threw his helmet and stick at Russell and Sperry.  Butenhoff would come after him to start a fight, but knew it wasn't worth it.  The game was soon over and LMU would leave Flagstaff with hardly any class, losing 7-5.

Not too long after the Lions grabbed their gear and left, the DIII Ice Jacks would hit the ice to play UCLA.  In the first period, Chas Scott would score two goals, followed by Patrick Bridgman scoring one.  Scott would put up a hat trick leading into the second period, with Greg Hughes scoring two goals, and Tyler Tritschler scoring one.

And then later into the third period, Ryan Smith would put up one last point for the Ice Jacks.  Josh Schwartz was starting goaltender for this game as he made 19 saves, allowing 3 goals to get by him, two of which were too easy to miss.

This game would not end till around 2:00 in the morning.  So beauty sleep was something needed for these Ice Jacks.

"We're looking for big wins, big scoring margins, and good efforts from the team" Schwartz said later on.

The DIII Ice Jacks next game is at home this Saturday and Sunday against Santa Rosa, and the team is looking for big things to make sure that they do their best for another win.