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.
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