Third time was a charm for then-junior Patrick Sgarlata. After two years of being cut from the Oregon club hockey team, he finally earned a roster spot and the Oregon jersey on his back.
Now a graduate, the jersey he wears currently is a little different than before. He sports a number 10 on his back instead of his previous 26 and a “C” on his front. Sgarlata is now the captain of the team he struggled to make two years ago.
It was 10 minutes into the second game of the 2013-2014 season and everything seemed normal. The Oregon club hockey team was playing Portland State, a team very familiar to them, and Cody Drees was about to deliver one of many checks issued that night.
But that check was when “normal” ended.
The Oregon club hockey team easily handled the first two games of the Portland State series this weekend, ending their homestand with 5-3 and 9-0 wins on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
“There was definitely an improvement,” said goaltender Trevor Peterson of the second night compared to the first. “I think that PSU may not have played as well [the second night], but we also looked a lot better and a lot cleaner. We were a lot faster.”
His body was hurting and his grades were suffering. Chris Campbell was tired, but all he needed was a little time.
For the second night in a row, Oregon club hockey faced off against the Washington Huskies for game 2 of its annual I-5 Cup series. In what usually are close games — last year’s cup was determined by a shootout after splitting the four-game series — the Ducks sailed through the Huskies’ defense, winning the two games 9-3 and 7-2.
Friday, Oct. 17, the Ducks hockey team will face Washington, the team’s biggest rival in the league, in the home opener at Lane Events Center. Each year, both teams square off in a brutal four-game series for the I-5 Cup.
Last year, Washington won in a shootout after splitting the series 2-2. The year before, Oregon took it home for the first time in four years after an overtime victory.
“We don’t play Oregon State in hockey,” senior goaltender Trevor Peterson said. “This is really our biggest rival. We have the I-5 Cup and that’s our thing, our big game.”
Unsatisfied with its brief time with the cup, the team has spent the last month releasing Youtube videos with the hashtag #TakeBackTheCup to pump up fans, and themselves, for the start of the regular season.
Dan Sulitzer has played ice hockey for 20 years. His brother, Alex, has played for 17. However, despite both having played since the age of 5, they’ve never played together.
At least, until now.
Dan and Alex wanted to change the fact that they had never been on the same team, so late in the summer of 2012, they made a pact: they would both attend the University of Oregon and play for the Oregon club hockey team together in the fall.
After a 5-2 victory against UCLA the night prior, the three seed Oregon club hockey team took on the top seeded No. 15 Arizona State University Sun Devils where they fell 5-1. The loss meant elimination for the Oregon Ducks as ASU moved on to the Pac-8 Championship against the reigning champs, the No. 5 Utah Utes.
Three seed Oregon took on six seed UCLA for the first game of the Pac-8 playoffs held in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Ducks emerged victorious with a 5-2 win over the Bruins.
The win over the Bruins means that the Ducks will be facing the No. 15 Arizona State Sun Devils, the top seed in Pool B, tomorrow night for a spot in the Pac-8 Championship, where the Ducks had fallen to Utah the year prior.
At the beginning of the year, things were looking grim for Oregon club hockey.
The team was $13,000 in debt and risked having the plug pulled on their season.
Things needed to change.