Covering sports at the University of Oregon
All Jared Gruen planned to do was watch. He never thought he’d actually put on the uniform.
Two months ago, the UO senior came to club a fencing practice to visit his long-time friend, team coordinator Holly Bishop, along with his girlfriend Kristen Shafer, who had joined the team in the fall.
“He came to practice one day, and I was like, ‘Jared, go put on a uniform,’” Shafer said.
Initially Gruen resisted.
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.
Even though it was their last two games before playoffs, the Oregon club hockey team had their focus elsewhere. For seven seniors, it would be their last home games as Oregon Ducks and, for some, their last competitive ice hockey games period. For these two nights against the College of the Canyons Cougars, the number on the board didn’t matter as much as playing with friends and playing for fans and family.
His entire life revolved around hockey. That is, until music came along.
Music took a hold of senior Connor McBride’s life after he left The Hill School, a preparatory boarding school in Pennsylvania with a rigorous hockey program.
“Playing hockey there is like playing football here,” McBride said.
It was a rough night at the Lane County Ice Center for Oregon club hockey.
After losing 3-2 in an extremely penalty-riddled Game 4, thereby splitting the four-game series, Oregon and Washington turned to a five-man shootout to determine who would ultimately take home the I-5 Cup.
Friday night’s game—which gave the Oregon club hockey team a 2-1 lead in the series against the University of Washington—didn’t fit the typical mold of I-5 Cup games. Usually the games between the two rival hockey clubs are fast-paced, with both teams having piles of penalties along with a few points each on the board.
This game, the third game of the series, was the reverse.
After a 4-3 loss and a 6-3 win in their first games of 2014 on Friday and Saturday, the Oregon club hockey team will return to Eugene for the final two games of the heated University of Washington series. The series between the two rival teams is one of the most important of the regular season since the winning team takes home both the I-5 Cup and bragging rights until the two meet again next season.