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.
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.
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.
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.
It once again came down to the final few minutes in the Ducks’ hard-fought 4-3 victory over USC on Saturday night.
The Oregon hockey team’s momentum seemed to have finally started to turn. Hot off of a much-needed win the previous night, the Ducks looked to rob another two points from the University of Southern California. USC, on the other hand, had only lost by one the night before and looked to get the win they had been in reach of.
The game can be summed up in one word: great. In their first game against USC, Oregon broke their no-scoring streak and broke their losing streak all while in front of the largest (and loudest) home crowd they’ve seen all season.
The stands may have been empty, but the back of Washington State’s net wasn’t.
After what first seemed like a rocky start this weekend against Utah, Oregon’s club hockey team pulled through against WSU and won the third game in their four-game homestand.
At first, it looked as if the Ducks were repeating their previous two nights when the Cougars scored the first goal of the night on goalie Ty Anderton only 3:12 into the first. It went straight downhill for the Cougars after that. One minute and 41 seconds after that first goal, Oregon tied it up and began the eight-goal scoring streak which lasted halfway into the second.