It was déjà vu all over again for Wildcat hockey, as they blew a two goal lead to No. 4 Minot State for the second night in a row, losing Saturday night 5-3.
No. 18 Arizona (13-11-0) jumped out to a 2-0 lead against the Beavers (16-4-0) for the second game in as many days but again gave up a flurry of goals.
“I thought we played better than last night,” head coach Sean Hogan said. “It’s very disappointing that we couldn’t sustain that kind of pressure, that momentum. We’re just not clicking right now and it’s a frustrating thing to see.”
UA was swept for the first time since the middle of November and their record against top ten foes drops to 5-8, and 0-8 against the top four.
“It’s definitely a tough loss,” junior forward Ansel Ivens-Anderson said. “You’re up by two goals and we kinda blew it both nights. It’s definitely a tough one, but hopefully it will be a good wake up call.”
Senior forward Brian Slugocki opened up the scoring :45 seconds into the game, assisted by junior forward Andrew Murmes and freshman defenseman Kyle Ambrosie.
Then about a minute later, sophomore forward Mike Ferreira put UA up 2-0 with a goal on an assist by junior forward Jeff Wadhams.
“The two goal lead is the hardest lead to stop, but you can’t make any excuses though,” Ivens-Anderson said. “We had two goals and if we get that third one, it’s a totally different game, but we didn’t.”
The goals were Arizona’s first since midway through the first period Friday night, as Minot State scored six unanswered goals in a 6-2 win in the series opener.
Arizona out shot the Beavers 40-33 and was 1-4 on the power play, while Minot State was 2-4.
MSU tied the game in the second with a pair of power play goals with 7:13 left and then 5:44 left.
Panes of glass on the ice broke twice in the same spot, with 14:03 left in the
first and then with 2:32 left in the second period, prompting an early start to the second intermission.
After the break, Minot State scored a goal with 1:19 left in the second and with 10 seconds left in the period.
Though UA was leading 2-0 when the first delay came, Hogan said the delays weren’t why the young Wildcats lost.
“We can’t say that, those things are going to happen,” Hogan said. “We can’t blame it on the glass braking twice. We got to be mentally tough enough to get through that.”
Ivens-Anderson and Hogan both said this is the first game they participating in where glass panes broke twice.
“Once happens quite a lot, but twice no,” Hogan said.
The Beavers scored again, with about 11 minutes left in the game, prompting senior defenseman Zack Waxenberg to snap his stick.
UA responded a couple minutes later with a power play goal by Ivens-Anderson, where Wadhams and freshman defenseman Bryan Drazner provided assists.
After the game, the captains and then later Hogan read the team the Riot Act.
“We gave them two goals, literally gave them the puck,” Hogan said. “You can’t do that and win.”
Arizona returns to action Friday night when they host No. 10 Liberty.
