UA hockey falls to Minot State, 6-2

By JAMES KELLEY Published January 5, 2013 at 9:03pm Updated January 5, 2013 at 9:03pm

No. 4 Minot State used a flurry of goals to blow out the Wildcat hockey team Friday night, winning 6-2 at the Tucson Convention Center.

No. 18 Arizona (13-10-0) led 2-0, but the Beavers (15-4-0) scored six unanswered goals.

“I think it started out pretty strong,” head coach Sean Hogan said. “Minot State’s a pretty good hockey team. They definitely capitalized on their opportunities, and we had a lot of defensive break downs, which was a problem.”

The Beavers scored five goals in a five minute span. The loss snaps Arizona’s five-game win streak and dropped their record against top ten opponents to 5-7, 0-7 against teams in the top four. MSU outshot UA 32-25 and held Arizona to 0-for-3 on the power play.

“I think we came out strong and we kind of let up,” freshman forward Mike Adamowicz said. “We had some bad bounces and stuff, but you gotta fight through it. It just didn’t go our way tonight really.”

Adamowicz opened up the scoring six minutes in with a goal assisted by junior forward Ansel Ivens-Anderson. This weekend Adamowicz is making his home debut after being injured on the Wildcats’ Illinois trip in early October.

“It’s great to be back, I’m really excited,” Adamowicz said. “I’ve been banged up all year and I’m just hoping to play a healthy game
here soon and I’m glad to be back with the boys.”

Right after he came back from a knee injury, Adamowicz took a shot to his hand in practice and had to be X-rayed. He expects to be 100 percent in the next couple of weeks.

With 9:12 left in the first, Ivens-Anderson scored a goal of his own, with fellow junior forward Andrew Murmes getting the assist.

The Beavers responded six minutes later with a goal and then another one a minute after that. Then Minot State took the lead with 18 seconds left in the first on a power play goal.

“They got all their goals in bunches,” Hogan said. “They just capitalized on some break downs, some break aways.”

In the second period, Minot scored two more goals, at the 17:47 and 16:14 marks, prompting Hogan to call a timeout, which stopped the
bleeding.

Hogan said the UA also committed “bad penalties.”

“We’ve really got to get control of this really quick,” Hogan said.
With 1:53, the Beavers scored their sixth goal.

Despite the loss, the Wildcats can bolster their tournament resumé with a win Saturday.

“Everything changes [Saturday] if we come out and win a game,” Hogan said. “We can’t get too high, we can’t get too low.”

The Wildcats and the Beavers wrap up the series Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Tucson Convention Center.