The Arkansas club hockey team didn’t have its best day on the ice Wednesday in a 7-1 loss to Colorado in the first game of pool play at the American Collegiate Hockey Association national championships.
“It kind of falls in the overarching category of, ‘mom told me there would be days like this,’” associate head coach Brian Gallini said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon.
ACHA Division III National Championships
The loss stings, and it’s yet to be seen how the young club rebounds for a 10 a.m. ice time against No. 1 seed Hope (Mich.) College on Thursday. The Razorbacks seemingly tied Colorado early in the second period Wednesday at 1-1, but game officials ruled the puck was kicked into the net and the goal was waved off the board.
“The boys, when they thought they had that first one, they thought we were right back in this thing,” Gallini said. “But when that goal was called back and we had a subsequent shift, we weren’t able to recover.”
Earlier, in Arkansas’ second shift rotation, defender Taylor Boykin tweaked a shoulder on a check by a Colorado player and was held out the remainder of the game. Boykin, one of the Ice Hogs’ better defenders, may return to the ice Thursday, Gallini said.
The Buffaloes scored seven consecutive goals before Arkansas chipped in with 11 seconds remaining in the game.
The Dutchmen figure to be a more disciplined club Thursday morning, but depth may be an issue for the Michigan school, Gallini said. Retaliation and penalties, which were a common sight against the Buffaloes, may be few and far between.
“On paper and from a system standpoint, I imagine we match up evenly,” the coach said.
Hope defeated Fredonia State 7-2 on Wednesday. The team with the best record in the Razorbacks’ four-team pool will advance to the Final Four on Saturday.
“My hope, through the grieving process, is that they take (the loss) hard very quickly and they take a strong work ethic into team dinner and bed check,” Gallini said. “We played through adversity before. I believe the group here is strong enough mentally.”
Games can be viewed online at FastHockey.com, and a schedule of games can be found here.
By the way, here’s my story on the hockey club’s journey to the national championships.
Make sure to check out WholeHogSports.com and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more coverage. You can also follow us on Twitter for breaking news updates with @bmarcello and @wholehogsports.
Good Luck Ice Hogs! I’ll be pulling for you! Hopefully the team can get more funding and keep moving up. I didn’t even know before today we even had a Hockey club–I think its awesome. Love my piggies no matter what sport it is!
WPS!
GO HOGS!!!
Rockford Illinois has an Ice Hockey team called the “Ice Hogs” too. Their mascot looks alot like the Arkansas Razorbacks mascot with a hockey mask on.