The power of shorthanded.

Seeing a way to blow the game open turn into a quick deficit, the heavily favored Grand Canyon University D1 Men's Hockey team rebounded to knock off San Diego State University, 4-2, Friday night in the team's triumphant return to its home ice of AZ Ice Arcadia in Phoenix. The come-from-behind victory spurred the Lopes to a much more balanced effort Saturday night in completing the two-game sweep with an 11-3 win over the Aztecs. The sweep moved the 15^th-ranked Lopes (11-4 overall, 9-2 WCHL) into 1^st place points-wise in the Western Collegiate Hockey League Standings as the team entered Fall Break on the GCU campus.

Friday: GCU 4, San Diego State 2

The Lopes had little trouble dominating the puck throughout the 1^st period (and most of the game), but late-arriving fans wouldn't have known that by a glance at the scoreboard after one period. The Lopes fired 22 shots at Aztecs' netminder Brody Hsaio, and struck first with a Caden Henrikson goal midway through the first frame. When a roughing penalty was called on SDSU with 85 seconds left in the period, though, the Lopes licked their chops – then stumbled. SDSU's Kolby Hennessy intercepted an attempted clearout of the puck in the Lopes' zone and quickly tied the score at 1-1, then with a second left, Cam Ferraz snuck behind the GCU defense and beat the buzzer to give the Aztecs a 2-1 edge on rapid-fire shorthanded goals.

Wakeup call sounded, the Lopes came out of the locker room and tied it quickly on Henrikson's second score two minutes into the 2^nd period. From there, the scoring chances for the Aztecs literally dried up, and while the Lopes still had trouble finding holes in Hsaio's arsenal, they eventually wore him down with the go-ahead goal from Jack Thomas with six minutes left in the 2^nd, and added an empty-netter from Ricky Nelson (the Lopes' 60^th shot on goal of the contest) in the final seconds. GCU's backline limited the Aztecs to just 16 shots for the game, and Lopes' goalie Jacob DeMoranville swatted away all but the two shorthanded scores.

Saturday: GCU 11, San Diego State 3

The Lopes took all of 13 minutes to demonstrate how well they'd learned their lessons from the night before, punishing Aztecs' goalie Liam Dee from the get-go. GCU's Jack Dolan set the tone with a pair of adept scores in the first nine minutes, and Thomas and Tommy Wardas followed suit a couple of minutes later. The Aztecs reminded GCU they were still there with a goal in the final two minutes of the 1^st period and the first five minutes of the 2^nd, but beyond that, the puck stayed in SDSU's zone, and the Lopes' passing simply wore down the Aztecs' players. That's when the frustration began to mount, and a fight ensued that ejected both GCU's Shawn Spring and SDSU's Gavin Tuomi. That set the tone for the rest of the physical game: various scrums sandwiched between multiple Lopes' goals. Dolan and Thomas both wound up with "hat tricks", while Wardas, Triston Tabucol, Kolby Jaquet and Thomas Kayner scored at least two points on the night. DeMoranville was sharp in net all night long, stopping 27 of 30 Aztecs' shots, while the Lopes' offense mounted an even more potent attack with 67 shots on goal.

Fall Break on the GCU campus will give the Lopes a two-week sojourn from the ice, then send them back to Alaska for an exhibition clash with NCAA squad University of Alaska-Fairbanks for the second straight year on December 6. The Lopes get back into WCHL play right before the semester break with a clash with archrival Arizona State University. The Lopes and Sun Devils will drop the puck for the single game at 7:05PM on Saturday, December 13 at AZ Ice Arcadia. Game tickets are available on the GCU Club Sports website.