The comfort zone at nationals continues to expand.
Showing the benefits of
making its 3rd consecutive trip to the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division 1 National Championships, the
Grand Canyon University D1 Men's Hockey team used a four-goal second quarter to run away from 20
th-seeded Grand Valley State University and advance with a 6-1 victory in Round 1 of the five-day tournament in St. Louis, Missouri. The 12
th-seeded Lopes never trailed in moving on to a 2
nd-round showdown against Western Collegiate Hockey League archrival University of Nevada-Las Vegas tomorrow morning.
The Lopes have apparently gotten used to the early-morning starts at nationals, since it was another 9AM (Arizona time) puck drop to commence tournament play, but unlike in previous years, the Lopes' offense was in tune from the start. GCU punished Lakers' goalie Adrian Morales from the outset, firing 23 shots on goal in the first 20 minutes. The fact that just one of those shots –
Ricky Nelson's score seven minutes into the game – didn't seem to faze the Lopes, even when GVSU's Brendan Walk tied the game right before the end of the first period.
"The guys knew it was important to take care of themselves last night - thanks to our experience last year with the early game times," said
Lopes' Head Coach Danny Roy. "We had our legs early and started with great energy and pace."
When the Lopes came out of the locker for Period No. 2, the shots became less frequent, but much more accurate. The 1-1 tie lasted just 64 seconds into the frame as the Lopes used the power play to their advantage, with
Colby Jaquet setting up
Ben Oakland for a score. Suddenly, the floodgates opened from there, with
Tommy Wardas,
Owen Lugowski and
Thomas Kayner all scoring unassisted goals before the end of the period to put things quickly out of reach.
What was just as impressive about the Lopes in the first two periods was they played penalty-less hockey, so by the time the Lopes' first two infractions were called simultaneously with eight minutes left in the game, the team was already in a rhythm, and the
Dmytro Kubrytskyi-led defense killed the two penalties unscathed, allowing just 9 Lakers' shots in the 3
rd period. The Lopes' goalie was stalwart between the pipes, allowing just the 1
st-period goal on the way to a 31-save day. Wardas led the balanced Lopes' attack, scoring his 2
nd goal of the morning with two minutes left to finish off the stat sheet.
The alarm will go off even earlier tomorrow morning as the Lopes (21-8 overall, 15-5 WCHL) will square off against the 4
th-seeded (and defending national champion) Rebels at 8:15AM Arizona time. A Lopes' win tomorrow sends them to the quarterfinal round for the first time ever Sunday morning against either 5
th-seeded Liberty University or another familiar set of faces, 12
th-seeded (and WCHL rival) University of Utah. Tomorrow will be the 5
th meeting between the two conference foes, and while UNLV won three of the four regular-season meetings, the Lopes have as much reason to think they can vanquish the Rebels this time around as they ever have.
"We know them very well and know that we are very capable of winning as long as we execute our game plan," said Roy. "We are ready for UNLV. It's going to be one of the games everyone has their eyes on for this tournament. I believe whoever wins this game has a chance of making a run at the finals."
