Anxiety? This year, they didn't have it about getting there.
Getting farther than the past two years? Well…
Fresh off its 6
th consecutive victory over archrival Arizona State University to wind up the regular season Saturday, the
Grand Canyon University D1 Men's Hockey team more than solidified its momentum for its 3rd straight berth in the American Collegiate Hockey Association National Championships in two weeks in St. Louis, Missouri. The Lopes ended the regular season schedule first with a gritty 6-2 victory at their home ice of
AZ Ice Arcadia in Phoenix a week ago before heading east to Tempe and sweeping the final two-game series between the two, 4-1 Friday and 5-2 Saturday night. This past weekend's games became a tuneup for nationals, since they found out just days before that the Lopes clinched the 12
th seed in the 24-team field, pitting them against 20
th-seeded Grand Valley State University (Michigan) for a first-round matchup on Thursday, March 12 in St. Louis, Missouri.
The goals for the Lopes when playing two regular season games that ultimately wouldn't affect their standing in the postseason? At this time of year, the first two were easy: 1) rest those frontliners that were injured (which they did); and 2) build steam for the playoffs. The Lopes accomplished the second one emphatically – never trailing in the three games. In each matchup, the Lopes built no worse than a 3-0 cushion before the Sun Devils got on the scoreboard, and in Games 1 and 3 scored four straight goals to start the game. Of those 11 "starter goals", the combination of
Ben Oakland,
Tommy Wardas and
Ricky Nelson were responsible for two each, with Wardas finishing the 180 minutes of play with four goals and a pair of assists.
Meanwhile, on the backline, Lopes' senior goalie
Jacob DeMoranville made 65 saves in two starts, while Lopes' normal starter
Dmytro Kubrytskyi got a little extra rest, starting just the Friday game in Tempe and stopping 34 of 35 Sun Devils' shots.
The home finale win clinched the inaugural Camelback Cup trophy, which was unveiled this fall specifically for the Lopes-Sun Devils series. GCU won the final six games of the series after dropping the first matchup in Tempe in late October. Saturday's win accomplished another historic goal, since the Lopes
hit the 20-win mark for the second time ever, and wrapped up the win No. 20 in regular season play for the first time.
The Lopes now have 10 more days to rest the bumps and bruises of the season before heading to "The Show-Me State" for the first-round matchup against the 20
th-seeded Lakers. The two teams will face off for the first time ever in men's hockey. Both teams are seeking their first ACHA Division 1 title – although the Lakers did win the D2 national title back in 2011. The Lopes are trying to keep their 1
st-round success intact, since they've won their inaugural tournament game each of the last two years, while
trying to escape the 2nd round for the first time. The ACHA National Championship Game will be held on Tuesday, March 17.
