By Jeremy Trail
After four league games, the Provo IceCat hockey team remains undefeated.
With just one win this weekend over the previously defeated University of New Mexico team, the team will secure this year”s league championship title for the IceCats. The Cougars take on UNM Friday and Saturday, Nov. 9-10.
The UNM team will be a different team than the IceCats faced a couple of weeks ago, said assistant coach Ed Gantt.
“They will be looking for some payback,” he said. “We spanked them pretty good last time.”
The Ice Wolves will be playing with a full bench this time around against the IceCats.
The Wolves” bench will include the three Solace brothers – Eric, Edgar, and Oscar, from Anchorage, Alaska. Edgar is the Ice Wolves” primary scorer, having scored 11 goals and eight assists for a total of 19 points in six games, said Gantt.
Earlier this season, the Ice Wolves beat Montana State University in two games, 7-3 and 9-3.
The IceCats snuck past MSU this past weekend, winning 5-3 and 6-5.
“It will be a hard-fought game,” Gantt said.
The coaches have done what they can to prepare the IceCat players mentally, hoping the team will be prepared for the hard games, Gantt said.
“We”re not going to underestimate them,” said Haws Hexberg, IceCat goaltender. “We will play them just like any other team.”
The Provo team won in its first contests with the Albuquerque team, 13-2 and 8-4.
Brock Roblin, an IceCat center and one of the team”s leading scorers, will return after health concerns to assist his team in the battle for the championship, said Patrick Perrett, assistant IceCat coach.
The Outpost ice arena, the Ice Wolves” home ice, will also offer the UNM team an advantage.
“The rink is the size of a large basketball court,” said Patrick Perrett.
Last year in Albuquerque, the IceCats out-shot the Ice Wolves three to one, but still lost partly due to the Ice Wolves” small ice, Perrett said.
The IceCat hockey team will be back in Utah to face Utah State University on November 15, at 7:15 p.m. Thursday night at Oquirrh Park in Kearns, Salt Lake County.
The IceCats added a game against the Vikings from BYU-Idaho to the schedule and will challenge them at Seven Peaks Ice Arena on Friday, November 16, at 9 p.m.
