By Layton Shumway
On Saturday, Dec. 9, 2006, the Provo IceCats were missing their coach, one of their leading goal scorers and playing against Eastern Washington University, the second-ranked team in their division.
The end result was a 5-0 IceCats loss to the Eagles at The Peaks Ice Arena in Provo.
Junior forward Derek Battisti, who led the IceCats with 10 goals on the season prior to this weekend”s games, was suspended because of a penalty given during the IceCats” 11-1 win over Utah on Friday night. Without him, the IceCats failed to find the back of the net against an Eastern Washington team that hasn”t lost a game this season.
“Derek”s a goal scorer,” team captain James Burkart said. “He produces a lot of our offense, so losing a goal scorer like Derek hurt.”
In fact, the IceCats were outshot by the Eagles 54-26. Assistant coach Doug Kimball — who was filling in for head coach Ed Gantt, who was away on university business — said the disparity in shots was partially due to the IceCats” inaccuracy.
“We were shooting wide, so we didn”t get any rebounds,” Kimball said.
By contrast, Eastern Washington put away several rebound goals, beginning in the first period when an Eagle shot flew wide of the net, hit the boards behind IceCats goalie Ben Shapiro, and caromed straight to Eastern Washington”s Josh Pickens, who fired it into the net.
Given the number of shots he faced, Shapiro played well, but fell victim to several unlucky bounces, rebounds and deflections.
“I thought Shapiro still did a good job, but we”ve got to put some points on the board too,” Kimball said.
The loss drops the IceCats to 7-7-0-1 on the season. The team”s final game before the Christmas break will be this Friday at The Peaks Ice Arena against Utah State.
