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News 2005-2006 Team Awards: Team Voting Team Farewells: Jeff Imahara and Aaron Lim. Good luck with your future endeavors and see you at the alumni games! 2/3/06: In front of a packed house, the Aggies come out firing on all cylinders to give the fans a show to remember the season by. Unfortunately, the San Jose State Spartans quickly put up two goals in the first two minutes of the game. With momentum in the Spartan's favor, the Aggies played strong hockey for the next ten minutes until the Spartans capitalized on a breakaway. Late in the period, the Spartans took two penalties to give the Aggies two full minutes of a 5 on 3 power play. The power play was clicking in terms of puck movement and puck possession, but the Aggies just could not put one in. This closed out the first period with SJSU up 3-0. Three minutes into the second period, the Spartans scored again to put the Aggies into a 4-0 rut. But just one minute later, Jeff Imahara put a gift goal into a wide open net with a sweet pass from linemate Sean McGill. Strong play went by for the next 13 minutes by both sides, including a few big hits by the Aggies. Captain Chris Cress recovered the puck in the defensive zone and saw Andrew Le streaking up the middle with a defenseman trailing him trying to catch up. Cress flipped the puck over everyone's head, but shorted the pass by a few feet so Le put on the brakes and flipped the defenseman trailing him. Later on, Jeff Imahara carried the puck across the blue line and completely leveled the Spartan who was trying to hit him (and Imahara got the puck back). However, late in the period the Spartans put up two quick goals to take the 6-1 lead. With only 43 seconds left in the period, Eddie Birnbaum took a pass from Tobin Dennis, put a blast on net and Jeff Imahara tipped it off the post and in. Second period scoring totals: SJSU 3, Aggies 2 With a much needed intermission, the Aggies found
their rest for the third period. They also found their excitement from
the Synchro Team, who performed during the break. The Aggies came out
fired to play the last period of the hockey season. Just a minute into
the period, Eddie Birnbaum put another slapshot on net and this time it
was all him, with the assists coming from Stephen Gribble and Sean
McGill. Shortly after, Tobin Dennis hit Sean McGill on the breakout who
then found Jeff Imahara streaking for the breakaway. Imahara shook left,
shook right, then finally put the puck in the net for his third goal of
the night and the hat trick! With about 10 minutes left in the game, the
Spartans for the first time in the period to go up 7-4. With seven
minutes left and time winding down in the game, Eddie Birnbaum put in
his second goal of the night to bring the Aggies to within two goals,
receiving a pass from Sean McGill. The Spartans quickly rebounded to
take back their three goal cushion. With time quickly running out, coach
Mike White called for a time out with about two minutes remaining in the
game. With the goalie pulled, the Aggies controlled the last two minutes
of the game. In the last minute of the game, Andrew Le dished the puck
off to Chris Cress behind the goal line who then found fellow points
leader Eric Wulfemeyer parked in front of the net. Wulfemeyer put the
puck in the back of the net and that closed out the scoring for the
game. Third period scoring totals: SJSU 2, Aggies 4. Final Score:
SJSU 8, Aggies 6 1/28/06: In the 2nd game of the home and
home series with Santa Rosa, the Aggies finally broke the scoreless
streak. Tobin Dennis powered home an unassisted goal to move up in the
points race. He now is two points shy of the team lead and leads all
Aggie forwards in points. He also has many fewer games played. Final
score: Santa Rosa 9, Aggies 1. 1/27/06: With powerhouse Santa Rosa coming
into town, the Aggies prepared all week to take on the perennial playoff
contenders. The results showed as Aggie net-minder Angelo Arias kept the
game at 0-0 through the first period, thwarting numerous scoring
opportunities from the Polar Bears. However, like in previous games the
same story played itself out and Santa Rosa proceeded to score nine
straight goals to finish out the game. 1/21/06: The highly anticipated rematch
between the Aggies and Palmer College started off on a bad foot when the
referees decided to give Captain Cress a penalty for unsportsmanlike
conduct on top of the slashing call he just received. The Aggies found
themselves down 0-2 in a hurry, but found salvation from an unlikely
source. 23 year old rookie Sean McGill finally found the back of the net
for his first ever UC Davis goal with superstar sensation (although in a
down year) Jeff Imahara coming through with the sweet pass. Palmer added
another goal, but Sean McGill responded a minute later with the assists
coming from Imahara and Tobin Dennis. Midway through the second period,
Palmer tallied up two goals, but the Aggies' big line put up a big goal
just 9 seconds later with Tobin Dennis scoring on assists from Robin Liu
and (now tied for Aggie points leader) Eric Wulfemeyer. Some believe he
received a phantom assist. Palmer went on to score four more goals to
close out the game 3-9. 1/15/06: The 9:30 AM match between the
Aggies and COC started out slow for both teams, showing that sleep is
indeed an important need for the human body. Just like the CSUN game,
COC put up the first two goals of the game, which was the only scoring
in the first period. Then early in the 2nd period, Aggie star Andrew Le
stepped up big time as linemate Aaron Lim hit him with a breakaway pass.
Le then faked the shot with a shoulder shrug then put the puck blocker
side to cut the defecit to 1-2. Once again, just like the CSUN
game, COC proceeded to put up 7 straight goals on the tired Aggies. In
the midst of all this action, two scrums broke out. The first one saw
the usually passive Sean McGill receive a 5 minute major penalty for
charging and in the aftermath, he lost his helmet. The next
extracurricular activity saw Chris Cress and Dan Nguyen double teaming a
COC player after Andrew Le had ripped off the COC player's helmet (his
slyness made it so he did not receive a penalty, but Cress and Nguyen
both ended up in the box). Late in the 3rd period, defenseman Eric
Wulfemeyer switched to forward and it paid off instantly. He took a shot
in the slot in which Tobin Dennis redirected and saw the goalie stop the
shot, but Andrew Le snuck in and put in his second goal of the night.
Would we see UC Davis' first hat trick of the year? With Le taking a
shift off, Wulfemeyer kept up the offense by taking a pass from Eddie
Birnbaum and sneaking the puck by the goalie. Back comes Andrew Le on to
the ice. With Tobin Dennis losing the faceoff in the Aggie's defensive
zone, Andrew Le applied the quick pressure on the COC defenseman who
proceeded to lose the puck and off went Le down the ice. He did the same
move from his first goal and put the puck blocker side again for his
third goal of the night. Final: Aggies 4, COC 9 1/14/06: CSU Fullerton forfeited. 1/8/06: The Aggies came out fired up to play
the PCHA league leader in CSU Northridge. Davis net minder Angelo Arias
stopped puck after puck to keep the Aggies close in the game. After one
period, the Aggies found themselves down only 0-2 to the division
leaders. Lack of offense would be the story of the day as the Aggies had
trouble establishing themselves in the offensive zone. The top line of
Andrew Le, Tobin Dennis, and Ben Dines had flashes of brilliance but
could not puck the puck in the net. During the second period, CSUN
scored four goals with two coming late in the period. The Aggies
played a hard third period to no avail as CSUN poured on to score seven
more goals. Captain Chris Cress spoiled the shutout by scoring from the
slot with a minute left with a nice pass from Tobin Dennis behind the
net to Jeff Ho on the far boards who then dished it to the wide open
Cress. 12/11/05: The Aggies ended the quarter with
a tough loss to SDSU by a score of 3-10. SDSU coaches Dave Mischel and
Dave Hough took all their tricks out of the bag to defeat former
teammate and now UC Davis head coach Michael White. The game was a hard
fought game by both sides with physical play right from the drop of the
puck. Aggie center Andrew Le got the show started by flipping an Aztec
player in the neutral zone early in the first period. Shortly after, the
DHL line (Dines-Ho-Le) delivered big time when Ben Dines scored a
shorthanded goal assisted by Andrew Le with Jeff Ho in the penalty box
to give the Aggies the early 1-0 lead. The Aztecs came back strong to
score 7 straight goals before Aggie rookie defenseman Eric Wulfemeyer
found the back of the net with passes from fellow rookies Aaron Lim and
Dan Nguyen. In the middle of the third, the DHL line was at it again
(shorthanded again no less) when Eric Wulfemeyer hit Ben Dines streaking
through the neutral zone. Ben skated in with Andrew Le 2 on 1, took the
shot and the rebound came right to Andrew for the sweet tap in goal.
SDSU added 2 more goals to close out the game. 12/9/05: Congratulations to Eric Wulfemeyer for winning the inaugural online poll for "Who will lead the team in points". Many suspect him of using other people's computers to vote for him. Ben Dines finished a distant 2nd, followed by Jeff Imahara, Andrew Le, Chris Cress, and finally Eddie Birnbaum. Interestingly enough, Chris Cress received very few votes although he currently leads the team in points... New poll to come shortly... 12/3/05: The Aggies couldn't quite pull out
a victory against Stanford. Down 5-8 with a minute remaining in the
game, Coach Mike White pulled starter Angelo Arias to put on the extra
attacker. The Aggies came close to scoring a goal, but Stanford was able
to put in two empty net goals to seal the game 5-10. Tobin Dennis
returned from injury to score the Aggies first goal of them game and
Jeff Imahara (finally) scored his first goal of the season. Captain
Chris Cress and Ben (who doesn't like his nickname) Dines each had a
goal and 2 assists. Eddie Birnbaum scored the other UC Davis goal. 11/21/05: Team updates: Ben Dines still leads the pack in goals with four, but Eric "Dub One" Wulfemeyer has crept up the charts with three on the year. Captain Chris Cress leads the team in assists and points once again, and is second on the team in PIMs to Andrew "Thug" Le. Robin Liu is second on the team with 3 assists, while Jeff Ho recorded an assist in his first game of the season against Palmer. Sniper Jeff Imahara is still snake bite as he has failed to find the back of the net in 5 games thus far. He led the team with 27 goals last year. Aaron Lim has not scored since his second game vs COC. In other news, the Aggies welcome Alex Tanguay's cousin Drew Tanguay to the team; he will join the Aggies for the Stanford game. Also, the players expected to return from injuries to play that game are Anthony Gadd (back), Tobin Dennis (elbow), Andrew Le (thigh), Eric Wulfemeyer (facial lacerations), Sean McGill (facial contusion), John Wan (knee), and Angelo Arias (knee).
11/14/05: Team updates: Ben Dines leads the pack in goals, while Chris Cress leads in assists and points. Chris Cress and Andrew Le are on track to hit the century mark in PIMs. On another note, the Aggies welcome Sean McGill and Mallory Stein to the club. Sniper Anthony Gadd remains on the injured list, but should return from his arm injury within a few weeks. Joining Gadd on the injured list is center Tobin Dennis (flu) and goalie Angelo Arias (calf). 10/22/05: While the Aggies are off to a slow start, it's not for lack of effort. If you watch a game, you can see them battling from start to finish no matter what the score. This young and rebuilding team is showing some potential and a lot of heart. Third year veterans Andrew "Stealth/Thug" Le, Captain Chris Cress, and Assistant Captain Tobin Dennis lead a pack of Aggies headlined by second year stars Ben "Meg" Dines, Assistant Captain Eddie Birnbaum (who is making a transition to defense), and goal scoring phenom Jeff Imahara. The rookies are making their impact felt as well, with freshman Eric "Dub One" Wulfemeyer and 5th year senior Aaron Lim scoring goals and throwing their weight around, while Dan Nguyen is playing like a veteran and Robin Liu and John Wan rapidly improve. Third year Christy Roberts is joined by newcomers Angelo Arias and Kenneth Jones as they all fight for the number one spot. With coaching from former captain Michael White, the Aggies have no where to go but up. 8/13/05: The UC Davis Ice Hockey team would like to wish former Head Coach Michael Idarola and Assistant Coach Richard Savage best wishes as they will not be returning for the upcoming season. We thank Coach Idarola for his contributions during the past two seasons, leading the team to consecutive playoff appearances, including a trip to the league finals in 2003-2004. Idarola leaves with what is believed to be the highest winning percentage among all time UC Davis coaches. We would also like to thank Coach Savage for his work this past season, especially working with the goaltenders and sharing his knowledge with them. We wish them well in their future endeavors and hope that they will be able to stay a part of the team is some capacity. In related news, we are proud to announce that former Captain Michael White has been named head coach. After graduating this past year, Michael found a job in the Sacramento area and has committed to coming out next season.
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