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Alumni game results:
-The current team defeated the alumni by a score of 17-8, giving the
current team two victories in a row. Next year, the alumni will welcome
recent graduates Chris Cress, Andrew Le, Sean McGill, and Firrend Naaman
to the squad.
Team Awards:
Statistical Awards:
-Sniper (most goals): Keisuke Teeple
-Playmaker (most assists): Ben Dines
-Berk Nelson (most points): Ben Dines
-Chris Cress (most penalties): Chris Cress
As voted on by the team:
-Most Valuable Player: Jon Drinnan
-Rookie of the Year: Alex Sloan
-Most Improved: Patrick Langham
-Built Like Glass (often injured): Joaquin Rodriguez
-Best Dangler: Charlie Cohn
-Best Faceoff Man: Dan Nguyen
Congratulations to San Diego State on winning
the PCHA Adams Cup. San Diego State is coached by UC Davis alumni Dave
Hough, who also won the Pacific Region Coach of the Year.
Last game: PCHA League Playoffs in Bakersfield at
Bakersfield Ice Sports
-Friday, 2/29/08 vs Northern Arizona University (L 7-8)
-In a spirited battle against a short handed NAU, the Aggies played
their hearts out in a game that went down to the wire. Neither team ever
led by more than 2 goals, and NAU put the game away with 17 seconds left
in the final period. This was the final game for Aggies seniors Captain
Chris Cress, Alternate Captain Andrew Le, Sean McGill, and Firrend
Naaman. Ben Dines isn't really sure when he's graduating, so this might
have been his last game as well. The Aggies jumped out to a quick lead
when Captain Eddie Birnbaum, who made his debut as a forward after
playing defense the whole season, blasted a slap shot by the goalie only
1:20 into the game. After NAU tied the game, Charlie Cohn caught NAU on
a change and hit Andrew Le on the far blue line. The NAU defenders
quickly caught up, but Le used one of them as a screen and scored to
give the Aggies a lead once again. NAU added two goals in the last 2:30
of the 1st period to take a 3-2 lead.
-Early in the 2nd period while on the power play, Aggie defensemen Alex
Sloan put a shot on net which got redirected into the air. Sean McGill
batted the puck out of the air, but the shot was stopped by goalie. The
rebound was then put into the net by an NAU defender, which tied the
game at 3. Just over a minute later, NAU took a 4-3 lead. Halfway
through the period, the top line of Andrew Le, Ben Dines, and Keisuke
Teeple hooked up for a goal to tie the game at 4. Ben Dines brought the
puck into the offensive zone and hit Teeple cutting through the middle.
Teeple then dished it off to Le for a mini breakaway and Le put the puck
into the net off the far post. NAU scored the next two goals to take the
first two goal lead of the game. With about 3 minutes left in the frame,
the Aggies top line decided to hook up again, this time with Ben Dines
scoring off of passes from Teeple and Le. This goal saw Dines cut from
the left faceoff dot to the slot and putting the puck in shortside. NAU
scored a heartbreaker just about a minute later to kill all Aggie
momentum by taking another 2 goal lead. However, smooth skating
defenseman Charlie Cohn had other ideas and went coast to coast to score
a short handed goal with 11 seconds left to bring the Aggies within 1
goal.
-In the hard fought 3rd period, there would only be two goals scored.
Play went back and forth for 7 minutes into the 3rd before leading goal
scorer Keisuke Teeple blasted a puck into the net. With the Aggies set
up on the power play, Ben Dines slid a pass to point man Alex Sloan.
Sloan then saw Teeple posted up on the left faceoff dot for a perfect
one timer, but the pass was slightly off. Teeple caught the pass in his
feet, kicked the puck to his stick and blasted it away to tie the game
at 7-7. The rest of the game was a battle with both teams wanting the
victory. Every minute passes with no team scoring, but the chances were
plentiful. In the last minute with the game seemingly about to head into
overtime, NAU was able to connect on an end to end pass. Goal scored
with 17 seconds left in the game, Aggies down by 1 again. After a time
out called by the Aggies, Jon Drinnan was pulled for an extra attacker.
With only 7 seconds left and a faceoff in the neutral zone, the game
seemed over. Keisuke Teeple took the draw and poked the puck forward to
Ben Dines. Dines skated in and drew 3 NAU defenders to him, so he simply
slid the puck ahead of them. Andrew Le snuck in behind the defenders and
seemingly had a breakaway, when an NAU defender slid and ate up the
puck. Game over: NAU 8, UC Davis 7.
-Notes: Seniors Andrew Le and Sean McGill scored in their last
game...Chris Cress took 8 more PIMs...Keisuke Teeple was the only other
Aggies to take a penalty...Ben Dines had 3 assists to take over the team
lead with 20 total...
ACHA
Pacific Regional Tournament
-Friday, 2/15/08 vs #4 Dordt College(L 0-6)
-Saturday, 2/16/08 vs #5 Air Force (L 3-5)
2/10/08: The Aggies are going to ACHA
Division 3 Regional Playoffs! Information is available
here.
(Madi
Goss Tournament in Ellenton, Florida):
-Friday, 1/18/08 vs University of South Florida (L 3-5): The Aggies
came off a red eye flight Thursday night to play the host team. This
game featured two teams battling to stay top 10 in their respective
divisions, with the Aggies ranking 10th in the Pacific and the Ice Bulls
ranked 8th in the South. Before the start of the game, the two captains
lined up for a ceremonial faceoff with Madison Goss dropping the puck.
The game started off with 15 minutes of scoreless hockey, until USF's
2nd leading scorer Ricky Nelson put one in to take the early 1-0 lead.
The Ice Bulls seemingly put the game away when they struck for two quick
goals in the 2nd period for a 3-0 lead, until Aggies leading scorer Ben
Dines tipped a shot from Eric Wulfemeyer at the point to trim the
deficit to 3-1. USF answered with a heart breaking goal near the end of
the 2nd period to retake a 3 goal lead. Leading goal scorer Keisuke
Teeple added a goal midway through the 3rd period, but Ice Bull Ricky
Nelson (who would garner the Best Forward Award) netted a goal with
about 3 minutes left to finish his hat trick. With 41 seconds left,
Stephen Gribble scored a rebound goal which started with puck moving
defenseman Alex Sloan rushing up the ice, then feeding Patrick Langham
for a quick shot. The Aggies pulled Jon Drinnan, but to no avail.
Notes: Andrew Le extended his penalty-less streak to 10
games...Le also set a new career high with 14 points...Stephen Gribble
tied his career high in goals with 3...The Aggies took only 6 penalties,
in what might have been the fewest all season...Chris Cress took the 1st
penalty of the game, go figure...Jon Drinnan made 39 saves in the losing
effort...
-Saturday, 1/19/08 vs University of Cincinnati (W 2-1): This game
featured the Aggies facing off against the 13th ranked Bearcats (North).
Much like the night before, the game started off scoreless for most of
the 1st period, until the Zach Marker capitalized on the power play for
the Bearcats. There was lots of scrappy play and after the whistle
punches, which resulted in numerous roughing and various stick work
penalties. With a Bearcat in the box midway through the 2nd period,
Keisuke Teeple fed Andrew Le down low. Le then passed to Ben Dines, who
kicked it back to Le who scored the power play goal to tie the game at
1-1. Later in the period, sophomore forward/defenseman Charlie Cohn put
in his 4th goal of the season to take the slim 2-1 lead, which would
hold up as the game winner. The Bearcats pressured the Aggies and
peppered Jon Drinnan the rest of the game, totaling 40 shots on goal,
but the Aggies were able to hang on to win.
Notes: Jon Drinnan took his 1st ever penalty, clothes-lining a
Bearcat for an interference call...Stephen Gribble took his 1st two
penalties of the season after having 30 PIMs last season
-Saturday, 1/19/08 vs Life University (L 1-5): Before the puck
even dropped, the pressure was on the 1-1 Aggies to win by 2 goals to
make it to the Championship game. Life already won both its games and
due to the tie break situations, the Aggies needed to win by two goals
to pass FAU and Life in the standings. After motivational National
Anthem sung by Captain Chris Cress, the Aggies seemed pumped to play
this pivotal game. Unfortunately, Life started the scoring with a quick
goal 5 minutes into the game. After scoreless play for a while, Life
netted a heart breaking goal with only 30 seconds left in the 1st
period. Life took what seemed like complete control of momentum when
they score 4 minutes into the 2nd period to take a 3-0 lead. Luckily,
Aggies leading scorer Ben Dines put in a power play goal to slow Life
down. The goal came on a pass from Eric Wulfemeyer to Andrew Le in the
corner. Le attempted to cycle the puck, which took an awkward carom off
the Zamboni door right to Dines in the slot, who put the puck in the
net. After the intermission, Life netted two goals in the first 8
minutes of the 3rd period, at which Coach Rood swapped Jon Drinnan for
Firrend Naaman. Naaman shut out Life for the last 13 minutes of the
game.
Notes: This was Firrend Naaman's first action since the San Diego
State game...Dines continues to lead the team in PIMs this tournament
with 10...Many jokes about "life" were made...so corny...
-Sunday, 1/20/08 (3rd place game) vs Florida Atlantic University (W 4-3
OT/SO): After going 1-2 in the round robin play, the Aggies found
themselves matched up with a short benched FAU team. Make no mistake,
the short bench did not affect FAU's scoring ability, as at one point
they scored 6 unanswered goals on Life. FAU carried their scoring
prowess by scoring the 1st two goals of the game only 1 minute and a
half apart midway through the 1st period. The Aggies answered back when
halfway through the game, FAU made a goalie change. Ben Dines skated
with the puck into the slot area and fed a pass to a wide open Andrew
Le, who put the puck five hole on the new FAU goalie. Five minutes into
the 3rd period, Charlie Cohn scored his 2nd goal of the tournament to
give the Aggies a 2-2 tie. Sniper Keisuke Teeple scored his 12th goal of
the year just five minutes later to give the Aggies a 3-2 lead in the
game. This play started off in the Aggies zone, as FAU was dominating
play. When a loose puck found its way to the goal crease, Alex Sloan
dove and hand passed the puck out to Ben Dines, who skated and then
found a streaking Teeple for a breakaway goal when Teeple found the
blocker corner. With a slim lead, the Aggies tried to hold off the FAU
attack until Adrian Sosa scored with 4 minutes left to tie the game at
3-3. The game went into a 5 minute overtime, with both sides having
prime scoring chances. Still tied after overtime, the game went into the
most exciting moment in sports: a shoot out. The Aggies sent out Keisuke
Teeple, Ben Dines, Charlie Cohn, Eric Wulfemeyer, and Andrew Le for the
1st five shooters. FAU scored on two of their first four shots. Keisuke
Teeple tried to pick a corner, while Ben Dines was poke checked. Charlie
Cohn skated in from the left side and pulled an insane move to one hand
the puck into the net on the right side. Eric Wulfemeyer then was denied
on his attempt. This left the Aggies down 2-1 after four skaters apiece.
Andrew Le came down the right wing, cut towards the middle, and shot
five hole. As he skated by the goalie, he couldn't find the puck in the
net so he skated away with his head down. However, the referee was
pointing for a goal and the game was then tied at 2-2. FAU missed on its
last attempt, sending the shootout into bonus shooters. Let's fast
forward to the Aggies' 10th shooter, Dan Nguyen, who is more known as a
left handed faceoff specialist. Nguyen skated down the left wing, faked
the forehand shot, brought the puck to his backhand, and tucked the puck
five hole! The Aggies win??? Not yet. FAU still had one shooter to go.
All the pressure was now on Jon Drinnan. The FAU skater came in and took
a snap shot...which rang off the post! AGGIES WIN 3RD PLACE!
Notes: This was the first time ever that the Aggies went to OT
and a shootout in an ACHA games...Ben Dines set a new career high in
PIMs with 50...Dines also set new highs in assists and points, passing
his freshman year totals...Dines led the team with 16 PIMs in the
tournament...Andrew Le scored his 10th goal, tying his career high from
freshman year...Dines and Le led the team with 5 points in the
tournament...Alex Sloan broke two shafts and a blade in total...he broke
the shafts during warm ups...the blade was caught in the Zamboni
door...Chris Cress ended up singing 3 National Anthems (including the
Championship Game) because the tournament organizers loved his
performance so much from the Life game...Many Aggies were seen to be
extremely jittery due to the tournament's sponsorship by Red Bull...
1/5/08: The third ACHA rankings have been
released and are available
here. The Aggies slip to 10th in the Pacific region, while 4 fellow PCHA
members also rank in the top 10: San Diego State (2nd), Northern Arizona (3rd), CSU Northridge (4th),
and UC San Diego (9th).
11/28/07: The second ACHA rankings have been
released and are available
here. The Aggies rank 8th (again) in the Pacific region, while 4 fellow PCHA
members also rank in the top 10: San Diego State (2nd), Northern Arizona (3rd), CSU Northridge (5th),
and UC San Diego rounding out the pack at 10th.
11/7/07: The first ACHA rankings have been
released and are available
here. The Aggies rank 8th in the Pacific region, while 4 fellow PCHA
members also rank in the top 10: Northern Arizona (2nd), San Diego State
(3rd), Fresno State (6th), and CSU Northridge (9th).
11/1/07: Three games into the year and still
no update? Well here goes nothing...
-First game vs COC: The Aggies came out prepared to play the
College of the Canyons, who have participated in the ACHA Division 3
National Tournament for the past two years. The two teams battled for 7
minutes before the Aggies were able to capitalize on COC's penalties,
netting two power play goals within 40 seconds of each other. The Aggies
never let up as they took a 5-0 lead, including Spenser Wagner's first
ever UC Davis goal. However a COC power play goal would trim the lead to
5-1 early in the 2nd period. The Aggies would go on to score four more
unanswered goals to take the game by a final score of 9-1. The Aggies
new top line of Ben Dines-Andrew Le-Joaquin Rodriguez netted five goals
in the game, while the defense put three, and Spenser Wagner scoring to
round out the goals.
-Second game vs Redlands: Both teams were playing the second game
of back to backs, with Redlands having lost a heartbreaker to Santa
Clara University by the score of 7-8. Redlands came out firing and
scored the first goal 6 minutes into the game. Roughly 10 minutes later,
rookie Alex Sloan scored his first ever UC Davis goal on a shot from the
point that snuck its way past the Redlands goaltender. With less than a
minute left in the 1st period, Redlands scored a momentum swinging goal
to give them the 2-1 lead heading into the 1st intermission. Just 30
seconds into the 1st period, 5th year center Andrew Le scored a power
play goal to tie the game up at 2. Joaquin Rodriguez, who did not
receive an assist, caused havoc in front of the net making it easy for
Le to pick up the loose pucks. Fast forward to the 3rd period, the
Aggies lead a tight battle 3-2, when Redlands scores back to back goals
to take the 4-3 lead with 7 minutes left in the game. Sean McGill, who
is possibly in his 7th year in school, tied the game up off a sweet dish
from Spenser Wagner! However, at the next faceoff, Redlands caught the
Aggies off guard and scored the goal to retake the lead 6-5. Not to be
outdone, Ben Dines then caught Redlands flat footed and scored the next
equalizer. With 3:40 remaining in the game, Spenser Wagner stepped up
for the Aggies and defined 'clutch' when he scored the eventual game
winner off a feed from Alex Sloan.
-Third game vs Santa Clara: The game started out with Santa Clara
domination. It did not help that the Aggies had road legs for the first
period of the game. Santa Clara scored a quick goal to start the game,
and then added two late goals in the 1st period to take the 3-0 lead
heading into the intermission. Co-Captain Chris Cress did his best to
fire up the Aggies by continually laying out Santa Clara players,
noticeably on a penalty kill shift when he demolished three Santa Clara
players. Coming out for the 2nd period, the Aggies finally showed some
urgency, with rookie Keisuke Teeple scoring his first goal as an Aggie,
receiving assists from linemates Spenser Wagner and Sean McGill. Santa
Clara would add a goal to make the game 4-1, but the scoreboard did not
reflect the fact that the Aggies put up 21 shots on goal in the 2nd
period alone. Back out for the 3rd period, Santa Clara scored a quick
one for the 5-1 lead. The Aggies kept the pressure on, but could not
muster any goals until Sean McGill put one in with just under 3 minutes
left in the game to cut the deficit to 5-2. Shortly after with the net
empty, Charlie Cohn scored a power play goal to bring the Aggies within
2 goals, but it was too little too late as Santa Clara wound up winning
5-3.
Games notes through 3 games: Aggie 1st goals to date: Spenser
Wagner, Alex Sloan, Joaquin Rodriguez, Keisuke Teeple...Spenser Wagner
took over one season to score, as this is his 2nd season playing...In
his defense, he played defense last year...The Aggies started the season
2-0 for the first time since 2003-2004...
10/21/07: The Aggies swept the home opening
weekend with a decisive win over COC and a nail biter vs University of
Redlands. The webmaster has a big midterm on Monday, so a weekend recap
will appear Tuesday...
10/15/07: The start of the season is finally upon us! During the off
season, the Aggies lost Assistant Captain Tobin Dennis due to
graduation, and defenseman Nick Stromberg, who is taking a year off of
school. To mediate their losses, the return of Co-Captain Eddie Birnbaum
is a huge welcome to the young Aggie team. Highlighting the new faces to
the team are hard hitting junior transfers Nathan Clough (pronounced
Cluff), Joaquin Rodriguez, and freshman Alex Sloan (just turned 18, so
now he can go vote). Those three comprise
one of the strongest recruiting classes in recent Aggie history.
In addition to these three, Rachel Ciechon, Steven King (no relation to
the scary author), Patrick Langham, and Will Roberts look to contribute
on the ice. With the loss of the two aforementioned players, Andrew Le,
Ben Dines, Sean McGill (isn't he like 25 years old?), Spenser Wagner,
and Dan Nguyen look to battle for spots on the top lines. Wagner, who
last year played defense, is hoping for a strong sophomore campaign, "Yo
check it, you know last year I was playing defense, but I'm soooo stoked
to play forward this year!" Rounding out the returning forwards are Andy
Roberson and Stephen Gribble. Throughout the summer, Roberson has been
doing his best at antagonizing referees and being thrown out of games so
that it's all out of his system by the time the season starts.
Ironically Gribble, last year's Best Hair on the Team winner, had been
one of the refs in summer league that Roberson has been yelling at.
On defense, Co-Captain Chris Cress leads the pack
of 2005-2006 Rookie of the Year Eric Wulfemeyer, Birnbaum, 2006-2007
Rookie of the Year runner up Charlie Cohn, and Clough. Cress has been
looking good in preseason skates and has noticeably lost weight, "It's
amazing how much weight you can lose when you stop going to Froggies
with Sean McGill." Touche Chris. In addition to the new and improved
Cress, the Aggies expect to have Wulfemeyer healthy for the whole year.
He missed half of last season with various injuries. In net, MVP runner
up Jon Drinnan is manning the nets once again, with Angelo Arias and
Firrend Naaman backing him up. "You know, opening and closing the bench
doors have really increased my glove hand speed," exclaimed Naaman one
night after tryouts.
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