The San Diego Gulls do not face off their 2024-25 American Hockey League home schedule until Oct. 18 when they host Coachella Valley at Pechanga Arena.
In the meantime, the San Diego State University men’s ice hockey team is off to a 2-0 start.
The Aztecs had to take a lot of confidence into its this weekend’s Western Collegiate Hockey League opening series in Tucson against the University of Arizona. It’s a big step forward for the SDSU program as the Aztecs get to test themselves against a U-of-A team that qualified for last season’s national championship tournament.
SDSU head coach Dean Wilson set a task to assemble the best possible lineup to face the Wildcats based on a pair of inter-divisional matchups against ACHA Division 2 squads Loyola Marymount University (6-1 win on Sept. 14) and CSU-Northridge (6-4 win on Sept. 21).
SDSU scored six goals in each game with seven different players scoring goals and 12 players notching at least one assist. Cameron Ferraz came out of the mix leading the team with four goals, including a hat trick in the season opener against LMU and an empty net goal against Northridge. Captain Marcus Kim ranks second on the team with three points on three assists.
It was an uphill battle most of the way against Northridge as SDSU featured a lineup with a few tweaks to allow more players valuable ice time. Ferraz played defense, for instance, while Mason Brown, last season’s No. 2 scorer, did not dress.
Players stepping forward included second-year Aztec Max Kathol with a pair of goals and Ryan Elleraas with a goal and assist. Players netting their first goal of the season included Patrick Morris and Luke Desmarais while Patrick Fast, Connor Macaulay and Gavin O’Bryan each logged an assist.
Wilson said he was pleased with how his team dealt with the adversity presented in the game.
Northridge was able to score once during a five-minute major penalty en route to racking up a commanding 19-9 edge in shots in the first period but the Aztecs ended the period in a 2-2 stalemate on the scoreboard. Morris put SDSU in front at 3:07 with his first tally of the season and Desmarais slid in an innocent roller into the back of the net at 16:56 to knot the teams up. Hayden Day and Ryan Doane (powerplay) each potted goals for the visitors.
The Aztecs reversed course somewhat with a 16-11 edge in shots in the middle period that saw each team score once for a 3-3 standoff through 40 minutes.
SDSU out-shot CSUN 11- 9 in the final period with a 3-1 edge in goals. However, the final stanza opened on a sour note for the hosts as the Matadors took a 4-3 lead just 59 seconds into the period on a goal by rookie Ethan Yang. But the Aztecs righted their ship with three unanswered goals to finish off the period with a flurry of shots in front of CSUN netminder Oliver Hicks.
Elleraas tied the score, 4-4 with 12:30 remaining in the game. Kathol scored his second goal of the game with 7:46 to play to push SDSU in front 5-4 and Ferraz capped the dramatic comeback with an empty net goal with 15 seconds left.
“It shows that we have resilience,” said Kathol, who tallied two goals and eight points in 23 games last season. “It doesn’t matter what the score is, it doesn’t matter what type of game it is, we always have that will to win, have that fight, that’s good to see in our team this year moving forward that we have that in ourselves, because if we didn’t it would be a problem. I have confidence in the games upcoming.”
