It was a season that would try the patience of any coach, much less a first-year helmsman stepping into a program playing its first season in one of the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s top tier national leagues.
The San Diego State University men’s ice hockey team thus carried a 4-23-0-1 overall record with 22 consecutive losses to Western Collegiate Hockey League opponents into its season-ending non-conference game against crosstown rival UC San Diego on Feb. 22 at the Kroc Center Ice Arena.
Much to the chagrin of SDSU head coach Dean Wilson, the Aztecs trailed the Tritons, 1-0, at the end of the first period despite owning a 23-6 advantage in shots. The game was tied, 1-1, through two periods with SDSU holding a 44-12 edge in shots.
But the floodgates finally opened in the third period as SDSU piled up a decisive 5-1 scoring run to emerge with a much-needed 6-2 win on Senior Night.
“What kind of a season it’s been!” is how Wilson could only describe it.
The Aztecs rounded out their third season at the ACHA Division 1 level. The program’s first foray into the division resulted in a 1-20-1 record followed by a more encouraging sophomore season at 8-14-1.
But a coaching change ushered in SDSU’s junior campaign that saw seven seniors on the ice, six of whom were on the ice against the Tritons.
The WCHL features seven ranked top 25 teams. The Aztecs played six of them. Some of the results were not viewer friendly, including 19-1 and 16-2 loses to UNLV, 15-0 and 8-0 to the University of Utah, 11-0 to Grand Canyon University and 9-2 to Arizona State.
SDSU was shut out six times.
But Aztec skaters proved they were in it for the long haul.
“We’re pretty much playing a top 25-type program in each of our conference games and it’s not easy when you’re up against guys who are 23 and 24 years old who have incoming experience from junior leagues and we’re still in the process of developing 18- to 20-year-olds,” Wilson said. “But even with our record, we showed growth.
“We were bitten by the injury bug that hampered us. Our biggest problem was that we just couldn’t close out games, that’s the bottom line.”
The season finale against UCSD spoke to that.
Peter Dukakis gave the Tritons (6-16) a 1-0 lead with 26 seconds to play in the opening period. The Aztecs finally tied it, 1-1, with 2:22 left on the clock in the middle period on a goal by Nicolas Grigoropoulos. Benjamin Hollingsworth and Marcus Kim drew assists.
UC San Diego scored again in the third period but SDSU was able to offset that with five tallies of its own.
Six players finished with two points: Lucas Bellig, Mason Brown, Cameron Ferraz and Toby Petrus each with a goal and assist and Luke Desmarais and Kim each with two assists. All three goaltenders each played one period: Brody Hsaio (13 saves on 14 shots), Liam Dee (six saves on six shots) and Nicolas Heinzle (five saves on six shots)
SDSU out shot UCSD 66-26. Isaac Laddon made 60 saves for the Tritons..
The Aztecs finished 5-23-0-1.
