BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Sophomore
defenseman Mike Mount skates the puck past a
Stanford player on Friday.
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The UCLA ice hockey team has no problem with the first two
periods. It’s that final one that tends to give them
trouble.
The Bruins (2-6-0, 1-3 Pac-8) found themselves down 2-1 at the
start of the third period of Friday’s conference game versus
Stanford (5-2, 2-0), well within striking distance of victory.
Then UCLA left winger Dave Cokely tied the game in the first
minute with a hard slapshot from the hashmarks, beating the
Cardinal goalie glove side.
With 14:08 left, Bruin center Kevin Connolly beat two Cardinal
players with some nifty puck-handling and slid the puck across the
ice to a streaking Robert Morel, whose one-timer found its way into
the back of the net.
Right winger Lenin Pacas made it a 4-2 UCLA lead when his
quick-wrist shot off a Robert Laatsch pass went through the
Stanford goalie’s five-hole.
But as quickly as the Bruins took the lead, the Cardinals struck
back. With three goals in a little over four minutes, the Stanford
team, led by speedy forward Bobby Jaros, took advantage of some
tired and inexperienced UCLA legs.
“I think we were a better team than Stanford, and we let
them beat us that night,” Grahling said. “I think
everyone was disappointed, but at the same time we’re trying
to take positive things in that we did play well in the first two
periods and then just let down for a brief period of
that.”
Grahling, along with assistant coach Mike Siegel, pointed to the
team’s youth and inexperience, along with a general lack of
conditioning, to account for the team’s third period
demise.
“We get a lot of guys who are out there too long and they
get tired,” UCLA assistant coach Mike Siegel said.
“Because they’re tired, they start making mental
mistakes. They start missing their coverage and they start missing
their man.
“And before you know it, a few pucks go in the
net.”
The Bruins, whose goal is to allow between 30 and 35 shots a
game, gave up almost 50 shots to Stanford not only on Friday, but
on Saturday as well.
After falling behind 3-0 in the first period on Saturday, the
Bruins bounced back to make it a 4-3 game at the end of the second
period. But UCLA could not hold on to the momentum, and Stanford
pulled away to win 7-4.
“Unfortunately it seems to be a pattern that we’re
most definitely looking to cease from happening any further,”
Eric Grahling said.
“We have to exercise a little bit more,” goalie Matt
Hsu said. “It really is about conditioning.”
The team is well aware that it’s early in the season and
are concentrating on Friday’s game against USC. With every
game they play, Siegel and the rest of the Bruins are hopeful that
they’ll turn things around.
“They’re just not mentally tough enough right
now,” Siegel said. “They’ve got to get more
experience under their belts and as the season goes along
they’ll toughen up and play much better down the
stretch.”