In short overtime, CSUN’s ice hockey team ended their season with an exciting win against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, Feb. 1, at the Iceoplex in Simi Valley, California. The last home game of the season also celebrated three seniors, Isaac Anderson, Christopher Franklin and Dylan Roberts.
Anderson, the team captain, was asked how it felt to play his last home game.
“It was pretty surreal to play my last game in our home rink. I have a lot of great memories there, and the emotions all sort of hit me at once after the game was over,” said Anderson.
Right away, the Matadors’s forward Kyle Warwick assisted Conner Souza at the 18-minute mark, scoring the night’s first goal. But UCSB answered right back after a penalty by Nicholas Privitera, which gave UCSB’s Adian Murzagaliyev a one-on-one chance with the Matadors goalie to score for UCSB. Murzagaliyev scored two more goals, netting himself a hat trick in the first period alone to put UCSB up 3-1.
By the end of the first period, the Matadors were down by one with a s
core of 4-3 as Cole Kommisar scored. Goaltender Peter Larson scored his first CSUN goal of the season with 13 seconds left in the first period, which helped the Matadors inch their way closer to UCSB.
Reflecting on the season, Anderson said, “We’ve had a season with a lot of ebbs and flows, and this game kind of reflected that. We’re trying not to get too high or too low during the course of a game, and we play a much better style of hockey when we can stay out of the penalty box.”
During the second period, CSUN’s Christopher Franklin made a big hit against the Gauchos, Peter Fabian sending him down and causing the crowd to be heard in unison saying “ooh.” In an interview after the game with CSUN Sports Clubs, Franklin talked about the hit:
“You gotta be physical sometimes and throw in a big hit every now and then can shift the moment. And that’s what I try to do whenever I go out and I just give it everything I got. I thought the hit was clean, but I think that’s why most guys were smiling and laughing about it. It is what it is. We still came out with a dub, so we’ll take that one,” Franklin said.
The Matadors had more penalties than UCSB, 11 compared to seven, but they played hard defense, going after the puck and taking shots to keep coming right back on top of UCSB.
It was an intense match going back and forth, with UCSB tying it up multiple times, but it was time for overtime when the third period ended with a score of 7-7. In a three-on-three overtime period, Ethan Yang scored the game-winning goal to end it four minutes into overtime.
“It’s always a good feeling to be able to close out a game,” said Yang.
Reflecting on his freshman season, Yang said, “I’d say this season went pretty well for me. Me being a freshman, I learned how to be in certain moments, and in our last game at home kind of reflected our season. [I] couldn’t be more thankful to get a win. Our last home game with the best group.”
“I’m confident in this group, and coming in as the seventh seed, we sort of have that underdog mentality,” said Anderson. “But we know when we play the right way, we can compete with any team in our league; it’s just a matter of sustaining that and everyone buying into it.”
Yang also said how he feels about going into the Division 2 conference game, “I’m obviously excited for playoffs. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do, and I think we have the potential to do some damage and turn heads.”
