Cool Cats continue tear, eye national tournament

Tweet

Déjà vu is a beautiful thing for the UK club hockey team.

It was only one year ago that the Cool Cats started the season by losing seven of their first 12 games. That team responded to the adversity by winning 15 of their final 20, sweeping through the Southeast Regional Tournament and qualifying for the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II National Championship.

After a 4-9 start to this season, the Cats are looking to replicate last season’s surge and make it back to the national championship. With two wins over Dayton on Friday and Saturday night (6-2 and 3-2, respectively), the Cats have won seven of their past eight and earned a No. 9 ranking in the Southeast Region.

“We want to have that mindset that we want to win every hockey game right through to nationals,” head coach Rob Docherty said.

One of the reasons for UK’s recent success has been the play of their goalies. The Cool Cats are currently rotating three men between the pipes for different games, and all three have stepped up. Against Dayton on Saturday night, freshman Matt Bougie didn’t disappoint on his turn. With several point-blank saves in the second and third periods, Bougie’s play was a big factor in the 3-2 win.

“I wouldn’t say it surprised us because we all knew he was good, we’ve seen him in practice, but he really stepped up and made some huge saves when he needed to,” junior forward Tony Valerino said.

In the ACHA, the top two teams from each region automatically qualify for the national tournament. Teams ranked third through tenth then battle it out in the regional tournament. Sitting at No. 9, the Cats are currently in, but they know very well that one loss could be disastrous for the rest of the season.

“We have to win every game from here on out; we don’t have an option,” Bougie said. “We could stay in ninth and make it, but the mindset we have to have is to play our best hockey right now. So win every game from here on out, there’s nothing else.”

While the Cats experienced a huge turnover after many of last year’s players graduated, the leadership of this year’s upperclassman has guided the team. Valerino said despite the fact that they have captains and assistant captains, it’s been a joint effort among all the upperclassman to lead the way, and the recent hot streak hasn’t come as a surprise.

“I thought all year we were losing games we could have won,” Valerino said. “Now we’re really starting to come together, and we’re playing a lot better defensively.”

Junior defenseman and captain Andrew Serres echoed Valerino’s statement. According to Serres, there really isn’t a correlation in the ebb and flow of the past two seasons; it’s just a matter of the Cats getting their feet under themselves.

“We had a lot of new kids come in this year,” Serres said. “Now everyone is starting to get a hang of it and get their minds ready.”

The Cats will wait to see what their ranking is on Friday and whether they moved up or not. Either way, with only six games remaining in the regular season, the Cool Cats recognize that every team is trying to make it into the playoffs and only a set number of spots are available.

With a current top-ten ranking — good enough to earn a regional tournament bid — the Cats will be skating with a bull’s-eye on their chests.

“These teams are gunning for us and they want to be ranked too,” Docherty said. “That team (Dayton) wasn’t going to give up, they played us hard Friday and we played them hard Saturday, so I’m happy with what’s going on.”