Hockey has successful first half of season

UK hockey players stood and banged their sticks on the ice in salute to a supportive fan base after the clock had wound down to zero on the first half of their season.

The fans returned the love, passing on the chance to run for an early exit to stay in their seats past 2 a.m. and cheer in appreciation for the team.

UK stands at 17-6 at the halfway mark of the season and reached a high of No. 2 in the Southeast division rankings at one point in the year.

“At 17-6 we’re thrilled,” UK head coach Rob Docherty said. “You can’t ask for any more.”

Docherty credited the preparation of the team as the key to their early success, citing how game-ready the players were at tryouts.

The success of the team has been dampened with four straight losses to close out the semester after being swept by both Illinois and Ohio State.

Those defeats dropped UK to No. 4 in the rankings and likely sent hopes of landing an automatic bid to nationals down in flames. Despite their drop, the team holds high hopes of maneuvering into a good postseason position.

“It hurts (losing the last four games), we really wanted that autobid,” senior forward Tony Valerino said. “But now we get to focus on just playing well, improving across the board.”

The pressure of trying to hold onto the No. 2 ranking, and the automatic bid that comes with it, may have contributed to the late skid. Junior forward Taylor Vit said the team felt more pressure to prove they were deserving of the No. 2 ranking when they held it.

“We put getting that autobid over games in general,” Docherty said. “We kind of focused too much on the rankings, where we were. Just winning would have let everything fall into place. But there’s less pressure now; we won’t be panicked about every game feeling like a must-win.”

The long Christmas break could hardly have been better timed. UK gets a chance to recuperate and refocus, junior goalie Jim Borgaard said. UK will also get a chance to recover from injuries that popped up over the last few weeks. Borgaard said most players were banged up with injuries that come from a long semester of physical hockey.

In addition to the typical bumps and bruises, senior center Dan Ampleford, the anchor of the second line, broke a collarbone and is out for at least another month.

UK will also get a chance to improve its lines, which was shuffled after Ampleford’s injury. Docherty made a simple switch because of the limited time between weekends, but now has the opportunity to fully assess the lines.

“We’re going to be looking at the lines, absolutely,” Docherty said. “And we need more consistency of going out hungry. We can’t have some lines giving 110 percent and some giving 90 percent.”

Getting the lines to gel could be the key to the second half of the season. Borgaard said developing chemistry amongst the new lines would help achieve the balanced offense UK covets.

“We need to get our lines clicking again,” Borgaard said. “They aren’t quite the same, simply because it takes time to develop chemistry. We have that time now, and we can get our lines flying up and down the ice again.”