Saturday, Feb. 2— Oregon 9, PSU 1

 The Ducks regular season quietly came to a close Saturday night as the Ducks routed the Portland State Vikings in a commanding 9-1 win Saturday night.

Kyle Adamson had the win in net again for Oregon, facing 16 shots. The Ducks saw scoring from Connor McBride, Kyle Lederer (2), Pat Thornton (3), AJ Bernhardt, Dillon Abate and Sam Jossie.

Oregon improved to 20-8 on the season, and travels to Anaheim, CA next weekend for the Pac-8 Conference Playoffs.

Friday, Feb. 1—Oregon 9, PSU 2

Oregon took game one of the two-game series vs. Portland State. The Vikings took an early 1-0 lead after Oregon gave away a breakaway six minutes into the period. Down by a goal, Dan Sulitzer passed the puck up to Sam Jossie down the right side, who found the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1.

In the second period, it was all Ducks as Oregon saw two goals from Pat Thornton, along with goals by Garrett Roberts, and Dan and Alex Sulitzer.

Portland State started off the third with a power play goal, but Alex Sulitzer had a goal and Connor McBride added a pair of his own to pad the Ducks lead.

Goalie Kyle Adamson earned the win for the Ducks with 15 saves.

Alex Sulitzer battles for the puck with a Boise State defender on Jan. 18 in the Ducks 9-1 win over the Broncos at Lane County Ice. Photo by Tess Freeman/Emerald

Check out the Ducks in the Daily Emerald.

It was a bitter end to a tough home stand. Playing in their seventh game in nine days, fatigue seemed to set in as Oregon fell to Cal 7-5, for the first time in five years at Lane County Ice on Saturday. Garrett Roberts had two goals for the Ducks in the loss.

Weekend scores:

Wed, Jan 16: Oregon 7, Boise State 6

The Ducks took game one on Wednesday, besting Boise State in a 7-6 nail biting victory. Pat Thornton had the game winning goal and Oregon was able to hold off a late third period attack that saw Boise chisel away at a three-goal lead.

Thurs, Jan 17: Oregon 9, Boise State 1

Fri, Jan 18: Oregon 9, Cal 4

Oregon travels to San Jose next weekend for a showcase in which they will face off against four western region powerhouses: San Jose State, UNLV, San Diego State and Texas A&M.

Pat Thornton puts home goal one in the first period of the Ducks 3-2 loss to Utah Friday night in Salt Lake City, UT

Saturday, Jan 12: Oregon 3, Utah 2 (shootout)

With under a minute to play and  trailing by a goal, the Ducks looked like they were on their way to a fifth-straight loss in two years to a tough Utah Utes hockey team. But a seemingly benign pass to the front of the net bounced off a Utah defender and in, tying the game 2-2.

The two teams played to a 2-2 tie through overtime and the first five-shooter round of the shootout with Connor McBride being the lone goal scorer for Oregon to keep them alive, and goalie Danny Cockriel holding the Utes to just one goal. Finally, the seventh shooter Matt Hanlon was able to squeeze the puck past goaltender Pete Gibb, giving the Ducks a 3-2 win over No. 6 ranked Utah.

It was the Ducks first win over a top-ten opponent since knocking off Eastern Washington in 2011.

McBride had another goal in regulation of his own in a hard-fought win that was marked by 29 penalties, the majority of which went to Utah.

Cockriel was sensational in net, with 34 saves against a Utah offense that averages nearly seven goals a game.

Sunday, Jan 13: Weber State 7, Oregon 5 

It was a quick turn around that saw the Ducks travel up to Ogden to play a talented No.5 ranked Weber State team Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. The Ducks made their case in an attempt to string together back-to-back wins over top-10 ranked opponents, but penalties late in the third helped pave the way to the Wildcats chippy 7-5 comeback win over Oregon.

The Ducks started off strong, with a powerplay goal that the Wildcats answered with a goal of their own. Pat Sgarlata added a Ducks goal late in the first to give Oregon a 2-1 lead through the first period.

Nick Kuehl found the back of the net early to give Oregon a 3-1 lead, but back-to-back Weber State goals tied the game at 3-3 heading into the third. Oregon looked poised to take its second straight win over a ranked opponent, after goals by captain Pat Thornton and defenseman Matt Hanlon gave the Ducks a 5-3 lead.

But penalties late in the third opened the door to a handful of opportunities. The Wildcats capitalized, scoring three unanswered goals, the game winner with less than three minutes to play, capped by an empty net goal with seconds remaining.

Cockriel was outstanding again, stopping 45 of the 51 shots he faced. Weber State had two players ejected in the game, the first for boarding and the second for kneeing.

Friday Jan 11: Utah 3, Oregon 2

In game one on the weekend, the Ducks took an early lead, but couldn’t hold off a powerful University of Utah offense in a 3-2 loss to the Utes in Salt Lake City, Utah on Friday night.

Oregon’s first period goal came off a shot by senior Pat Thornton. Utah’s Ben Seastrand scored in the second period on a power play goal to tie the game before the Utes took the lead early in the third period.

Six minutes later junior Nick Kuehl answered with a goal of his own to bring the Ducks within one but the Utes were able to hold off Oregon’s attack late in the game.

Story by Isaac Rosenthal

For the Emerald.

Check out the video recap here.

For three years, Oregon watched as bitter rivals Washington won the I-5 Cup year after year — but not this time. Alex Sulitzer’s overtime goal gave the Ducks their first series win against Washington since 2008 and returned the I-5 Cup trophy to Eugene.

“This is kind of a storybook ending to the I-5 Cup,” said senior defenseman Matt Hanlon. “This is what we had hoped for, a raucous crowd, our team was buzzing the whole game and we won in overtime and stormed the ice. Pretty much everything you could have hoped for.”

Oregon won the season series 3-1 with a pair of home wins after the teams split the first two games in Washington. But entering Saturday night, the script was anything but written.

Before the puck even dropped on the Ducks’ I-5 cup clinching victory, the teams needed to play the last 5:45 of the game originally scheduled for Friday night. With the Ducks leading that game 3-2 late in the third period, Oregon’s Garrett Roberts checked a Husky through a plane of glass and the game had to be suspended until Saturday so the boards could be repaired.

“That was a big momentum swing for us,” Hanlon said. “We played a solid five minutes of hockey and shut them down. That was pretty positive for us.”

In the fourth game of the series, the Ducks and Huskies played a back and forth game for three periods with neither team building a two-goal lead. The Ducks had a golden opportunity to win it late in regulation with a five-minute power play but couldn’t score, and even allowed Washington to score a shorthanded goal, but Tyler Halverson forced overtime with a gorgeous blue-line goal.

“It was tough,” said captain Patrick Thornton. “We knew we had nine minutes left to go and we just had to keep shooting the puck because everybody can score on our team … We just kept going after that ‘w.’ ”

About four minutes into the extra frame, Sulitzer nearly set up teammate AJ Bernhardt for the game winner but the one-time shot went wide. But the puck stayed with the Ducks and on the ensuing sequence, Bernhardt returned the favor and Sulitzer put the puck in the net for the series clinching goal.

“It was a little bit discouraging missing the net on a really good opportunity,” Bernhardt said. “But we didn’t let up and we got the goal that won the cup.”

For Dan Effinger, the team’s lone fifth-year player, the win brought things full circle. The Ducks last won the I-5 Cup in Effinger’s freshman year, and he says it was much sweeter the second time around.

“This one was a lot more of a battle than the one in the past,” he said. “The one we won my freshman year we controlled pretty much every game, I think we swept them in the series. But this one means a lot more, we battled through a lot of adversity in this one, and the way it ended in OT on the power play, it was just awesome.”

SATURDAY

BELLINGHAM— For the second night in a row, the Vikings drove the Ducks to overtime. This time, Oregon and Western Washington played through overtime to a 4-4 tie.

In the shootout, it was all Danny Cockriel. The Ducks’ goalie stood up all three shooters he faced as Stephen Casey, Alex Sulitzer and Nick Kuehl scored in their shootout attempts to send the Ducks (10-1) home victorious.

Connor McBride stayed hot, with yet another hat trick. Stats (yet to be updated) that he has 18 goals in the Ducks’ 11 games.

FRIDAY

OREGON 4, WWU 3 (OT)

BELLINGHAM—In the final minute of overtime, defenseman AJ Bernhardt cut across the middle of the slot towards the Vikings net. But a vicious elbow sent Bernhardt flying to the ice.

Western Washington was given a 5-minute major for the penalty, giving the Ducks a man advantage. That was exactly what they needed.

With nine seconds left in OT, Connor McBride’s one-timer from Tyler Halverson found the back of the net, capping the Ducks’ comeback win over Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA on Friday. The win gave the Ducks a 4-3 win over the Vikings, after trailing by a goal midway through the third period.

Danny Cockriel got the win in net for the Ducks, facing 35 shots. Pat Thornton and Stephen Casey had a goal each, and McBride had two goals in the win.

Defenseman Dan Sulitzer was given a DQ at the end of the game following a post game scrum involving a handful of players from both benches.

ANAHEIM, CA—It wasn’t pretty but they got it done.

After a slow start to the first two periods, the Ducks were able to add a pair of goals and hold the Trojans scoreless in the third period to win their sixth straight Pac-8 game over USC, 5-3 at Anaheim Ice on Thursday night.

Sam Jossie scored a crucial insurance goal late in the third period, AJ Bernhardt had a pair of goals, as did Trevor McCarty and Stephen Casey.

The Ducks are back on the ice at Anaheim Ice tonight at 8:30pm, before traveling north to Valencia to play College of the Canyons Saturday at 1:15.

With the game tightened up at 4 to 3 with under two minutes left, the Ducks penalty kill came up big with a short 5 on 3 penalty kill before AJ Bernhardt capped the night off with an empty net goal, giving the Ducks a 5 to 3 victory over the University of Washington at Olympic View Ice Arena on Saturday night.The win was the Ducks first against Washington since 2010.

The Huskies started out with a quick two goal lead, but the Ducks slowly fought back and took a 3 to 2 lead into the 3rd period after two timely powerplay goals; the first by Connor McBride and the second by Nick Kuehl, his second of the night. Dan Sulitzer added an insurance goal in the 3rd before Washington netted a late powerplay goal.

Goaltender Kyle Adamson was solid all night for the Ducks in net and was awarded the hardest working Duck of the weekend by his teammates. Adamson made several saves with a crucial save late in the third on a penalty kill which ended the Huskies chances for an overtime period.

The Ducks improved to 5 and 1 on the young season and will head to Los Angeles next weekend for games vs USC and College of the Canyons.

Trevor McCarty faces off against a Husky center during Saturday night’s game.