By Kayla Boardman (@kaylarboardman)
San Jose State ice hockey has a tough weekend ahead of them — three Southern California teams in the three days.
Coming off of a disappointing weekend where they lost two of three games, the Spartans need to start finding the back of the net.
On Thursday night, the Spartans (2-7-1) face off against their first opponent, the CSU Fullerton Titans (3-2). Then on Friday night they battle against the UCLA Bruins (2-1) followed by the LMU Lions (5-3) Saturday afternoon.
Although SJSU has has played more games than all three teams it’s up against, it also has lost most of those games. The team seems to have a pretty consistent pattern: play a strong first period and then lose steam in the second and third.
Being up against these strong teams this weekend, the Spartans will need to work on keeping the puck out of their zone and getting it into the opposing team’s net. The team also needs to focus on keeping its stamina up for the entire game.
Starting off against the Titans, the team will need to take advantage of this being the first game of the weekend and start the trip off on a positive note. Then the Spartans will face off against the Bruins, who won three tournaments just last season including the LA Kings College Cup.
In the last game against the Lions, the Spartans will need to watch out for senior forward Matt Boente, who is captain of the team and scored seven goals in three games last weekend. This team also has played close to the same amount of games as SJSU has so far this season.
Two SJSU players to keep an eye on are freshmen Etinosa Obaseki, a forward, and Ryan Ellis, a defenseman. Both players scored on Sunday against Long Beach assisted by senior forward Jared Anstett, the team’s leader in points.
The games are Thursday at 10:15 p.m., Friday at 10:15 p.m. and Saturday at 5:45 p.m.
