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#6 Matadors finish regular season against #8 Northern Arizona this weekend |
The Matadors will finish the regular season this weekend with home games on Friday and Saturday night against the #8 ranked Northern Arizona Ice Jacks.
Last weekend Northridge lost to #5 Colorado 8-3. The two games this weekend will be important for the Matadors for two reasons. First both CSUN and NAU are 8-2 in the PCHA. The winner of the weekend series will clinch the #2 seed in the PCHA and receive a first round bye in the playoffs. Second CSUN has lost this season to #5 Colorado and #7 Santa Rosa Junior College. The Matadors cannot afford to lose to #8 NAU or else they will most likely drop in the final ranking making the road to Nationals that much more difficult.
The Matadors have won three straight games against the Ice Jacks. Last season in Flagstaff the Matadors won 9-4 and 13-1. During the 2009-10 season the Matadors won a game at home against the Ice Jacks 11-2. However the Ice Jacks are a much improved team this year.
Saturday night is Senior Night. Seven Matadors will be playing their final game at home. They include Chris Gale (5 year Matador), Cody Russell (5 year Matador), AJ Bernhardt (4 year Matador), Anthony Kendryna (3 year Matador), Jacob Forsch (3 year Matador), Jacob Potkin (3 year Matador) and John Dove (2 year Matador).
Face-off for both games will be at 8:30 PM. |
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#6 Matadors fall short to #5 Colorado |
Panorama City, Calif.- The #6 ranked Matadors faced a tough test in visiting #5 Colorado and ultimately lost 8-3.
The Buffaloes got on the board in a hurry 20 seconds into the game on their very first shot. Jesse Gasbarro stole the puck and backhanded it past goalie Kevin Noonan. Buffalo defenseman Andrew Jackson took the first penalty of the game, a tripping call, at 17:57. Matadors leading scorer Chris Gale at 16:11 buried a rebound past goalie Alex Puig to tie the score at one. A little over a half minute later Gasparro scored his second goal of the game to give the Buffaloes the lead back. At 9:41 Andrew Nelson scored to give Colorado a 3-1 lead. To end the period at 5:40 Gale scored his second goal of the game by deking around Puig and sliding the puck into the empty net.
In the second period at 12:44, while killing a penalty, AJ Bernhardt skated down the left wing, fanned on his initial shot, skated the puck around the net and stuffed it through the five hole of Puig on the near side of the net to tie the score at three. It was Bernhardt's first shorthanded goal of the season and the fifth of his four year career. But Colorado would answer at 9:18. Matt Conrad stuffed home a rebound past Noonan to give the Buffaloes the lead back at 4-3 heading into the third period.
In the final 20 minutes Nelson took the game over. He scored three straight goals to give him a total of four on the night. It was Nelson's first hat trick of the season. After the score was 7-3 Noonan was pulled in favor of Darko Debogovic. At 6:07, while on the power play, Christian Matta, who was the only Colorado player left to have played Northridge back in January 2010, scored to make it an 8-3 final.
Noonan dropped his record to 7-4-1 on the season.
The Matadors are now 13-6-1 overall. The Buffaloes improved their record to 14-6.
Next Friday and Saturday night the Matadors will finish the regular season with two games at home against #8 Northern Arizona. The Matadors will need to win both games to not only hold steady as the #6 team in the Pacific Region but also claim second place in the PCHA and receive a first round bye for the PCHA Playoffs. The playoffs will be held Feb. 3-5 in Bakersfield. College of the Canyons has already clinched the #1 seed. The worst Northridge can finish is third place. |
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#6 Matadors return home to take on #5 Colorado Friday |
The Matadors had a successful final road trip to the regular season going 2-0 with 9-2 and 19-5 wins over Fresno State and Santa Clara.
The last three games of the regular season, all at home, will be tough tests as #5 Colorado comes to town Friday and #8 Northern Arizona comes to town next Friday and Saturday.
Since the 2006-07 season Northridge and Colorado have played twice. The first time was at the 2009 Pacific Regional Finals in Sioux Center, IA. Colorado won that game 7-3 to advance to Nationals. In January 2010 Colorado traveled out to the Valley Ice Center and the Matadors got some revenge winning 5-3.
Puck drop for the game Friday night will be at 8:30 PM. |
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