by Travis Weber
Daily Lobo
The UNM Ice Wolves hit the rink for their first games of the season last weekend in Austin, Texas, against the University of Texas Longhorns.
It was a rough start. The Ice Wolves dropped both games to the Longhorns, but first-year head coach Dwight Stokham said it was a good beginning, and the team shows a lot of promise.
Friday night began slowly for UNM as Texas' Jeff Husk opened the scoring four minutes into the game. The Longhorns controlled the tempo for the next four minutes until Justin Tcheng put one in off the post, making the Ice Wolves deficit 2-0.
The Ice Wolves fought back early in the second period, as sophomore Gus Herold put the team's first goal of the year in to close the gap to 2-1. Herold was assisted on the goal by senior Ben Njus and sophomore Doug Alden.
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But that was all UNM got. Texas dominated the remainder of the game in front of a crowd of 200 for its home opener. At the close of the second period, Texas was up 6-1.
The final period was slow and choppy as both teams seemed to get bogged down. In the end, the Longhorns put the Ice Wolves away 8-1.
"It was a tough game for us," Stokham said. "To start with, they had way more players than us. We didn't have a full roster, and it showed all night long. Their four lines against our two just wore us down."
Game two was a different story. Saturday night, the Wolves showed up ready to play with better odds thanks to the addition of two more players who had been unable to make the drive for Friday's game.
UNM came out with guns blazing. Two quick goals by Ian McMaster and Jason Schulz caught the Longhorns off guard and gave UNM an early lead.
Things got difficult when the Ice Wolves found themselves in the penalty box and down a man.
"It was like the refs saw us gaining momentum and wanted to stop it," UNM forward Nick Erven said. "They were calling everything."
Texas quickly took advantage of the Ice Wolves' misfortunes and started to dominate once again. By the end of the second period, the Longhorns looked like they were in total control, with a 5-2 lead.
In the third period, the Texas string of unanswered goals reached seven. UNM put together a late charge as Schulz and McMaster each scored their second goals of the game to make it 7-4. Billy Cottle assisted on both goals, giving him four assists for the night.
In the end, the Ice Wolves' efforts fell short and Texas won the second game 8-4.
The Wolves found reason to be optimistic despite losing both games.
"We played better the second night," Stokham said. "We played more as a team, too, and it showed."
Goaltender Matt Stokham recorded over 60 saves in the two games.
The Ice Wolves take on Texas Tech in their home opener in two weeks on Oct. 8 and 9.
