by Travis Weber
Daily Lobo
The UNM Ice Wolves earned a hard-fought split over the weekend against the Arizona State Sun Devils in their first home games of the spring season.
The Ice Wolves took the momentum from their 6-1 win in the finals over the Sun Devils of the Dallas Cup last weekend into Friday's game against ASU.
That momentum helped the Ice Wolves to a 7-4 win.
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The game was exciting from the beginning, with the scoring starting just four minutes in by ASU. The Ice Wolves answered, however, putting up two of their own to make the score 2-1 after the first period.
The game also featured a newcomer to the Ice Wolves' lineup in Paul Fraies, a 30-year-old freshman goalie who made his first start of the season. He recorded 33 saves in the game. Head coach Joel Cormier said he was pleased with his new goalie.
"Paul really played nice in net," Cormier said. "He made some big saves."
As for the rest of the first game, the Ice Wolves outshot the Sun Devils 38-37 in a fast-paced back-and-forth game. Trading goals throughout most of the game, the Ice Wolves started to pull away at the end of the second period when forward Billy Cottle scored his second goal of the game, giving the Wolves a 5-2 lead.
"Our first line of Billy, Ian McMaster and Jason Schulz played well tonight," Cormier said. "They have been solid leaders on this team night in and night out."
In the second game Saturday the Ice Wolves came out strong but seemed to tire as the game wore on, Cormier said.
"We came out well tonight, and I was satisfied with the guy's effort," Cormier said. "The fatigue just started to show from playing so many games in such a short time span."
It was the Ice Wolves' fifth game in nine days, and it marked the fifth time this season they've played the Sun Devils.
"I think we have made our mark on that team," McMaster said. "We won four out of five against them. ASU is a good Division II team, and now they know we are too."
The weekend's split brings the Ice Wolves' season record to 15-7-1, with just six games remaining.
"No matter what happens the rest of the way, we are still going to have a winning record for the first time in years," Cormier said.
The Ice Wolves will take this week off before getting back to business next week against Colorado College. Both games will be home games for the Wolves.
