It’s been building for one of the lesser-known club teams, and now it’s the UNM hockey team’s time.
The Lobos’ chance to play for a national championship starts today in Colorado Springs, Colo.
UNM finished its 2010-11 American Collegiate Hockey Association season 16-5-2 overall, and it opens as the No. 10 seed against No. 3 Iowa State in the ACHA National Tournament’s Pacific Regional.
UNM graduate student Grant Harvey, Jr. said this is the crowning achievement of his hockey career.
“This is one of the biggest deals of my life and collectively,” he said. “I don’t think any other member of the team has played in a bigger game. It has been something that has been culminating for three to four years, and we have been waiting for a bid for that long.”
The Lobos are one of eight teams in the Pacific region, with the three other regions being the Atlantic, Northern and Southern. Each regional consists of seeds three through 10, while the top two teams bypass regionals and earn an automatic bid to play in the Nationals tournament.
The regional tournament is single-elimination format, and UNM finds itself at a disadvantage since its the lowest seed in the region.
Harvey said the situation is cutthroat.
“It’s exactly like the NCAA tournament,” he said. “You win one, and you move on, and if you don’t, you’re done and you go home. I don’t want to say that it’s all for nothing, but man, how many practices and games have you played to get there?”
If the Lobos win two regional games in Colorado Springs, they will play in nationals and have a shot at a national championship.
Donald Gadomski, a member of the UNM hockey team for four years, said despite being the lowest seed in their region, the Lobos’ tough regular-season schedule helped them.
“We had a worse record than last year, but that’s because we were playing a lot tougher schedule,” he said. “However, there were teams that we were able to beat this year that we weren’t able to beat this year.”
Harvey said he doesn’t mind the tournament seeding, but he feels underappreciated.
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“The fact that everywhere we go, teams assume that we’re a win under their belt,” he said. “We go into every game with a chip on our shoulder, and we don’t mind being the underdog or being under the radar.”
