To kick off the first of the final five games of the season, all at home, the San Diego State Aztecs got shut out by the University of Arizona Wildcats by a score of 7-0. The Aztecs are still winless in a tough Western Collegiate Hockey League, the team’s division in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA).

San Diego State had played Arizona in the first two games of the season, losing both of them by a score of 9-3 and 5-2.

Goaltender Liam Dee set the tone early in the first by making a save on a breakaway from Arizona forward and recent transfer Wyatt Stefan, son of former NHL player Patrik Stefan.

Halfway through the first, defenseman Cameron Ferraz got a roughing penalty, putting the Aztecs on a penalty kill against a good Wildcat power play, who came into the game with a 27% power play percentage.

The penalty came back to bite the Aztecs on a shot from Wildcat forward Carter Hanrahan. He scored on a two-on-one chance that went over Dee’s glove hand, giving them a 1-0 lead.

The first period ended with no other scoring chances as the Aztecs played one of their better first periods of the season.

Just under two minutes into the second period, the Aztecs were on a penalty kill for the second time after a high-sticking penalty from forward Mason Brown.

Arizona converted yet again on the power play following a shot from forward Dylan Walker to make it a 2-0 game.

The second period is the best period goal differential-wise for the Wildcats and they showed every part of it in the first five minutes, forcing Dee to make big saves yet again.

San Diego got an unlucky break after forward Drew Gunderson passed the puck to the point to defenseman Cameron Ferraz, whose stick broke on the one-time shot. It proved to be even unluckier as the puck bounced to forward Tyler Shetland who gave a breakaway pass to leading scorer Riley Ruh.

Ruh proved why he is the top scorer for the Wildcats as he put the puck past Dee to put Arizona up by three goals.

San Diego State got their best scoring chance in the second on a one-timer from assistant captain Luke Desmarais, but his shot went right into the chest of Gould.

Arizona got another breakaway and Walker scored his second goal of the game to make the second period even worse for San Diego State. They found themselves facing a four-goal deficit just halfway through the period.

Defenseman Connor Hennigan laid a huge hit on Hanrahan and the Aztecs went the other way with forward Brandon Grant having a breakaway of his own, but his backhand shot went wide.

Immediately after, Arizona got a two-on-one and Ruh passed it to Shetland who scored, making it a 5-0 game.

Forward Michael Pizzo was left open in front of the net and he did not waste the opportunity, scoring yet another goal for the Wildcats.

Brown had his second penalty of the period, but the Aztecs killed their first penalty of the game to keep it 6-0 Arizona. The horn sounded not long after, signaling the end of a brutal second period for San Diego State.

In the third, defenseman Gavin O’Bryan was called for a roughing penalty after he shoved an Arizona player out of Dee’s crease.

On the power play, Wildcat defenseman Billy Moloney got his first career ACHA goal for the third power-play goal and the seventh overall goal of the game for Arizona.

Poor discipline for the Aztecs was the theme of the game after a tripping penalty from Brown, his third of the game, but it was successfully killed.

Halfway through the period, San Diego State got their first power play of the game, coming into it with a 19.5% success rate. However, it was unsuccessful and they were still searching for their first goal of the game.

The third period proved to be heated with both teams getting into shouting and shoving matches. Culminating in a mini-fight with Aztec forward Sean Devaney and Moloney both getting double minor roughing penalties and a 10-minute misconduct.

The score remained the same for the remainder of the game with the Wildcats shutting out the Aztecs by a score of 7-0. Arizona improved to 13-12-0-0 while the Aztecs dropped to 4-20-0-1.

“I think that we need to play more consistently in the second game,” Gunderson said. “We have all the pieces to play a solid 60 minutes, but we just need to bring it every shift if we want to come out with a win.”