The San Diego State ice hockey team skated on thin ice thisweekend but avoided falling through.
The Aztecs narrowly avoided losing their first game in theircurrent five-game winning streak Saturday at the Ray and Joan KrocCenter, tying the College of the Canyons 3-3.
SDSU came out aggressively in the first period against the Cougarswith Nick Lewarne scoring the first goal on an assist from freshmanGeoff Kemper.
However, the Cougars answered with a powerful second period ofplay in which they scored three unanswered goals against the Aztecs.
Entering the third period with a 3-1 deficit, SDSU was revitalizedby a goal from senior Brian Stevens and a game-tying goal fromfreshman Will Charland.
The contest went into overtime to be settled, yet neither teamcould score, leading to the final result of a 3-3 tie.
A standout performance came from freshman goaltender CoreyJackson, who made several key saves throughout the game, includingduring the crucial overtime period.
“It was not our best effort of the season, but we found a way tocome back from a 3-1 deficit, which shows that our team has someheart,” president Neil Konitshek said.
SDSU will head to Arizona next to take on Arizona State in atwo-game series this Friday and Saturday.
MEN’S CREW
SDSU’s men’s crew team rowed in local waters this past Sunday asit participated in the San Diego Fall Classic Regatta in Mission Bay.Performing in the tournament with the Aztecs included schools such asUCSD, USD and UC Santa Barbara.
In its last head race of the fall season, SDSU sent five differentteams to race, including a varsity A and B eight-man boat, novice Aand B eight-man boat, and a lightweight four-man boat.
Taking first in the varsity eight-man race was the A team, whichled the other 13 teams in the race with a time of 20:15, beating thesecond-place qualifier by 10 seconds. This first-place finish is thevarsity’s first in more than 10 years.
The novice A eight-man boat took second place in its first race ofthe year with a time of 21:52. SDSU’s novice B team took 10th placein its race with a total time of 23:48.
The Aztecs’ lightweight four-man boat finished second out of fourteams, with a time of 22:48.
“This is a great way to end the fall head racing season,” crewpresident Matt Pawlak said. “It puts a statement out to all the otherteams that we will be a tough team to compete against.”
CYCLING
This past Sunday, the SDSU cycling team’s cross-country racersparticipated in the Mad Max Race in Fontana at Southridge Park.
Because of the recent wildfires, the Aztecs have had many of theirtraining courses in the mountains burned to ashes. Although this hashindered SDSU’s training schedule, it has found many trails acrossSan Diego in which to practice instead.
However, the cross-country racers were able to turn in a solidperformance this weekend as Roland Danner finished the race in first.Ryan MacDonald finished close behind Danner, taking second place.
“The team is doing excellent,” cyclist Andre Sanches said. “Thewildfires that hit San Diego really messed up our training, but roadtraining has been resumed since air quality improved quite a bit.
The Aztecs will join UCSD in hosting the San Diego State MountainBike at 9 a.m. Sunday at UCSD.
