By Brittany Ochtinsky

Senior Reporter

Oakland University’s hockey team left the frigid Michigan weather behind last weekend when the Golden Grizzlies hopped on a plane and headed to Tucson, Ariz. Their reception, however, was less than sunny as they dropped Friday’s game against the University of Arizona, 7-4.

Robbie Nowinski almost single-handedly won the game for the Icecats, netting five goals. He scored once in the first period, once in the second and three times in the third.

Down 3-2 after the first period, head coach Sean Hogan pulled goaltender Collin Chase in favor of Andrew Hansen, who was eventually charged with his first loss of the season.

“We brought Collin out after the first period, but that was actually his choice,” said Hogan. “He came to us and said ‘I’m fighting the puck, I’m not really feeling it today.’ He’s entitled to an off night, it just happens.”

Kevin Kranker and Brett Haugh scored two first period goals for the Grizzlies. After Nowinski reeled off four straight goals, Todd Orlando retaliated with two of his own in the third period, 18 seconds apart. 

But the Grizzlies failed to capitalize on three straight 5-on-3 opportunities at the end of the game and Nowinski sealed the deal by hitting an empty netter with 1:26 remaining.

In a rare occurrence for the position, Arizona goaltender Nick Boddy was assessed a 10-minute misconduct penalty in the second period, which he was forced to serve himself. Luke Edwall was brought in to replace him until the penalty had expired. Edwall stopped all five shots he faced.

The Grizzlies returned Saturday night with the focus they had lacked the night before and it showed, as they silenced the Icecats and their taunting fans with a 5-0 shutout victory.

Brent Cooper put up a pair of goals to bring his total to a team-leading 16 on the season. Cody Austin and Colin Ronayne each netted their first goals as Grizzlies since joining the team Jan. 4 and Matt Kowalczyk added one final goal with five seconds left on the clock.

“Goals don’t come by often for me, so I told the boys before, ‘If I score, you’re going to see the worst celebration ever,’ and I think I gave it to them,” said Ronayne. “I had nothing but smiles after that.”

Hansen was granted the start in net and picked up his first career shutout, stopping all 40 shots by Arizona.

“It felt good to play and it felt even better to win. The shutout was just nice so we didn’t have to hear the fans taunt us anymore,” said Hansen, whose shutout was Oakland’s first since Chase blanked Western Michigan University Jan. 5, 2007.

Ronayne also became the first Grizzly to receive a fighting disqualification since the infamous WMU brawl Nov. 24, 2006, in which three players were suspended for dropping the gloves. Ronayne will sit out this Friday’s game against the University at Buffalo.

With the end of the season nearing, there are still plenty of kinks to be ironed out before nationals, if the team can remain one of the top 16 teams.

“We’ve got a thing with splitting, if we could figure out one night or the other, it would make it a lot easier on us,” said Cooper. “Every game is a new lesson; we just have to come out prepared every night.”