February 19, 2012
One goal decides the tightest playoff race in WCRHL history
Expect the most competitive WCRHL Regional Championship Tournament ever
It is only fitting that the last Division I game of the event (and regular season for all teams other than Arizona State and University of Arizona) featured a rematch of last year’s Division I National Championship Game, with 2010-2011 National Champion Long Beach State taking on 2010-2011 National Runner-up Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. In a back and forth battle that featured multiple chances at both ends, it had striking similarities to the National Championship Game from last year.
Going into the game, Cal Poly was one part of a 3-way tie with UC Santa Barbara and UNLV. Cal Poly had one game in hand, against Long Beach. UNLV would finish as the 3 seed regardless, as their 28 points were made up of 11 wins and 6 ties. Total wins being the first tiebreaker, Cal Poly and UCSB 2-2 head-to-head on the season, and the next tiebreaker was goal differential. The 2 teams were deadlocked, with the last Cal Poly game still to play. Cal Poly would need to win or tie to earn the #1 seed into Regionals, and the 2nd Division I (WCRHL) bid to Nationals would be theirs.
Cal Poly took the early lead with a goal from Ryan Newens just 2 minutes and 17 seconds into the game. Long Beach would score just 2 minutes and 10 seconds later, and the teams would trade goals, until Cal Poly managed a 2-goal lead (4-2) with 8:49 remaining in the 2nd period.
Long Beach State cut the lead to 1 with 3:40 remaining in the 2nd period, on a power play goal by Skylar Hoar. With 2:16 remaining in the 2nd period, Hoar scored Long Beach’s 4th goal of the game, to tie it up at 4-4. The 3rd period featured very few shots, 4 total for each team, with strategic breakouts, man to man defense and mid-rink turnovers. Hoar completed the natural hat trick with 3:48 remaining in the game, giving Long Beach their first lead of the game at 5-4. Cal Poly battled back, handling much of the puck in the last 2 minutes of the game, but unable to score.
In the end, Cal Poly, UNLV and UCSB were in a 3-way tie for 1st place. As stated previously, UNLV would finish #3 due to having less wins on the season. UCSB earned the #1 bid, by having a goal differential of +43 on the season, with Cal Poly’s being +42.
Long Beach finished in 4th and Arizona State will finish in 5th on the season, although ASU does have 2 more games in the season. ASU will be playing U of A on Saturday February 26th again at Barney’s in a 2-game home series, to finish off the season.
The top 5 teams will compete at the WCRHL Regional Championship Tournament on March 3-4, 2012 at Corona Inline. The schedule will be online at: http://wcrhl.com/schedule.php?event_id=1321