Hockey Club closes out home schedule with loss to Western Washington

Boise State Club Hockey. (Robby Milo/The Arbiter)

Boise State hosted the Vikings of Western Washington University last Saturday and Sunday to close out their home schedule for the 2011-12 season.

The teams started out a little slow as they felt each other out to start. However, Western Washington got on the board early and often, jumping out to 3-0 lead only eight minutes and thirty seconds into the first period.

The Broncos thought they got on the board to make it 3-1 with 7:43 left in the first period. The goal would be waived off by a goal tender interference penalty. Less than a minute later Western Washington added a power play goal to make it 4-0.

Boise was finally able to get on the board with their own power-play goal with 6:27 left in the first period. The goal was scored by freshman Morgan Cunningham from Kenai, Alaska, making it 4-1. Devon Harris a freshman from Boise and Matt Nukaya-Heady a junior from Idaho Falls, assisted Cunningham on the play. Another goal was scored in the first period, but by the opposing team with 3:31 left in the period.

The second period came and went without much excitement, as both teams were unable to score. Western Washington added two goals in the third period to make the final score 7-1. The Broncos junior goalie and Boise-native Dan Beaudreau made great saves, but the attack of the Vikings was just too much.

Devon Harris and Matt Nukaya-Heady were the Broncos highlight players. It seemed as if Nukaya-Heady won every face-off of the night. Harris looked to be the enforcer for the team, laying some heavy hits throughout the game.

Claude Cardinal is a sophomore and in his first year as the club president.  He is pleased with the progress of the team but says there is still a lot of work to do.

“It takes about $60,000 to operate a season,” states Cardinal, “to find a balance with the players, booster club and the great help we have with donors and sponsors would be a step in the right direction.”

According to university records there was a hockey team at Boise State in the 70’s but under its current format it has been in existence for 5 years. They reached a milestone on Dec. 10, when they had 2,000 people in attendance for a game against the University of Idaho and were able to raise $16,000 plus for meals on wheels. Claude hopes that through the team website and through other advertising, the knowledge that there is a hockey team will continue to grow.

The team is having a fundraiser to help raise money.  There are only 5,000 tickets available and they are $5 each.

“The grand prize is $6000 in tuition to Boise State and the second prize is a year’s books up to $1000.”  Cardinal said. For information and to purchase tickets you can visit www.boisestatehockeyclub.com.

The team would also like to thank President Bob Kustra and his wife for attending the team’s games in McCall against the Idaho Vandals.  They are working hard on putting a competitive team together and would love the support of everyone to help make that happen.

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Posted by Wyatt Martin on Feb 16 2012. Filed under Sports, Sub Feature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.