Undefeated hockey team takes show on road
■After a successful opening
weekend at home, the Oregon
hockey team travels to L.A. to
face the Trojans and the Bruins
By Inge Scheve
For the Emerald
The Oregon club hockey team is
facing defending Pac-8 champion
USC tonight, then moving on to
UCLA — last year’s No. 2 team —
for its Friday and Saturday night
showdowns.
The Trojans lost only one senior
player after last season. Oregon
team captain Tyler Shaffar pointed
out that USC has a terrific home-ice
advantage. USC may bring their
band out and their crowds are
consistently large.
“We have so many new guys. It
will be intimidating to them,” Shaf
far said. “[USC] is a good program
that has been around for a long
time.”
Tonight’s outcome will depend
on Oregon’s ability to match its
lines against USC’s. That will be a
change from the Stanford games
last weekend because the Ducks
could contain the one star player
for the Cardinal and be successful.
The Trojans, however, have several
solid lines.
“They’re pretty deep, so you
can’t match it all the time,” Shaffar
said.
Goalie Josh Hardin is instrumen
tal in the Oregon weekend strategy.
“He’ll be a deciding factor on
whether we come out successful,”
Shaffar said. “We’ll have to keep
the game close early on.”
Shaffar is concerned about trav
eling the day of the game. The team
used to travel the day before the
game so it could have time to rest
and practice before playing. The
change in plans is part of the new
club travel rules for the hockey
team.
“It will take us a while to get our
legs into the game,” Shaffar said.
The team will be using any spare
time today to catch some much
needed Zs rather than ice time be
fore facing the Trojans.
Although the team enjoyed a
winning season opener with its roll
over Stanford last weekend, there’s
no time to rest.
“Those games didn’t mean too
much as far as what’s coming up for
us,” he said.
Shaffar hopes the team hasn’t be
come too confident or too compla
cent.
“We have to get used to more
physical play these next couple of
weeks,” he said. “Stanford is really
pretty weak. They had only one
good player, and USC, especially,
has a whole bunch of them. And
both L.A. teams will hit a lot more.
Some of the new guys don’t really
understand the quality of these pro
grams.”
The Ducks are hoping to return
from Southern California with all
wins and all grins, of course, but
Shaffar said he would consider tak
ing two-out-of-three a success.
Three games in three nights is
tough and could result in road
burnout for the team, Shaffar said.
Additionally, the team skated in
only two decent practices this week,
as Shaffar labeled Tuesday’s prac
tice “pathetic.”
The Ducks will bring their games
back to Eugene next weekend when
they take on Montana State Friday
and Saturday
Ultimate Frisbee fundraiser
The Club Sports men’s and
women’s Ultimate Frisbee teams are
hosting an all-comers’ hat tourna
ment Sunday.
For only five dollars, students can
play a whole day of Ultimate Fris
bee. Sign-up starts at 9:30 a.m., with
the games beginning at 10 a.m. All
of the action will take place on the
south bank fields next to the Autzen
Foot Bridge by the Willamette River.
For more information, contact
Joshua Greenough by telephone at
346-9663 or by e-mail at jgree
nou@gladstone.uoregon.edu.
Preseason
motions tie
up Blazers
PORTLAND — The Portland
Trailblazers can’t wait to get the
preseason over with, and their
boredom has shown in their two
losses.
The latest was a 90-83 defeat to
the Los Angeles Clippers Tuesday
night at Staples Center, the Blazers’
first visit to the building since they
blew a 15-point lead in the fourth
quarter, losing Game 7 to the L.A.
Lakers in the Western Conference
finals last June.
“You’re never going to totally for
get what happened,” said Blazer
forward Scottie Pippen. “But every
year is different.”
Pippen, ready to begin his 14th
NBA season, was essentially fur
loughed from the first week of prac
tices and sat out the first two exhi
bition games — a close win over the
Clippers and an overtime loss at
Golden State. He played 13 min
utes and scored two points in a
101-83 defeat of the Warriors Sun
day night. On Wednesday night,
Pippen got his first start of the pre
season, playing 21 minutes but
missing all five of his field-goal at
tempts and remaining scoreless.
The Blazers are 2-2 and face the
prospect of playing the first few
weeks of the regular season without
center Arvydas Sabonis.
“We have to turn it up and start
playing better and smarter,” Pippen
said. “We were dragging and coast
ing through [Wednesday’s] game,
and we gave a young team some
thing to get excited about.”
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