Candace Riley // Freshman defenseman #16 Mike Walsh celebrates #14 Hunter Lane’s first period goal on Sept. 20, 2019

Test? Passed.

While the Midwest College Hockey conference’s Maryville Saints did not clock as one of the ACHA’s D1 top 25 teams, there were plenty of reasons why Oklahoma may have come out flat in their season opener – six months’ worth of offseason being one of them. 

Oklahoma was willing to insert freshmen defensemen Mike Walsh and Cameron Bickford into the lineup, and on the Sooners’ first powerplay, coach Berge trotted out the right-shooting Bickford onto the ice. Lining up across from Isaac Bosse may be intimidating – and rewarding -- but Bickford looked right at home. (Here, he sets up the explosive Bosse for a go-ahead PPG on Saturday.)

Walsh made his living on the penalty kill with his active stick and poise – a promising performance before conference play. I could say the same about Ben Fugger – another new name that looks to be headed for regularity.

If anyone was worried about the new sweaters, names or numbers, Hunter Lane was not among said group. It took the sophomore forward just over three minutes to make his presence felt on Friday, finishing off a Luc Whyte rebound. After Raymond Wilson snuck a wrister far post to make the score 2-0, Hunter Lane capped off his first period work with a forehand-backhand finish to make it 3-0 – and Oklahoma never looked back. 

Candace Riley // Assistant captain Raymond Wilson scores his first goal of the season on Friday

 

Phil Babb recorded the 5-0 shutout win on Friday, his first of the season.

However, Maryville struck first on Saturday afternoon, giving the Saints an early 1-0 lead.

Josh Pusar poked a loose puck home, Isaac Bosse (as previously mentioned) blasted one high corner and Hunter Lane scored again to go into intermission Sooners 3, Saints 1.

As much as has been spoken about early season jitters, nothing could have prepared the Saints for the bevy of strange bounces that were about to occur in the middle frame. Coming off consecutive losses in the state of Oklahoma, Maryville played very well on Saturday, and even made the score 3-2.

Charles Joly then released a full power slapshot off the mask of Arren Romeril; the puck launched skyward, spent a second on top of the cage and ended up in the goal. To add insult to injury: The goal counted after a lengthy review, and Romeril had to be replaced by 6’6 ‘tender Ed Coffey. Coffey then had to deny more than one point-blank shot in the ensuing minutes.

Oklahoma ultimately won 7-2 – they are 2-0-0 on the season – and they handled their business well as the defending WCHL champions Arizona are coming to town on October 3.

“We just had to set the tone early,” Lane said. “Last year, we had a tendency to come out slow, and this year we seem to have fixed that so far, so hopefully we can keep that up.”

Oklahoma had a wild 2018-19 playing against the Wildcats and Sun Devils, going 3-3-0 combined. Let’s start with Arizona State – despite the team’s WCHL-worst record, the Devils defeated Oklahoma at the BIC on October 25 in regulation. The night after, Arizona’s Bayley Marshall scored a walkoff tally with (let’s say) 10 seconds remaining in the 3rd period (tie game) to hand Oklahoma a consecutive regulation loss. The afternoon after that, Oklahoma earned its most valuable win of the season, defeating the eventual league champions Arizona by a score of 5-0.

Oklahoma visited Tempe, AZ on Jan. 18, and after jumping out to a 4-1 lead, the Sooners looked to be cruising to a routine win. The Sun Devils erased that deficit completely, and Paolo De Sousa eventually scored the shootout winner [5-4]. OU won comfortably on 01/19 by a score of 4-1.

Next week, Oklahoma plays the Wildcats once and the Sun Devils twice – let’s go with my projected starters.

THURSDAY, OCT 3 (Arizona)

Babb vs. Ciurro

FRIDAY, OCT 4 (Arizona ST)

Babb vs. Moore

SATURDAY, OCT 5 (Arizona ST)

Hawkes vs. Severtson

All photos are credited to Candace Riley. You can follow her work here.

Thanks for reading.

Written by John Adkins, Broadcaster and Deputy Media Director