Candace Riley // Josh Pusar ices CSU on Jan. 23

Paolo De Sousa’s walk-off against Missouri State, Scott Joy’s buzzer beater on UCO and Bosse’s exclamation-mark against Colorado represent the closer – though definitely exciting – moments in the Sooners’ 14 home games at Blazers’ Ice Centre so far.

The last 13 have ended with a Sooner victory.

On Thursday, Luc Whyte had himself a night. A laser-beam shot beat CSU’s Avery McDonnell to open the scoring in P2 at the 3:57 mark. After Trevor Finch cleaned up a rebound in front of the CSU crease to make it 2-0, Whyte sent Ray Wilson on a breakaway to stretch the lead to 3-0. The pass spanned both bluelines and was received by Mr. Wilson perfectly.

Things certainly got interesting in the third period. Phil Babb absolutely robbed Nikolas Marconcini and Sam Coté on a 2-on-0 breakaway. However, Kyle Reilly cashed in a PPG some 15 seconds later. When CSU’s Blake Hoffman swooped in to collect a loose puck, he was able to cut it to 3-2.

A Sooners line that made noise all weekend was that of Joy, Pusar and Finch. The trio connected to score a pretty goal; Josh Pusar doing a slam-dunk after Finch’s nifty touch pass. The Rams scored on a bouncing puck at 19:38 but they would run out of time. The Sooners finished the campaign 2-1-0 against CSU, and will play them twice at Blazers next season.

I don’t want to spend too much time on Oklahoma’s 9-1 decision over Colorado, but I do think Nick Gatti deserves some love. With just over 3 minutes gone in the second period, the score was 1-1. Gatti won the faceoff to Tyler Lazarek, and Lazarek threw the biscuit on net. Gatti swooped in to backhand the puck past Colorado’s Ravi Khatri. If it was ever possible to deserve two points on a play, this would’ve been it. In the second period, the Sooners scored at the following times: 3:38, 5:25, 6:18, 8:42, 12:37, 13:19 and 18:19. The third period started 8-1 and ended 9-1. This game will improve Oklahoma’s goal differential.

On Saturday, though, there was not going to be any major outbursts like Friday night’s second period. Colorado’s Adam Trunko threw a puck on Phil Babb that appeared to deflect off of a higher part of his body – think mask or neck area – and fell right into the cage. When the Buffs went to a powerplay not much later, they scored immediately. Just 4:17 after that, however, Cameron Bickford’s seeing-eye shot was a PPG and started an streak that would become the first of four defensemen goals on the night. Jackson Giammona’s wrist shot at 19:12 of P1 would tie it (stick taps to Ray Wilson here).

Colorado wasn’t going to let up though. Upon reviewing the play, CU’s Conor Sullivan was raising his hand to call for a line change. He didn’t even have his eye fully on the play, but he spotted his teammate Max Van Lancker with the puck behind the cage. Sullivan quickly became a pass option and while all alone made it 3-2.

When the Buffs won a defensive-zone faceoff with just over 6 minutes remaining in P2, their Joe Kinsella cleanly flipped the puck out to neutral ice. Cameron Bickford tried to glove it down but the puck couldn’t be advanced as Cam Brown would’ve received a hand pass. Van Lancker tried to pass it up the ice but Brown went to work. He took some contact from Van Lancker and stepped around him. Brown used Aharon Lara streaking towards the net as a sort of distraction because [he] found Isaac Bosse stepping into the rush, and #71 had a yawning cage in which he tied it.

#71 wasn’t done. On a third-period powerplay, the Sooners made quick work. They went in the following order: Faceoff win to Bickford > Isaac Bosse around the boards > Cam Brown to Bickford > touch pass back to Brown > cross ice pass to Bosse who gave Oklahoma a lead they wouldn’t surrender. It looked as pretty as it sounded. An empty net goal would seal it.

The Sooners needed this series to get back into what I call “game speed.” Dec. 6 to Jan. 23 is quite the layoff.

CONFERENCE TABLE

At this point, spots 1-3 in the WCHL are (very likely) going to be populated by the Cactus teams and the Sooners. It just depends on what order. Conference games remaining…click here.

#16 Oklahoma has:

@Missouri State Feb. 7-8

Home/Home against UCO Feb. 21-22

#18 Arizona State has:

@Colorado Jan. 30

@Colorado State Jan. 31-Feb. 01

@Arizona Feb. 28-29

#9 Arizona has:

@Colorado State Jan. 30

@Colorado Jan. 31-Feb. 01

Arizona State Feb. 28-29

It will certainly be an exciting race to mid-March.

Cover photo is credited to Candace Riley. You can follow her work here.

Thanks for reading.