UCO Bronchos close out season with sweep of Minot State

By Rocky Wiles

The University of Central Oklahoma made a big statement over the weekend and gave us a peak of things to come by sweeping the Minot State Beavers.

On a cold and snowy Thursday night, the Bronchos dominated the first period and jumped out to a 5-1 lead and then held off the Beavers to preserve a 5-4 victory.

Once again the lightning rod was Shawn Steggles, who scored two goals to pace the Bronchos to an early lead.  “Shawn and Robbie Deubel have been on a point streak ever since we put them on the same line”, said head coach, Craig McAlister.  “Obviously, their style of play complements each other very well.”

The second period was a parade of UCO penalties as referee Randy Sapo whistled the Bronchos for seven straight penalties.  “It’s impossible to keep the momentum when your constantly a man down and Minot State capitalized on that and closed the gap in the second period”, McAlister said.  Two-second period goals brought the Beavers within striking distance to end the second period 5-3.

The third period was a well played intense period of hockey as UCO held the 5-3 lead until the two minute mark when Minot State pulled their goalie and scored on a six on five slapshot to close to 5-4 at the 1:20 mark of the third period.  UCO regained its composure and never let the Beavers threaten again to finish the game 5-4.

Saturday nights game saw the second largest crowd at Arctic Edge Arena this season as the UCO Bronchos put the finishing touches on its inaugural season with a dominant 7-3 win over the Beavers of Minot State.

UCO captain AJ Alfrey got the scoring started followed by a Mike Glowa snapshot and UCO led 2-0 after the first period.

Red-hot Shawn Steggles made it 3-0 before Minot State scored on a powerplay goal to close the second period at 3-1.

As the third period began, UCO’s Ray Wingfield scored on a powerplay goal just seconds into the period and the rout was on.  Brent Block, Tony Panizzo and Jason Thibodeau put the finishing touches on a night that UCO showed what was in store for the future, as the final score ended 7-3.

Assistant Coach, Brian Bradley said, “Once we got on top of them tonight, we just kept going, we never let down and we continued to force the play in their end all night long”.

With the win UCO closes its inaugural season at 14-11-0-3, with a three game winning streak to close the season.  With the win UCO closes with a home record of 11-3 and 3-8-0-3 record on the road.  However, the road featured 7 games against teams in the top 7 in the nation. 

The future looks bright for the UCO Broncho hockey team as the freshman will mature and improve and everyone on campus will look forward to next seasons opening date on September 21st.