The Arizona Wildcats’ sixth-ranked club hockey season is hitting the stretch run.
The UA (26-6) will try to sweep the season series against instate rival Arizona State (7-25) and maintain possession of the Cactus Cup for the second consecutive year. Arizona holds a perfect 4-0 record against the Sun Devils this season leading into the fifth meeting between the two teams.
UA coach Chad Berman was very blunt on what makes the rivalry so special.
“We don’t like them and they don’t like us is the simplest way to put it” Berman said.
Senior Charlie James echoed those sentiments.
“There’s no friendliness involved at all you get out there and it’s an absolute war,” James said. “We want to control the state of Arizona for hockey.”
In the four-game span, the Wildcats have outscored ASU 13-3. But Berman believes the Wildcats will have to make some minor adjustments in order to counter any changes ASU coach Tait Green has made since the last time these teams met in December.
“There’s a couple of things they didn’t quite adjust to so we’ll stick to that until they force us to make a change.” Berman said. “I don’t anticipate a lot of changes but certainly we will look at some things. It’s a rivalry game it’s always going to be up for grabs.”
If there is one adjustment Green will want to make it will be figuring out how to stop the Wildcats’ dynamic duo of Bayley Marshall and Anthony Cusanelli. Both Cusanelli and Marshall were responsible for a total of eight of the 13 total goals.
Last season, the Wildcats absolutely dominated ASU by taking the season series 6-2 and outscoring the Sun Devils 33-15. Berman and his team will try to continue that trend in these final games.
“We have a lot to play for,” Berman said. “Our next win gets us the Cactus Cup and the next win in their building gets us the conference championship.”
The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. Friday inside Tucson Arena. The teams will play at 4 p.m. Saturday.
