California Sports Journal

Oregon scored four unanswered goals in the final two periods and Cal Bracken notched a hat trick to give the Ducks a 7-3 victory in the semifinal of the Pac-8 Men’s Hockey Tournament. The win earned Oregon, the tournament’s No. 3 seed, a spot in today’s championship game against fourth-seeded Washington.

The Bears (17-17), the second seed, were outshot, outchecked, and outplayed, and summarily dispatched to a spot in the consolation game against top-seeded UCLA, which lost to Washington 6-4 earlier in the day.

"Oregon had that sense of urgency the entire game, and we didn’t," said Cal’s junior right winger, Amir Moazeni, whose third hat trick of the season accounted for all of the Bears’ scoring.

Oregon outshot California 49-36 and turned slow line changes by the Bears into easy scoring opportunities. Goalie Brad Buss, who has played every second of Cal’s 34 games, was hit with uncontested shots all night, including a pair of third period scores that sealed the game for the Ducks.

"We can’t hold him responsible for this loss," Cal head coach Cyril Allen said. "You can’t point a single finger at him."

The blame was shared.

"About the only thing we did right was that we all got dressed in jerseys that matched," assistant coach Peter Werner said.

After falling behind 3-2 with 16:00 left in the second period, Allen screamed at his bench to "wake up." The Bears responded 8 minutes later when Moazeni scored on a power play to tie the score.

The Los Gatos native was fed from line mate Chris Moulton and fired a close shot at Oregon goalie Matt Nuenberg. The shot was blocked and Moazeni picked up the puck with his stick and flipped it over Nuenberg’s left shoulder for the score.

"As soon as I scooped it up, I knew I’d bang it home," said Moazeni, the Bears’ leading scorer this season with 64 points. "At the time, I thought that goal was the turning point for us, but they finished us off."

Oregon responded with 5:04 to go in the second when Nate King drove a slap shot from the circle off Buss’ left glove and into the corner of the net. Less than 4 minutes later, King scored again, this time skating from behind the net and sneaking a shot past Buss’ left skate.

Even down 5-3 with one period left, the Bears thought they were still in good shape.

"A two-goal lead is very small," defenseman and team captain Chris Dang said. "They always say the most dangerous lead in hockey is the two-goal lead."

But Oregon wouldn’t budge, with Bracken scoring 25 seconds into the third period on a feed from Matt Olsen.

"You never, ever give up a goal in the first or last minute of a period," Dang said. "It sticks with you."

"We had resolved to come out in the third flying and that broke us," Allen said.

Down 6-3, California collapsed. Moazeni lost his stick at one point and skated off the ice, his arms hanging motionless at his sides. A few minutes later, Kiel Fitzgerald accidentally checked teammate Sean Haq, allowing Oregon to clear the puck and eat up time.

And when, with 12:08 left, Bracken finished off his hat trick with a 3-on-1 score, the Oregon bench began celebrating its victory.

"We played well in large stretches," Allen said.

He was asked what they did right.

"I’m not so sure," he replied.