After a 2-1 loss the night before, WSU hockey was hoping to even up the series at one apiece. However, 60-minutes later, the Cougs were handed a 7-0 loss and a two game sweep by the Huskies. 

The Saturday night matchup began with the Huskies setting the tone and getting out to a 1-0 lead. Forward Brandon Consolo attempted to slip a shot past WSU goaltender Alexei Kuhl, but ended up giving a rebound to forward Cameron Smith who stuffed it for a goal.

Only three minutes in and already down 1-0, the Cougs started to get physical. Pushing, shoving, heavy hits and a flurry of misconducts made up the remainder of the first period as the Cougs tried to keep the Huskies off the board.

The penalty box was not just stuffed to the brim with crimson and gray, but purple and gold as well. UW matched the physicality of the Cougs, landing them in the sin bin all period long. 

Period two, while devoid of goals, was filled with confusion. Early on, a goal from UW forward Benjamin Lampman was waved off for goalie-interference, sparking the ire of the Husky bench and crowd. 

With 10 minutes left in the period, tempers boiled over as the Huskies crashed the net of Kuhl causing an all-player brawl. Punches, headlocks, body slams and dog piles. Kuhl even joined in on the action, throwing punches in an attempt to defend himself from the Huskies’ crash-the-net strategy. 

Colliding with Kuhl was UW’s game plan from the start. 

“We wanted to get in front of him, not let him see anything so we could get some rebounds,” UW forward David Paterson said. 

After the brawl, officials dealt out penalty after penalty to try and get the game under control. With the boxes filled, the second period concluded with neither team finding the back of the net. 

The final frame began, and the wheels fell off completely. Four goals in six minutes kicked it off for the Huskies as they continued to crash the net and the officials lost control of the game. 

“Just utter collapse,” WSU defenseman Keegan Lucas said. “Top to bottom. Nothing good to speak on… Kind of left our goalie out to dry.” 

Forwards Cameron Irwin, Lampman, Taylor Sloan and Consolo all found the back of the net, giving UW a 5-0 lead. With the momentum swinging their way, UW began making things personal.

They taunted players, coaches and fans. They shoved players’ heads into the ice, laid hits and celebrated goals with a five-goal lead. The Huskies’ behavior caught the eye of WSU head coach Johnny Lupinacci. 

“I usually have a lot of respect for UW,” Lupinacci said. “In my entire career of playing hockey and coaching hockey I’ve never had players come to the bench and talk to other players and talk to an opposing coach. It’s really a shame… It’s classless.” 

Despite their actions, UW maintains that they do not condone that behavior.. 

“No. Not at all,” Paterson said. “It was a hard fought game and it’s a rivalry so things happen.” 

Lupinacci understands that the Huskies’ actions were not typical. 

“It’s a bad look,” he said. “It’s a bad look for the whole league when that happens.”

No penalties were tossed the Huskies’ way as the officials lost control of the game. 

“I hate this,” Lupinacci said. “We’re playing the refs and the opposing team. Today, that really showed and it got to the guys.”

In the final 12 minutes the Huskies got the dagger, as goals from Irwin and forward Dominic Wolfe made the final score 7-0. 

Despite the box-score, Paterson admitted that the Cougs were a tough matchup. 

“They were pretty physical at the end. That’s hard to play against,” Paterson said.

Although officiating was an issue in the game, Lupinacci still puts responsibility on the team.

“You can’t win hockey games with zero goals,” Lupinacci said. “We could talk about bad officiating all night, but if we’re not scoring we’re not going to win.” 

Even with the countless penalties, the Cougs failed to get any power play goals, which is a point of emphasis for Lupinacci. 

“We had so many power play chances, and our power play is just absolute garbage,” he said. “We’re going to have some special teams practices just working on the power play… You need your power play around 20% and right now our power play is at a flat zero.” 

With the pair of conference losses, the Cougs remain winless in the Pac-8 conference. They have a week of rest before they head north to Cheney, Wa for the Pac-8 Showcase from Nov. 6-10. The times and opponents of those matchups are still to be determined.