It was deja vu in Cheney this Sunday, as the University of Washington Huskies took down the Cal Berkeley Bears in the championship game of the Pac-8 Playoffs. The Huskies slayed the Bears last year in the same game, giving them back-to-back banners and their fifth title in program history. 

However, the 6-3 Husky win was not the only playoff game hosted at the Eastern Washington University rec center. All seven Pac-8 Playoff bouts were held on the Eagles’ home ice. 

While the Huskies were the last team standing, the other six matchups were just as exciting. Whether it was Cal putting up 14 goals on Eastern, or Western winning their first playoff game in program history, this year’s playoffs were jam packed with action. 

So, here’s a roundup of all the Pac-8 playoff games…

Quarterfinal Round: 

UW (No. 2) vs. UCSD (No. 7) 

Although UW won the championship, this game would have had you questioning their chances. After the first period, both teams had yet to tally anything on the board and the Tritons were hanging with the reigning champs. 

However, Anthony Endres broke the ice for the Huskies in the second frame with a shot from the blue line. Endres was not content with just one tally, as just minutes later he got a break away opportunity and snuck a wrister to the back of the net. 

Later in the second period, it was Benjamin Lampman for the Huskies who stuffed a puck past the goalie’s pads to get a three-goal lead. 

Despite the deficit, the Tritons fought back in the third period. Luca Tartaglia cleaned up a rebound and buried it past the UW goaltender for their first goal of the day.  

The momentum was short lived when freshman Derek Yang sniped a shot past the Tritons’ tender to give the Huskies the 4-1 win. 

The Huskies punched their ticket to the Saturday semifinals, but after their first 60 minutes of action, they looked weaker than their 9-4 conference record led on.

Final score: UW 4-1  

Western (No. 3) vs. San Jose State (No. 6)

In game two of the playoffs, Western Washington proved that they have rebuilt their team into a scary contender in the conference. Just two minutes in, Tyler Chapman powered his way in on the near side and slipped a shot past the shoulder of the goalie to break the ice. 

However, SJSU went stride for stride with the Vikings for much of the period. Eventually, Blake Brehm managed to fire a shot past Western’s goaltender Nolan Morena to tie up the game late in the first. 

It was not until early in the second period that Chapman managed to tally his second goal of the afternoon and regain the Viking’s lead. Flash forward to the waning stages and Bret Brumbaugh slipped a puck five-hole on the power play to give the Vikings a two-goal lead. 

But, mere seconds later, Brian Brehm copied his brother and clapped a slap-shot past Morena to bring the game to within one goal. 

With only one period left to go, the Vikings put their pedal to the metal. Only three minutes in, Aaron James dropped a pass for Andrew Fan and then put on a screen to allow Fan to score on a wrister from well out. 

Following it up was Chapman, who sealed his hat trick on a breakaway and made it 5-2 Vikings. 

Although the Spartans managed to tally a goal mid-way through the period, James put the game away after Fan saucered a pass to him from 200 feet away which he sniped past the goalie. Then, the other James brother Jacob James managed to slip a shot through the five-hole to make the final score 7-3

While the first two periods were a close contest, Western stomped out the Spartans in round one and secured their first playoff win in program history. 

Final score: Western 7-3 

WSU (No. 5) vs. USC (No. 4)

The last time these two teams faced off, the Cougs came out on top in the Pac-8 Showcase. When the puck dropped, it became clear why the squads were so close to each other in the standings. 

Although USC tallied the first tuck, freshman forward David Bushkin for the Cougs got it right back after he tipped in a goal from well out to tie it up.

Moving into the third period, the Trojans took control of the game. In a slow burn, they tallied four unanswered goals on the Cougs and got out to a commanding 5-1 lead. 

“About ten minutes into the second period, there was just a flurry of goals and that just really hurt us,” WSU head coach John Lupinacci said. “It came apart a little bit. We stopped playing team hockey and stopped doing what works for us.” 

In the third, the Cougs were able to battle back when defenseman Keegan Lucas stuffed his own rebound. However, it was too little too late, as the Trojans fended off the Cougs for the remaining 10 minutes and glided into the semi-final matchup.  

“In the ACHA you need to score five goals to win a hockey game,” Lupinacci said. “It didn’t go our way today and now it’s going to sting and give guys exactly the kind of motivation they need to work in the offseason and get back to it.” 

That motivation is shared with the leader in the locker room as well.

“It’s the highest seed the team has ever finished in,” team captain Cole Carlson said. “We put up a fight. It’s probably the best we’ve seemed going into playoffs.” 

In what could have been the first upset of the playoffs, the Cougs came up short and allowed USC to secure its spot in the semifinal Saturday match. 

Final score: USC 5-2 

Cal Berkeley (No. 1) vs. EWU (No.8) 

In their first game of the playoffs, Cal showed why they went 9-1 in conference. In just the first period they tucked five goals and completely shushed the packed out Eastern crowd. 

In the second, the Bears took their foot off the gas and only added one goal to their lead. In that lapse the Eagles were able to break the shutout when Sean Smith stuffed home a shot and got every Eagles fan on their feet and rocking. 

Moving into the third, the Bears took that singular goal personally and decided to score eight goals in the third to complete their blowout of the Eagles on Eastern’s home ice. With the most impressive win in the quarterfinals, the Bears set themselves up brilliantly for their semifinal matchup. 

Final score: Cal 14-1 

Semifinals 

Cal (No. 1) vs. USC (No. 4)

After their 14-goal performance against Eastern, many expected Cal to cruise to the championship game. However, USC did not go quietly. 

Luke Wong got the party rolling when he spun a shot into the net early on to give USC an early lead. Flash forward to the last phase of the first period and Lucas Fung was able to get the response to tie it up 1-1. 

USC was not content with a tie game, resulting in Art Arutunyan getting a goal to retake the lead. However, the Bears decided to play catch-up when Kodai Mizuno zipped a heat seeking missile from the blue line into the twine.

It was not until later in the second period that Patrick Liu for the Bears scored on a wide open cage to give Cal the lead. Soon after, Roy Chebaclo powered his way to the net and bullied the puck into the net to extend their lead. 

However, in true ping-pong fashion, the Trojans responded with a goal through the five-hole to claw back into the game. But, with the ball in their court, the Bears got the puck onto the stick of Chebaclo who stuffed it into the net to regain their two-goal lead.  

But, with a chance to respond, Wong was able to tuck a backhand shot to get the Trojans back within one.

Despite being the higher seed, the Bears refused to underestimate USC. 

“They have a lot of top end skill guys that made it tough on us,” Chebaclo said. “It’s just two good teams going at it. That’s what we expected coming in. It’s playoffs.”   

They proved just that as 20 seconds into the last period Arutunyan got his second goal of the night and tied up the game. However, Cal snatched back the lead after Mark Rejna slipped one to the back of the net mid-way through the frame. 

From there, it was all about playing keep away, as the Bears were able to fend off the Trojans’ last minute pushes and just barely clinch their spot in the championship game. 

“We can beat any team in this conference,” Chebaclo said. “So, we’re just going to focus on bringing our A-game and then I think the results will come.” 

After their grade-A effort against the top team in the conference, USC had nothing but flowers for Cal.

“The talent of the Bears is great,” USC head coach Alex Polen said. “We knew that we were a great team. We beat them in Oakland a couple weeks ago. So, we at least felt confident that we could compete.” 

Final score: Cal 6-5 

UW (No. 2) vs. Western (No. 3) 

Before the playoffs these two teams squared off in a two-game series in Northgate where they split the series. While UW won the first game, Western battled into a shootout in the second matchup and were able to edge out the Huskies in front of their home crowd. 

Despite both these teams looking evenly matched, Western came out swinging. Just five minutes in, Brumbaugh capitalized on the powerplay to break the ice and give Western the lead. 

With the ice shattered, the game cooled off until late in the second frame when Kailer Slette stole the puck and tucked it over the shoulder of UW goaltender Jonah Nash. 

Later on, Morena came out of his crease and saucered a pass to Fan who broke away and sniped Nash to secure the three-goal lead. As a tender, Morena was able to get the assist on the Fan goal, but also turned out every single Husky opportunity through the first two periods. 

“I don’t think we played bad per se,” Husky head coach Matt Cleeton said. “But, their goalie had a hot hand for those first 40 minutes and kept the puck out on us… we gave them a few chances and they buried [them] which good teams do.” 

For Morena, those first two periods were all mentality based.

“We beat them last weekend,” he said. “Who says we can’t do it again, right? So that was the mentality and unfortunately it didn’t work out, but it was close.” 

The third period began and the wheels started to fall off. It kicked off with Jake Ferguson skating into the zone and firing a wrist shot past the glove and shoulder of Morena. 

Not much later Cameron Irwin had a yawning cage and slapped it home to bring them within one. Then, before you could blink, David Patterson let a wrister go from the blue line that tied the game.

This collapse in the third period is not unfamiliar to the Vikings.  

“Our third periods are notoriously weak,” Morena said. “We knew it too. Before the third period even started, second intermission, we told our boys that UW is going to come out strong.” 

Despite Morena’s claims, the Huskies felt that they were simply playing their brand of hockey. 

“Honestly, really no change,” Cleeton said. “Our guys just kept with our process that we’ve had throughout the whole year.”  

The Huskies went on to tally two more goals and secure the 5-3 come-from-behind win. Despite the loss, Western has their sights set on next year.  

“We’re coming back stronger next year and that’s a guarantee,” Morena said.

“Look out next year. Everybody knows it. Everybody sees it,” Western head coach Adam Seegar said. “We went from 5-16 to 23-7… We’re ready. We’re hungry already. We know what we can do.”   

Final score: UW 5-3 

Championship game 

Cal (No. 1) vs. UW (No. 2) 

With two heavyweights squaring off in the championship bout, fans were treated to a thrilling matchup. 

The Bears broke the ice early on with senior Sean Dolim sniping a toe-drag wrister from the point. However, UW answered right back with June Eom cleaning up a loose puck in the slot to deadlock the game.

Soon after, Daniel Mosgrave ripped a howitzer from the blue line that was tipped in by Lampman to give UW the lead. 

Fans had to wait until the second period for the scoreboard to change, when Ferguson tipped in a shot to extend the Husky lead. Then, completing the trifecta of tips, Lampman ricocheted a puck to the twine later on in the third. 

A few ticks later, Dominic Wolfe let a wrist shot go that skimmed the shoulder of Cal’s sophomore goaltender Aiden Comeau. Although they were up by four, the Huskies still noted goaltending as their biggest fear with Cal. 

“It’s another good goalie again,” sophomore forward Brandon Consolo said. “Obviously they got the best of us the first two games but I think third time’s the charm.”

The Bears were not about to go quietly into the night. They managed to stuff two ginos past Nash, one of which came from Chebaclo on a powermove. As a senior, Chebaclo understood what this team had been building year after year. 

“We’re building, just honestly, a family,” Chebaclo said. “We’re all super tight on and off the ice… We have high aspirations and goals so we expect to bring that every game.”  

Despite the late push, UW notched an empty-netter and solidified the 6-3 win. With the win, the Huskies secured back-to-back championships and their fifth banner in program history. For the Huskies, this was nothing but a team effort. 

“Everyone bought in at the end of the day. Even the guys who weren’t playing at all,” Consolo said. 

For the Bears, they headed home empty handed. However, they see the positives from the season.

“This has been the end goal,” Cal head coach Devin Cox said. “Our number one goal was to win the Pac. And obviously we’ve had some accomplishments. Great season last year record wise. Beat a D1 team and beat some really highly ranked teams this year.” 

Final score: UW 6-3

With another season in the books, the Huskies are looking to build a dynasty, while the Cal Berkeley Bears are hot on their heels. However, with Western building a dominant program, and USC capable of spoiling any member of the conference, the Pac-8 may just be heating up for an exciting era of college hockey.