Putting it all out there

While nobody on the team is older than a sophomore, everybody on the Portland State Vikings ice hockey team plays with an old, experienced soul.

On Friday night the ice hockey club team played Puget Sound at home, and when the puck was slashed for the final time the score stood at 11-4, in favor of the Vikings.

The Vikings are part of the American College Hockey Association and compete at the Division II level against teams from Washington, Idaho, California and Arizona. On the season, the team is 10-7 and has not lost a game since early December, but they did not enter the game on Friday expecting a roll over.

“I told them not to take their opponent lightly,” said head coach Lance Gilbert of his pregame instruction to the squad.

The advice may have seemed laughable to the team at the time, considering that the Loggers only had a total of seven players on their bench at the beginning of the first period, coupled with the conspicuous absence of a Loggers coach.

Still, after the first period, Portland State maintained a slim lead, 4-3.

The team looked sluggish and was not able to make good despite numerous attacks on the Loggers’ goal. The Loggers got some respite as more team members trickled in during the course of the period and were able to keep it close.

In the second period, the Vikings established control of the game. Defender Alex Zsenyuk scored three goals, one of them from face-off coming just 10 seconds after the previous goal. The Vikings defense hardened and allowed only a solitary point during the period.

The point would be the last they allowed.

The period would finish out with a score of 9-4 and Zsenyuk raising his gloved hand to the crowd.

Throughout the game the Loggers did not do themselves any favors.

During a chippy second period, two Loggers were ejected for fighting, leaving their bench once again depleted. Their frustration was evident when one player simply threw his stick down on the ice and let it slide away.

Despite the big lead, depleted lineup and broken spirits of their opponent, the Vikings continued to play like it was all on the line during the final period.

Fundamentally superior to Puget Sound, their passes were sure and rarely off target, and the defense was able to steal the puck with ease. When the final horn sounded, five different players had racked up at least a goal apiece.

“We should have blown these guys away,” said team captain Anthony Libonati with a slight note of annoyance, despite his four goals.

Zsenyuk and Pat Markunas, a fellow defensive player, shared that sentiment. Both felt that the team did not skate their finest in the first period, but added that their goal coming into the game was to “get the puck deep” and that they were able to accomplish that.

When they are playing finest on the ice, it looks like any team would have a difficult time against the Vikings.

However, the team has had to face some obstacles this season. Just two years old and still establishing themselves as a consistently viable club, they struggled earlier this season, dropping six of their first 10 games, some by four- and five-point margins.

But headed into a stretch run of games, it seems that the team has found it’s footing. The five remaining games on their schedule will determine just how much strength and endurance this team has, but the future for the club certainly appears bright.