There is no question that the stronger Trojan hockey team has
victimized the Bruins all year. The Trojans have won all four of
the rivals’ games.
UCLA will once again have its hands full with a formidable
Trojan squad (17-1-1, 11-0 Pac-8) tonight at the Staples Center,
following the Los Angeles Kings game, which starts at 7:30 p.m.
However, Raffie Kalajian, USC’s top forward for several
years, is no longer playing because he graduated last semester.
Nevertheless, USC is deep enough to compensate for his loss. The
Trojans have been steamrolling teams this year, including UCLA, and
their first game without the 33-goal scorer was an 8-1 victory over
Weber State.
“There is a realistic belief we can beat USC, we’re
just lacking the depth sometimes,” junior forward Eric Allen
said. “Last game versus USC, it was a close game for the most
part, until the team hit a wall in the third (period) due to a
lack of bodies on the bench.”
Conversely, UCLA (4-12, 2-9 Pac-8) has started its second half
tumultuously. In its first game since break, UCLA lost to UC San
Diego 12-0 in what was arguably its worst performance of the
year.
During that game, the UCLA coaching staff experimented by
shifting players around to different positions. However, everything
will be back to the status quo tonight, as the first line of
freshman winger Scott Freschet, junior Ryan Samec and junior Paul
Medina will be reunited.
“Team motivation and hunger is going up and up, because we
don’t want to have another disaster like UCSD,”
Freschet said. “The Staples Center is a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity, and I think the players will build off of that and
come out pumped up and ready to play.”