Third time was a charm for then-junior Patrick Sgarlata. After two years of being cut from the Oregon club hockey team, he finally earned a roster spot and the Oregon jersey on his back.

Now a graduate, the jersey he wears currently is a little different than before. He sports a number 10 on his back instead of his previous 26 and a “C” on his front. Sgarlata is now the captain of the team he struggled to make two years ago.

Making the cut was harder for him than most. With the exception of one year of varsity hockey his senior year of high school, Sgarlata hadn’t played ice hockey since his Pee Wee A years with the San Jose Jr. Sharks. But for him, being on the Oregon hockey team wasn’t his end-goal. Once there, he knew his work had just begun.

“I think the first thing I told coach (Rich) Salahor was it was awesome that I made the team, but that’s not really what my goal was,” Sgarlata said. “I wanted to be a big part of this team, to improve and to make an impact somehow.”

That mentality set the stage for Sgarlata’s future role with the club. During his second year with the Ducks, he became the team coordinator, saved their 2013-14 season by effectively handling the team’s $17,000 debt and, along with Conner Gordon, re-established a live broadcast system for the games.

“He was the only one who could do it,” said program coordinator Terran Donnelly. “He did a fantastic job. He got us out of debt. He pretty much changed our team for the better.”

His work as coordinator wasn’t the only reason why his teammates voted him to become captain. It was because of his discipline and dedication toward improving.

“Sgarlata isn’t the most skilled person on the team,” Donnelly said. “But he’s trying the hardest. He gives 100 percent of what he has 100 percent of the time and that’s what matters. It motivates me to skate harder.”

“He treats it like work,” he continued. “When he’s playing hockey, he’s very serious about hockey. Even when he’s not playing hockey, he’s always thinking about the team.”

Even though the players look up to him, Sgarlata thinks the focus should be less on him and more on the group. With a roster full of veteran players, there are many experienced voices that help guide the team.

“We have a really good group of guys who have bought into what we do as a team, so it’s almost like we have 12 captains in our locker room sometimes,” he said. “I don’t look at it as I’m special or anything, I’m just a piece of the puzzle.”

Despite dispersing his individual effect on the team by attributing his success to others, the fact remains: People respect him.

“He’s really that cohesive piece that keeps our team together and on track,” rookie Ryan Eberle said. “He’s always the first guy to say hello when you pop into the locker room and he’s always the first one off the ice to tell you that you had a great shift.”

“He is, more so than a leader, a good friend and a guy that everyone is really comfortable talking to,” Eberle said. “I think he is a perfect fit as captain.”

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It was 10 minutes into the second game of the 2013-2014 season and everything seemed normal. The Oregon club hockey team was playing Portland State, a team very familiar to them, and Cody Drees was about to deliver one of many checks issued that night.

But that check was when “normal” ended.

As the PSU Viking was rammed into the boards of his own zone, Drees’ skate got caught in the ice, twisting his leg. Injured, he skated back to the bench and saw a doctor between periods who advised him not to play due to a likely ACL tear.

However, Drees returned to the ice anyway to play another shift.

“They told me my knee was screwed, but I was like, ‘No, I’m fine,’” Drees said. “They definitely told me not to go out there, but I just went for it. And it didn’t work out, so they were right.”

Unknown to Drees at the time, he hadn’t only damaged his ACL. It had a partial tear, but he also sprained his MCL, damaged his meniscus and completely tore his patellofemoral ligament after dislocating his kneecap during the hit. With his knee completely blown out, skating was nearly impossible to do.

“He’s a tough little shit,” teammate Michael Luke said. “He went back out (to continue playing)…But he goes out there and he can’t turn because hockey is all lateral movement and there was no stability (in his knee).”

After taking off his knee pad and seeing his swollen joint, Drees knew his injury was serious. He called his father, saw a few more doctors and quickly returned to his home in Los Angeles, California for surgery. He left only a few weeks into fall term of his freshman year.

“We got him down here (Los Angeles) the second week of October,” said Jeff Drees, Cody’s dad. “He was pretty depressed. He was acclimating well, doing well, then boom. He’s out of there.”

The surgery was done at Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic by Dr. Ron Kvitne, the surgeon for the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings. Needless to say, it was a more than a success. Cody was medically cleared to play hockey – checking included – right before tryouts this year and has played nearly every game this season thus far. He even believes that his knee is in better condition than before.

“I honestly feel like it’s stronger,” Cody said. “It gets a little sore at the end of the week, like after practices or game weekends, but honestly I feel a little faster and a little stronger. It feels more stable.”

His time away didn’t weaken the bond with his teammates either. With the guys staying in contact with him during the initial recovery process and while he did physical therapy at the UO Health Center, Cody came back to a team full of his best friends. And when he laced up for the first time during tryouts, he felt right at home.

“They were are all talking to me, making jokes about me being the gimpy boy,” Cody said. “But I was talking back saying I was going to run all of them into glass.”

“It was nice.”

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This Halloween weekend, the Oregon women’s tennis team headed down to Fresno, California for the Bulldog Classic to participate in its last tournament of the fall. The Ducks ended the meet 20-8 overall and were 10-3 the first day and 10-5 during the second day. The typically three-day competition was cut slightly short as Day 2 was cancelled due to rainy conditions.

In doubles, two Ducks pairings made it to the semifinals. No. 1 Freshmen Nia Rose and Alyssa Tobita faced off against no. 4 Portland State’s Siena Peri and Dane Vorster, and won 8-4. Allie Hueffner and Nicole Long also made it to semifinals, but were barely edged out Fresno State’s Rana Sheif-Ahmed and Anneka Watts in an 8-6 game.

In singles, there were three divisions: Blue Flight, Red Flight and White Flight.

In Blue Flight, Tobita, Rose, and no. 1 Long all won their matches. Long lost in the semifinal round 6-1, 2-6 (10-6) to Aishwarya Agrawal, but Rose won her bout 6-1, 6-4 and moved onto the final round where she eventually fell to Agrawal, 6-3, 6-7 (9-7).

In Red Flight, Marlou Kluiving and Nicole Long both won their semifinal matches while Lina Akesson beat PSU’s Alexa McDonald 6-1, 6-2 in consolation finals.

In White Flight, twins Allie and Kadie Hueffner both made it to the quarterfinal round and both defeated their opponents, 6-3, 6-2. Kadie had to withdraw in the semifinal round due to injury.

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The Oregon club hockey team easily handled the first two games of the Portland State series this weekend, ending their homestand with 5-3 and 9-0 wins on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

“There was definitely an improvement,” said goaltender Trevor Peterson of the second night compared to the first. “I think that PSU may not have played as well [the second night], but we also looked a lot better and a lot cleaner. We were a lot faster.”

During the first period of the game on Friday, the Ducks acquired a two-goal lead and looked like they would have no problem maintaining it. However, after an unassisted goal by defenseman Cody Albert, the Vikings put themselves on the board with under three minutes left to play.

The second period was more back-and-forth, with each team putting up an additional point. First, PSU’s Tanner Ward picked up a rebound after a flurry of shots on Anderton and tied the game. 1:45 later, Oregon rookie Trevor Shott took back Oregon’s lead with a powerful slap shot that made its way just past PSU goaltender Justin Nicklas.

The game got chippier heading into the third. With penalties occurring regularly for both teams, every third period goal was scored on the power play.

10 seconds after a cross-checking penalty on Portland State center Josh Powell, Alex Sulitzer scored and extended Oregon’s lead back to two. Then after Nick Sciabarra committed a cross-check during a small scuffle in front of the net, Charlie Kaser brought the score back to 4-3 for Portland State in an unassisted power-play goal. Sciabarra then made up for the previous goal by putting the puck in the twine himself and sealing a 5-3 victory for the Ducks.

Saturday night, despite the Ducks’ thorough dominance in a 9-0 win, both teams racked up the penalty minutes. Oregon had seven minors while Portland State had eight penalties, one of them being a 5-minute major for a face mask that left Oregon defenseman Will Daniels sitting in the penalty box with a bloody nose.

“I hit the kid and he, well, he grabbed my cage from behind and ripped off my helmet,” Daniels said of the play that earned himself a boarding penalty and PSU’s Patrick Von Bachellé a major at the end of the second period.

Other than Daniels’ bloodied nose, noteworthy events included Trevor McCarty’s hat trick and Trevor Peterson’s shutout.

Peterson, who had a shaky start during and had to be pulled during his last game against California, said he enjoyed these high-scoring games despite not seeing too much action in front of his net.

“I don’t really mind games like this,” he said. “The pressure in this game was to get the shutout and to finish it through. When it’s a close game, that’s a different aspect of stress. This wasn’t bad. I liked it.”

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His body was hurting and his grades were suffering. Chris Campbell was tired, but all he needed was a little time.

Chris, a junior on the Oregon hockey team, started playing hockey when he was eight, and up until last year, he has never missed a season. Year after year, he returned to the ice to be battered and bruised, a side-effect of his physical style of play, so long as it meant playing the sport he loved. One season, he broke his arm three times.

“He’s very strong on his skates,” said his father, Mike Campbell. “He’s a very strong player… A lot of the time when he got injured it was because he was making hard hits.”

However, things were a little different once he entered college. The team traveled more, practiced later and school was more demanding. Chris also needed the grades to be accepted into the School of Journalism & Communication as an advertising major.

“There was an adjustment freshman year with finding that balance between hockey and school work and everything you do outside of the two,” Chris said. “And that balance, I hadn’t quite struck it yet so my grades weren’t what I wanted them to be.”

That school-hockey balance wasn’t the only thing that needed adjusting. Making the jump from 18U AA hockey to the college level meant the guys got larger and the hits got harder, not exactly the best thing for someone who’d been injured every season for the past 10 years.

“There had never been a time where I hadn’t been recovering from something,” Chris said. “I needed a break. I needed a break where I could let my body and my grades recover.”

So Chris took his first-ever break from hockey during his sophomore year. In his downtime, he got his GPA back up, his priorities in order and gave his body a much-needed rest.

And now he’s back.

“It was great to be back in the locker room and see all of their familiar faces,” Chris said.

Chris isn’t the only one happy about his return. As a player who would get in the corners and come out with the puck, his teammates are glad to see him back.

“Chris Campbell is definitely one of the better players on the team,” said Patrick Taylor, Chris’ former linemate. “He adds a little bit more force. You’ve got Michael Luke back there who’s obviously an enforcer on defense and then we’ve got Chris Campbell on forward. He’s definitely a key player to come back for our success this year.”

“He’s a behind-the-scenes player that people might not notice, but he makes things happen,” Taylor continued.

Although he says he is still shaking off the rust from his year off, Chris is excited to be back on the ice and playing for the team he loves.

“I’m really looking forward to playoffs this year,” Chris said. “My freshman year we came up little bit short (after losing to Utah in the Pac-8 championship finals). That thrill of being in a tight, neck-to-neck competition, that’s what I’m looking forward too. That thrill.”

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For the second night in a row, Oregon club hockey faced off against the Washington Huskies for game 2 of its annual I-5 Cup series. In what usually are close games — last year’s cup was determined by a shootout after splitting the four-game series — the Ducks sailed through the Huskies’ defense, winning the two games 9-3 and 7-2.

“UW is a lot weaker this year, so these games are a lot different,” said forward Connor McBride, who’s playing his fifth I-5 Cup series with the Ducks.

Oregon set the pace in the first period with a goal two minutes into the game by forward Nick Sciabarra, the first of three for the sophomore. Patrick Sgarlata had the assist. Other than the four penalties that punctuated the period, the game remained relatively back-and-forth with both goalies seeing action, but Oregon maintaining control for the majority of play.

The second period started off slower, with neither team getting any true scoring opportunities as shots continuously went wide. However, as Jake Yale hopped into the Oregon box for boarding only 2:53 into the period, the Ducks nearly took advantage of the Huskies’ lack of ability to control the power play. After the puck came loose out of the Washington zone after the initial faceoff, Trevor Shott picked it up and took it to the front of Washington’s net on a breakaway. Although Shott was unable to score on Jacob Gilmore, the Ducks found themselves on the advantage again after Washington’s Tyler Jennings received a roughing call 25-seconds after Yale’s penalty cleared.

With less than half a period remaining and about 28 minutes since the first goal, Dillon Abate put the puck in the back of the net for Oregon. Then the lead was extended to three as Shott once again met Gilmore in front of the net, but this time coming away with an unassisted goal.

“I tried to get the puck on my stick, get control of it,” Shott said of the goal. “Going toward the net I was trying to get my teammate there, but he didn’t get through and somehow [the puck] went in.”

Washington eventually responded to Oregon’s three unanswered goals. As McBride served time for cross-checking, Huskies’ captain Ryan Minkoff finally put a point on the board for his team. The goal was quickly neutralized as Sciabarra flicked in the puck after a quick pass from teammate Joe Hoover.

Like the second period, the 3rd boasted the majority of the action in the second-half. Minkoff put home another for his team, leaving the score 4-2, but little over a minute later McBride — with the help of Alex Sulitzer — put the scoring gap back to three. A minute ten-seconds later, Sciabarra struck again and completed his hat-trick. After Chris Campbell’s shot bounced off of the pads of Gilmore, Sciabarra snagged the rebound.

The final goal of the night, however, went to Shott.

Despite his hat-trick and solid performance the night before, Sciabarra attributed the team’s success to his linemates and chemistry.

“We played well as a team, we clicked together as lines and our D-pairs started playing the puck together well between them,” he said. “These were two really inspirational wins.”

The I-5 Cup will be finished in Seattle on January 17 and 18.

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– The Arizona Cardinals signed former Oregon football quarterback Dennis Dixon. The Cardinals are the fifth team for Dixon to play for, who’s also played for the Buffalo Bills, Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers. During his time at Oregon, he was an All-American honorable mention.

– After Oregon football’s Thursday night loss to Arizona, the team prepares for their next game versus an undefeated UCLA on Oct. 11. During practice, offensive coordinator Scott Frost said the leaders on the team were stepping up, but that they will have to put in the, “same kind of effort in practice to get ready…and to have a chance in this one.”

– Oregon women’s golf finished eleventh out of fifteen at the Windy City Collegiate Championships, their first intercollegiate meet of the season for the Ducks. Senior Caroline Inglis finished the tournament five over par with 221 strokes. Her score was the highest for the Ducks and was tied for thirteenth overall.

– In a Q&A, Oregon women’s basketball forward Jillian Alleyne talked about learning defense and the overall mood of the team under their new coach Kelly Graves. Kelly Graves came from Gonzaga University where he coached women’s basketball for 14 years. For six out of the last seven seasons, Gonzaga made it into the NCAA tournament under Graves. Last year, Oregon went 16-16 overall in the season and 6-12 in conference games.

– At the Nike Golf Collegiate Invitational, Oregon men’s golf’s Thomas Lim went eight under par and carried the team to win their third fall tournament, which had previously only happened once in the school’s history. Other than Lim (who secured the individual title during the invitational), notable scores included Brandon McIver and Hurly Long who both scored an even-par.

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In the first team event of the fall, the Oregon women’s tennis team headed to Pullman, Washington for the Washington State University Invitational. The tournament took place from Friday, Oct. 3 to Sunday, Oct. 5.

Although the team suffered a few losses during the first day of single play, Sofia Hager and Marlou Kluiving both made it to the championship round of No. 4 singles after their respective semifinal wins against Marina Reimers of the University of Portland and Holly Monahan of Washington State. However, the match was not played as the teams decided not to finish games in which both competitors represented the same school.

In No. 3 singles, Lina Akesson also earned her spot in the finals versus WSU’s own Donika Bashota after a win against Idaho’s Sophie Vickers (2-6, 6-3, 6-2). Bashota defeated Akesson 7-5, 6-0.

Freshman duo Alyssa Tobita and Nia Rose went undefeated for the Ducks, winning the No. 1 Doubles Division of the tournament. The first day they took home a pair of wins (8-4, 8-5) before finishing the next day with another 8-5 victory and an 8-7 (7-2) win after extra sets.

The Kluiving/Hager pair also won both of their games in the first day of No. 2 doubles, but split their games during the final day after dropping a match to WSU’s Biryukova/Vasiukhina 8-4.

Both Lina Akesson and Kadie Hueffner, and Allie Hueffner and Nicole Long, lost three of their four matches in No. 2 doubles. The lone victory for Akesson/Hueffner came against Portland’s Reimers/Zuidema 8-4 while Long/Hueffner saw their only win in the first round against Idaho’s Emmie Marx and Rita Bermudez, 8-5.

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Friday, Oct. 17, the Ducks hockey team will face Washington, the team’s biggest rival in the league, in the home opener at Lane Events Center. Each year, both teams square off in a brutal four-game series for the I-5 Cup.

Last year, Washington won in a shootout after splitting the series 2-2. The year before, Oregon took it home for the first time in four years after an overtime victory.

“We don’t play Oregon State in hockey,” senior goaltender Trevor Peterson said. “This is really our biggest rival. We have the I-5 Cup and that’s our thing, our big game.”

Unsatisfied with its brief time with the cup, the team has spent the last month releasing Youtube videos with the hashtag #TakeBackTheCup to pump up fans, and themselves, for the start of the regular season.

The video idea came from the broadcast’s commentator Isaac Rosenthal and its director/executive producer Dylan Lee. After last year’s debt crisis, the two knew they had to get people to fill the stands. Rosenthal produced the ideas for sketches while Lee filmed. The process went a lot smoother than planned.

“You know, we thought it was going to be difficult to get people on the team to do them, but Isaac came in with the ideas and they were stoked,” Lee said. “Right from the get go they were like, ‘Okay, let’s do it.’ They were super excited to get out there, and they’re funny guys so it was nice to see them shine in that aspect as well.”

Currently, the videos range from preparing food in the off-season to playing basketball; the latter being Peterson and Patrick Sgarlata missing basket after basket while shooting hoops.

“I’d like to say that it (missing baskets) was faked, and some of it might’ve been, but they definitely tried to take a few and they definitely missed them,” Lee said, laughing. “They farmed it up a bit to make it funnier, but not much.”

“I am actually terrible at basketball so that was all legit,” Peterson said.

Even one of the hockey moms, Tracy Cockriel, was incorporated into a video with her son, Danny. While he played NHL 2k15 in his goalie mask, she cheered on his team as she would at a regular game – loudly and passionately. She also did the entire thing in a single cut.

“That video was hilarious,” Peterson said. “Same with my monologue (from a separate video), she was screaming like that for at least a good 10-15 minutes.”

Yet, there were times when she nearly lost her composure.

“I was trying not to laugh,” she said. “My daughter was sitting there off to the side…and she looked mortified.”

“I’m still waiting for my Oscar, though,” she joked.

It’s safe to say that more videos can be expected as fans on the team’s Facebook page like the videos and the players enjoying making them.

“We have a few ideas,” Lee said. “We’re working on getting some well-known aspects of Oregon hockey some people and regulars in there. We’ll leave it at that.”

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– Oregon track & field prepares for the NCAA West Regionals, which start tomorrow, May 29. If Oregon participants make it through the preliminaries in the top twelve they will return to Hayward Field where the university will host the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

– Oregon women’s basketball guard Ariel Thomas sat down to discuss playing in China as a member of NetScouts Basketball USA All-Stars. In the Q&A, she discusses what it was like missing two weeks from school, her future plans, as well as what she took away from the experience as a whole.

– The Pac-12 recognized six Oregon baseball players for all-conference honors. While starting pitcher Tommy Thorpe, closer Jake Reed, catcher Shaun Chase and infielder Mitchell Tolman made the all-conference team, second baseman Aaron Payne and starting pitcher Jeff Gold earned honorable mentions. The complete list of names for the all-conference team, honorable mentions and the all-defensive team can be found here.

– No. 1 Oregon softball also earned acknowledgments this week. Infielder Courtney Ceo, outfielder Janie Takeda and pitcher Cheridan Hawkins were named All-Americans by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.

– Oregon men’s golf was eliminated from the NCAA Championships on Monday. The team lost sophomore golfer Ryann Ree following the tournament. Ree, who decided to transfer schools, declined to comment on the move.

– Emerald sports reporter Joseph Hoyt appeared on KWVA’s Quack Smack Tuesday night to discuss the Oregon softball team’s success and the Ducks’ upcoming appearance in the Women’s College World Series. Quack Smack airs Monday through Friday from 6-7 p.m. and will feature an Emerald sports staff member every Tuesday. KWVA Sports also airs Friday Night Spotlight from 7-9 p.m.

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