Friday, January 31st, 2003

Sean O'Brien earns a hat trick against USC.
Photograph by Leanne Burkle

ANAHEIM, CA – The Trojans may have stacked up more penalties than the
UW team, but the finally full-benched Huskies could not get past the
onslaught of Trojan shots, thus dropping the Dawgs first conference game
10-6.

The Trojans skated with an intensity that the UW club could not match,
easily scoring two goals within the first five minutes of the game. Husky
Sean O’Brien soon intercepted a USC pass and moved forward to fake out
the goalie for the first UW goal. The Huskies accomplished in shutting
down the Trojans until 4:43 remained in the period when a USC player
scored unassisted to earn a 3-1 lead over the UW. The Trojans also out
shot the Huskies 11-7.

Thirty-six seconds into the second witnessed Jamie O’Brien scoring a
power play goal assisted by Sean O’Brien and Shayne Sasseen. USC went
on to score three unanswered goals, the first on a power play opportunity
and then a shorthanded goal, both by Raffie Kalajian earning the Trojan
a hat trick. After USC gained a 6-2 lead, Craig Lawrence replaced
Freshman Husky goalie Matt Harrow.

While USC adjusted to the new goalie, Sean O’Brien slapped a puck into
the backside of the net on a power play advantage to cut the Trojan lead
in half. USC ended the period by scoring twice more on the fatigued
Huskies, the second period ending in favor of the Trojans, 8-3. The
Trojans bombarded the Huskies, out shooting them 25-7.

Period three was the highlight of the game for the UW team. USC scored
two more unanswered goals in the beginning, but soon went quiet as
the Huskies moved in attempts to catch up. Charlie Walters started the
attack with a goal with 13:29 remaining in the game. Five minutes later,
Sean O’Brien followed pursuit scoring on a power play opportunity,
earning the Husky his second hat trick of the season. The USC lead was
again cut in half with 8:39 remaining in the game. Brett Lawrence made
one more attack on the Trojans with 5:23 left on the clock. Brett moved
from mid-ice to beat the defense to score an unassisted shorthand goal,
moving the Huskies within four goals.

USC made sure their opponents knew why they are defending PAC-8
champions, shutting down the Huskies for the remainder of the game,
again out shooting them in the third period 10-7, and 56-21 for the night.
The Trojans handed the UW their first PAC-8 loss of the season, 10-6. The
Huskies fell to 8-1 in the conference and 12-9-1 overall in the ACHA-West.

Box Score
Final Score – USC 10, UW 6

Period 1 –
Scoring: 1, USC, Kalajian (Blair), 15:48; 2, USC, Nickson (Giannotta,
Krikorian), 15:08; 3, UW, S. O’Brien, 12:28; 4, USC, Krikorian, 4:43.
Penalties: USC (spearing, DQ), 3:49.

Period 2 –
Scoring: 5, UW, J. O’Brien (S. O’Brien, Sasseen), 19:24; 6, USC, Kalajian
(Krikorian), 15:41; 7, USC, Kalajian (Blair), 12:33; 8, USC, Cohen
(Krikorian), 9:38; 9, UW, S. O’Brien (B. Lawrence), 6:19; 10, USC, Kalajian
(Dralla), 3:58; 11, USC, Krikorian (Giannotta), :57.
Penalties: Littlefield, USC (slash), 17:41; B. Lawrence, UW (hold), 17:03;
Imahara, USC (slash), 14:22; Hutchison-Flaming, UW (high-stick), 12:07;
Anderson, UW (10-min. misconduct), 8:19; S. Lawrence, UW (cross-check),
8:19; Green, USC (10-min. misconduct), 8:19; Kalajian, USC (playing with
broken stick), 7:07; S. O’Brien, UW (hold) 19:25.

Period 3 –
Scoring: 12, USC, Dralla (Nickson), 18:28; 13, USC, Nickson (Giannotta,
Sargent), 13:50; 14, UW, Walters (Savage), 13:29; 15, UW, S. O’Brien (B.
Lawrence), 8:39; 16, UW, B. Lawrence, 5:23.
Penalties: Walters, UW (rough), 20:00; Kalajian, USC (rough), 20:00;
Imahara, USC (10-min misconduct), 20:00; Anderson, UW (high-stick),
17:28; Moore, USC (rough), 17:28; Shuler, USC (cross-check), 16:43;
Hutchison-Flaming, UW (slash), 14:22; Ringstad, UW (cross-check), 13:07;
Sargent, USC (rough), 13:07; B. Lawrence, UW (hook), 11:20; Blair, USC
(hook, misconduct), 9:34; S. O’Brien, UW (rough), 6:14; Blair, USC
(misconduct, game, DQ), 4:49; S. Lawrence, UW (rough), 3:15; Dralla, USC
(rough), 3:15.

Shots on Net
UW – 7, 7, 7 – 21
USC – 11, 25, 10 – 56

Goaltender Saves
UW – Matt Harrow – 8, 5, x – 13
Craig Lawrence – x, 12, 8 – 20
USC – Jeff Langille – 6, 5, 4 – 15

Power play results
UW – 3 for 8
USC – 2 for 7