Club hockey team loses to Florida Atlantic 5-3

This past weekend, the Tech hockey club faced the Florida Atlantic Owls and lost in a close match 5-3. The score does not tell the entire story, as the Owls got an empty net goal at the end of the game when the Jackets used an extra attacker to try to tie the game.

FAU scored first, and the Jackets would never have the lead in the game. Tech answered back only minutes after FAU's first goal and would end the first period tied.

In the second period, FAU scored two goals. One came on a power play, and the other came off of a Tech turnover in the defensive zone. The Jackets did answer back to make it 3-2, but that would not last long, as the Owls put up a goal near the end of the second period to give themselves a two-goal cushion going into the third period.

In the final period of play, FAU was able to hang on to beat the Jackets 5-3.

"They just beat us on some odd man rushes. We got a few good scoring chances. I would not say that we played a great game, but we played a solid game. They just took advantage of turnovers by putting everything in the net," left winger Kyle Stage said.

This was the first game for the team since the Memorial Health Hockey Classic Jan. 13-14. The annual event in Savannah, Ga. features four teams-Tech, UGA, Florida and Florida St.-competing for the Thrasher Cup. For the second year in a row, UGA won the event by downing Tech on the second night of play.

This year, there were nearly 8,500 fans in attendance at the game. When compared with the average 100 to 300 fans that show up to regular season games at the Marietta Ice Center, it's easy to see why the event is so special for the team.

"When we go down there, we get treated like premium hockey players," team captain Michael Zaucha said. "The arena was sold to capacity for the Saturday night game against Georgia. It was an amazing atmosphere to play in. The other thing is that kids will come up to you and ask for your autograph. We never get that at home."

Zaucha is a fourth-year mechanical engineering student who is the team captain as well as the president of the club team. He got his start playing hockey in the seventh grade when some of his friends back home in Delaware started playing pickup games. He eventually became more interested in the game and made it onto traveling squads. In high school, he had to decide whether to pursue his dream of being a professional hockey player or pursue a good education.

"Somewhere between sophomore and junior year of high school, I was going to have to decide to either stick with hockey or lean more toward education. I figured that concentrating on my education was much more certain at the time. Going pro in any sport is risky. I did not even apply to any of the northern hockey schools," Zaucha said.

Fourth-year left winger Kyle Stage is a native Georgian. He started playing hockey not on skates, but on roller blades. In the seventh grade, like Zaucha, he tried playing ice hockey but did not care for it. While at Forsythe Central High School in Alpharetta, he continued playing roller hockey for the team there. When he arrived at Tech, he learned of the ice hockey team and soon joined.

"I never really planned on playing here, but I found out that there was a team here. I became interested and joined up. It has been a lot of fun to this point. While playing with this group of guys, I have continued to improve," Stage said.

Next Saturday the team will face Kennesaw St., a main rival for the team. "In our last game against Kennesaw, we had three or four guys kicked out [for fighting], and they had four or five guys that were thrown out," Stage said. "Two years ago, playing Kennesaw was a nothing game, and now they are the team to beat. They are currently the number one team in the conference."