USC upends #6 San Diego State

The USC Ice Hockey team gave their fans reason to celebrate the holidays early. In one of the most anticipated matchups of the semester, USC upset 6th-ranked San Diego State Aztecs 6-3 (box score) on Friday night at The Rinks in Anaheim, California.

The last time these two teams met on September 30, USC had yet to find their chemistry. Fresh off summer vacation, the Trojans failed to form a cohesive unit and ultimately fell to the Aztecs 7-2 in San Diego in just their second game of the season.

Friday night proved that they are not only a solid team, but a force to be reckoned with. The fans were privy to a completely different team than the one seen in September. After a difficult last couple of weeks with finals and a loss to Long Beach State, the Trojans made the most of every second they were on the ice.

Just a few minutes into the first period senior Hank Griesbach delivered a gritty check that got the crowd riled. At that moment, the fans knew that USC was there to play. The Trojans victimized the Aztecs on special teams, scoring on three of six power plays while killing off three of four USC penalties.

Five different Trojans scored, led by sophomore Thomas Waschenfelder with two goals, netting one on a power play and capitalizing on the empty net at the end of the game. Freshman Cory Newman and Senior Dante Caravaggio also scored on the power play, while Sophomore James Huebner and Senior Adam Zacuto contributed with an even-handed goal each. In addition, goalie Eric Chiccone made was a barricade in net against the Aztecs, stopping 43 shots on the way to earning the win.

This game marked the beginning of winter break for USC. The Trojans return in the Spring with a major homestand, having eight of 10 games at Anaheim ICE and the two road games being local. They will face Loyola Marymount, Utah, UCLA, Oregon, and Cal State Fullerton. Their first game will be against LMU on Thursday, January 12 at Skating Edge Ice Arena, starting at 8:15pm, immediately followed by a back-to-back series against PAC 8 newcomer Utah on Friday & Saturday in Anaheim.

The remaining games are against UCLA, Oregon, and Cal State Fullerton.

Player Profile: Adam Zacuto

This week’s featured player profile is the Trojans’ resident sniper Adam Zacuto!

Hailing from San Clemente, California, Adam is a 21-year-old senior at USC’s Marshall School, just months away from graduating with a major in Finance.

Adam and his neighbor watched the Mighty Ducks movies and were instantly inspired to skate. “[We] watched the [movies] and thought it looked pretty fun. We started out playing in our street and things took off from there.”

At the age of five, Adam enrolled in his first roller hockey lesson. After a couple years he made the transition to ice hockey and has not turned back since. “I love the speed and physicality of the game – I honestly don’t think there is any other sport that compares to the adrenaline rush you feel on the ice.” It did not take long for him to realize that his love of scoring goals outweighed his desire to stop goals from happening, “[Playing] forward was an easy choice.”

Among the numerous hockey memories that he has accumulated throughout his hockey-playing career, Adam cites two particular moments as the most memorable. In 2007, Adam was given the distinct honor of making the Under-17 USA Hockey National Development Camp at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. Later that same year, his team, the LA Selects, made it all the way to the semifinals at their national tournament. To say the least, it was a fantastic year of hockey for Adam.

Behind every success story there is a source of inspiration and Adam has been fortunate enough to grow up with a family full of it. “Both of my grandfathers were successful entrepreneurs with unbelievable work ethics. Their accomplishments are an inspiration to me everyday. My maternal grandparents were also Holocaust survivors. Their resilience inspires me to overcome whatever problems I may face in life. My dad also runs a non-profit and dedicates his life to helping foster children – he is an inspiration to me, as well!”

This season Adam has been a goal-scoring machine and a major asset, with more than 20 goals and 10 assists thus far. Along with his goal-scoring, Adam adds speed and agility to the Trojans’ arsenal.

After he graduates in May, Adam will move to San Francisco where he will work in investment banking. His presence on Trojan ice will be greatly missed!

Get to know Adam:

1. What would I find in your refrigerator right now? This weekend I was scolded by a few girls who were at my apartment for only having hot sauce in our fridge – so there you go.

2. If you could trade places with any NHL player, living or dead, who would it be and why? It would be pretty cool to be Alex Ovechkin – he’s one of the best players in the league right now and it seems like no one in the NHL has more fun than he does!

3. If Hollywood were to make a movie about your life, who would play you? Ed Norton, Leo DiCaprio, and Adam Sandler are my favorite actors – one of them would be awesome.

4. If you could time travel to any time before our own, which would it be and why? I’m pretty happy in the 21st century – can’t live without my iPhone! It would be nice to travel back a few decades to get to know some of my relatives who passed away, that I did not get the chance to meet.

5. Cats or Dogs? Dogs

6. Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla

7. Favorite pasta shape? Penne

8. What is your favorite language other than your native language? I took 5 years of Spanish in high school and I also know a little Hebrew (would like to learn more!)

9. Your favorite color M&M? I am allergic to chocolate (but my favorite Skittles colors are yellow, orange and green)

10. The Zombie Apocalypse is here! Who on your team survives, is the first killed, the one who has a plan to survive such an event, and the one who has secretly been a zombie all along.

Survives – Hank Griesbach

First Killed – Dave Morris

Has a plan to survive – James Andersen

Was a zombie all along – Justin Bieber

11. Favorite holiday? Why? Hannukah – eight crazy nights!

12. If you owned your own hockey team, what would you name it? Trojans (Team Zacuto is the name of my fantasy team too)

13. Coke or Pepsi? Coke

14. Do you prefer hot or cold weather? Not a big fan of the cold

15. Do you have a nickname? Most people just call me by my last name (my roommates also call me Zook or Zooki)

16. Last song you heard? Paradise (Lil Wayne and Young Chris)

17. Most recorded show on your DVR? Either South Park, SportsCenter or Entourage. The annual Victoria Secret Fashion show [...] too!

18. If you were an animal which would you be? Cheetah

19. What is the last book you read? Monkey Business or Liar’s Poker

20. What super power would you have? It would be pretty cool to fly – reading minds would also be awesome!

21. Favorite pick up line? Not G rated

22. Your favorite meal? Chicken Club from Board n’ Brew (sandwich shop in my hometown) or Pedro’s Tacos (small taco stand also in my hometown)

Player Profile: Alex Caravaggio

The Featured Player Profile finally kicks off, and this week’s player is goalie Alex Caravaggio.

Alex is in his second year at USC and majoring in Chemical Engineering with a Petroleum Emphasis. Alex, 19, was born in Valencia, California and has lived all over the world. He considers Calgary, Alberta to be his home since he spent his junior high and high school years there.

Growing up, Alex played every intramural sport possible at his high school except for football. He spent most of his time swimming until he was eleven at which point his family made the big move from Texas to Canada.

At first, skating was not an innate skill for Alex. He first tried skating while in Texas, where his brother Dante played hockey. Alex recollects that his first attempts at skating involved more of his holding on to the wall than actually skating. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and soon Alex became a skilled skater. He began taking actual classes when he was eleven and joined his first team when he was twelve. Alex was forced to quit competitive swimming when he was fourteen as he was not able to competitively swim and compete at the highest level of hockey for his age group simultaneously.

Alex credits his older brother (a senior at USC who also plays on the hockey team) for getting him started in hockey. “My older brother Dante got me playing. He has been my inspiration and role model my whole life.” He then quips “Plus…who doesn’t play hockey in Canada?”

The two brothers would practice their skills in their driveway and it was here that Alex realized his love for goaltending, “I fell in love with the idea that I was the last line of defense. Plus, the old Cat-Eye cages and gear that goalies wore was so awesome. It felt like I was a knight or something putting it on for the first time.”

In the final half of high school, Alex played Major Midget AAA where he got to participate in an International Tournament called the Macs Tournament. It is here that many NCAA and Major Junior scouts attend in hopes of finding their prospective team members. “I had several offers to go play for lower tier Junior teams and chase the NCAA dream, but I owe it to my brother to play with him like I’ve always wanted to do since I started playing hockey. We never played together because of our age difference of two years.”

Alex’s fondest hockey memory is with this Major Midget team he played on in High School. Right before the 2010 Team Canada Women’s Ice Hockey team participated in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics they held an exhibition game against his team. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that granted him the opportunity to tend the net against these professional female hockey players. The tournament was televised and had 4,000 enthusiastic fans in attendance. The game ended in a nine-round-shootout when Alex made a splits save and won the game for his team.

In his first season at USC, Alex helped lead the Trojans into the 2010-2011 PAC 8 Conference Tournament, where they secured a third place finish, losing to the eventual champion Washington in a shootout and defeating Cal in the consolation game. At the PAC 8 Awards Banquet, the conference teams’ coaches recognized Alex’s tremendous efforts throughout the season and voted him onto the All-PAC 8 First Team as the league’s best goaltender. The freshman phenom beat out the veteran goaltenders from the two higher-ranked teams, senior Jack Barry from 2nd-place Oregon and sophomore Danny Dougan from Washington.

Get to Know Alex:

1. What would I find in your refrigerator right now? Subway!
2. If you could trade places with any NHL player, living or dead, who would it be and why? Patrick Roy, he revolutionized goaltending
3. If you could time travel to any time before our own, which would it be and why? Back to the time of the dinosaurs, so I could tame a Tyrannosaurus Rex to do my bidding
4. Cats or Dogs: Dogs
5. Chocolate or Vanilla: Vanilla
6. Favorite pasta shape? Fettuccine
7. What is your favorite language other than your native language? French
8. Your favorite color M&M? Red
9. The Zombie Apocalypse is here! Who on your team survives, is the first killed, the one who has a plan to survive such an event, and the one who has secretly been a zombie all along? My brother and I survive with our foolproof plan that will only be shared with our closest acquaintances, and DP would absolutely be the first killed while probably trying to get other people killed, too.
10. Favorite holiday? Why? Christmas, normally has the longest break and I prefer the cold
11. If you owned your own hockey team, what would you name it? “The Subs”
12. Coke or Pepsi? Water :)
13. Do you prefer hot or cold weather? Cold
14. Do you have a nickname? Not that I know of
15. What is your signature dish? Footlong Chicken Breast on Wheat
16. Most recorded show on your DVR? Velociraptor
17. What super power would you have? Control time
18. Your favorite meal? Subwaaay!
19. Favorite NHL team? Calgary Flames!!!
20. Motto or saying you model your life after: It is a part of a prayer called the Prayer of Serenity, truly words to live by:
"Grant me the serenity,
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference."
21. Who is your inspiration? Without a doubt, my older brother Dante. I might not be playing hockey, I might not be studying engineering, I might not even be getting the incredible experience I am getting here at USC without him supporting and encouraging me every step of the way.

Trojans Win The Century Cup

USC made winning the Century Cup look easy this past weekend as the Trojans swept Loyola Marymount with back-to-back wins Thursday and Friday nights.

The Century Cup is the trophy annually awarded to the winner of the best-of-three series between USC and LMU. The Lions will present the Cup to the Trojans at their next game on January 12 since it is in their possession after winning the 2010-2011 series.

Both games saw an abundance of scoring action with final scores of 5-2 and 6-5 respectively.Both USC goalies from this weekend, rookie junior Eric Chiccone on Friday and sophomore Alex Caravaggio on Saturday, did a phenomenal job at keeping LMU at bay.

Senior Adam Zacuto was named the HockeyGiant First Star of both match-ups. Zacuto had yet another stellar weekend as he posted a total of six goals and two assists. Thursday night’s Second and Third Stars were Chiccone and rookie junior Chris Roman; Friday’s Second and Third Stars were sophomore James Huebner and senior captain Noah Comisar.

In addition to Zacuto’s six goals, four other Trojans scored and eight others contributed assists.

“It was definitely a team win,” Zacuto stated after Saturday’s game.

Both games oozed emotion. Thursday saw USC’s Alex Hite and LMU’s Stephen Vollkommer receive game misconducts in addition to their minor roughing penalties with just 34 seconds left in the third period. The teams knew that they were to face one another again the next night causing tempers to flare with the scoreboard in USC’s favor. The following evening, with just 43 seconds left in the third period, Zacuto scored the Trojan’s sixth goal of the evening. With the Century Cup lost, LMU players retaliated and Zacuto ended up in the penalty box along with LMU’s Robert Yannotta and Michael Indigaro, each with a minor roughing penalty. LMU’s Bobby Arnold joined his teammates in the box with a two-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.

The Trojans fought for the puck and finished their checks – two huge improvements from the beginning of the season. The team also has found their chemistry with one another, which make the games not only successful, but that much more entertaining to watch.

The Trojans travel to Northern California this weekend to take on Cal. Their next two games will be played at Oakland Ice Center in Oakland, California. Fight On!

A Weekend With Washington State

After four consecutive losses, the USC Trojans finally found their stride and reaped the benefits of having back-to-back ten goal games. The Trojans defeated Washington State 10-2 Friday night and 10-1 Saturday night.

Sergei "Serge" Liberovsky was the Trojan in net that could not be beat Saturday night as Washington made a valiant effort to make a comeback from the previous evening.

What caused this team to score 20 goals over the course of two games after losing four?

Regarding the turn of events this past weekend, alternate captain Noah Comisar feels that “[…] only having five or six practices under our belt, we have a lot to develop. This weekend we switched up the lines a bit because the lines for the first four games weren’t creating the chemistry we needed to produce out there.”

After a not so stellar start to the season this shake up clearly had a positive impact on the players. The chemistry that these new lines created was positively reflected on the scoreboard this past weekend.

“I attribute this weekend’s two wins towards a rash of self-confidence we hadn’t had prior and unselfish play all around,” said alternate captain Dante Caravaggio. “People came to the games hungry to win.”

This hunger was refreshing to finally see as the Trojans battled for the puck in an unprecedented way thus far in the season. They played a physical game where they finished their checks and truly made an effort to score and play as a team.

Adam Zacuto personally had an unbelievable weekend as he scored a hat trick (three goals in one game) in both games against Washington State. When asked about what led to his personal success, Zacuto was quick to share his success with his linemates, “I think I benefited personally from the new line combinations we went with this weekend. Both James Huebner and Cory Neuman gave me some great passes and they definitely contributed to my personal success and the points our line put up.”

Zacuto gave it his all on Saturday and even received a 10-minute game misconduct along with two extra minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct when he was involved in a scuffle on the ice. Although he was out of commission for twelve minutes, the passion he played with on Saturday was greatly appreciated by all in the arena.

Looking to the future, Comisar said, “We still have yet to prove ourselves as a team that can compete with the best in our league. I’m hoping that the monkey is off our back.”

Whether it was as easy as switching up the lines, receiving a bit of luck, or just plain old timing the USC Trojans have now proved that they have what it takes to get the puck to the net. There is no going back for this team who faces their cross-town rivals UCLA this Saturday at The Rinks in Anaheim, California at 7:30. Fight on!

Trojans vs. 49ers October 6, 2011

It was another loss for the USC Trojans as they fell for a second time to the Long Beach State 49ers last night 5-0.

The first period looked extremely promising, as the Trojans came out looking like they were playing to win. There was a fighting energy that permeated throughout the entire arena that gave everyone hope that this game would end in USC’s favor. SC’s starting goalie, Alex Caravaggio, was solid in net. He looked calm and confident as Long Beach kept getting pucks to the net. There were some fantastic checks as SC battled for the puck. Unfortunately, after a scoreless first period, Long Beach scored with two minutes and nine seconds left to the period. It was at this moment the energy on SC’s bench changed and never recovered.

Three minutes into the second period, Long Beach scored again making the score 2-0. The energy continued to drop and the team was just not able to recover the game. Forward Anthony Dragatto said, “We were outplayed. We were out-hustled, and we got out-shot. We were not confident with the puck especially at the blue line.” This was extremely apparent throughout the rest of the game, as the team continued to allow three more goals to be scored.

Defenseman Dante Caravaggio feels that the lines have yet to find their scoring rhythm, “I’d say our lines have been slow to develop chemistry against these tough opponents (SDSU, CSUF and CSULB all nationally ranked last year), but our intensity is constantly improving. If we keep things simple, we’ll start scoring. Alex is one of the best goaltenders on the west coast, but we have to score to win games.”

The score is a perfect reflection of what went wrong. The team was shut out because they failed to get the puck to the net. The fight for the puck that they showed in the first fifteen minutes of the first period completely disappeared after Long Beach scored one goal. The goalie is only able to do so much, and the rest of the work falls on the team to keep the puck in the opponent’s zone and eventually in their net. If A. Caravaggio, who last year was voted to the All PAC 8 First Team as the league’s best goalie, had not played the way he did, the score could have been a lot worse.

The Trojans will hopefully find more of a scoring rhythm tonight as they take on Washington State University at The Rinks in Anaheim, California tonight at 8:30pm, and tomorrow night at 7:30pm.

USC Roster for Oct 1 CSUF game

USC roster for the CSUF game on Saturday, October 1:

Forwards

5 Peters, Derek

6 Griesbach, Hank

7 Knight, David

9 Huebner, James

12 Morris, Dave

13 Waschenfelder, Thomas

16 Kucinski, Ryan

17 Bieber, Justin

18 Zacuto, Adam

21 Newman, Corey

22 Roman, Chris

23 Draggoto, Anthony

26 Comisar, Noah

Defense

2 Caravaggio, Dante

4 Hite, Alex

14 Manning, Ryan

15 Mowrey, Mike

20 Walker, Luke

22 Roman, Chris

28 Duffy, Tom

Goalies

1 Caravaggio, Alex

33 Xu, Harrison