Sophomore goaltender Matt Pombo says he can crush pucks with his teeth. He did just that last weekend as OU swept a pair of games at No. 10 Rhode Island.
Pombo chomped 49 pucks against RIU and has made 188 saves (31.3/gm) in his last six road starts, shutting out two ACHA top-10 clubs along the way. Top-10 teams had their way with OU on the road last semester. Perhaps the Sooners are turning the corner.
“You always want to play well like that.” Pombo said. “Once you start to get on a roll, and you’re confident in the team, more importantly the team and the coaches are confident in you. We feed off of each other,”
New faces are also stepping up for OU. Freshman forward Craig Martin continued his hot streak with the first goal of Friday’s game. Martin has four goals in OU’s last four games; he only had two goals before catching fire.
“We’ve just been trying to simplify everything,” Martin said. “We just need to start shooting more. That makes it easier for everybody else to score goals and get points.”
Junior forward Blake Johnson and freshman forward Chad Hudson each scored their first goal of the year. Neither was with OU for the first semester. Chris Perry, OU Hockey Communications Director, bills Hudson as the Sooners’ “new sniper”.
Only five home games remain of a grueling regular season. Out of 28 games played, 19 have come against teams in the ACHA top 13. The four-game season series with No. 5 Liberty still looms on the schedule along with the second semester home-and-home with No. 13 Central Oklahoma.
Sophomore forward Brad McCabe scored twice against RIU and is OU’s leading goal scorer with 17. He says he is confident in the team for the stretch run, playing their best hockey at the right time. “We’re trying to get a streak going, and win all (six) of these against Liberty and UCO.”
Pombo says the team is all on the same page, and really starting to gel.
“We’re all here to do one thing, and that’s to win Nationals” Pombo said.
OU travels to Lynchburg, Va., to face No. 5 Liberty College for a pair of games this weekend. The Flames have a ton of firepower, including four 20-goal scorers. Freshman forward Brent Boschman leads with 29 goals, followed by senior forward Kyle Dodgeson, 24 goals. Liberty comes to Oklahoma City for the Sooners’ final home games Feb. 26 and 27.
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