2 weekends ago the Oregon Ducks hockey team got their 2026-2027 season started by hosting the Buffaloes of Colorado at the Rink Exchange in Eugene for 2 games on Friday and Saturday.
The Ducks won the 1st game 7-0 and then lost the 2nd game in over time 5-4. For those unfamiliar Hockey uses a “Points” system to measure the record of teams. 2 points for a win, 1 point for a loss after regulation, 0 points for a loss in regulation. This means the Ducks picked up 3 of 4 points on the weekend. On paper
a good result but I think the Ducks staff and players will be kicking themselves for letting the 2nd win slip away. Here is how the games went down beyond the boxscore
Friday
I have been highly anticipating watching this Ducks team this season as the program only raises the level of talent on the roster each year meaning each team I’ve watched in my 3 years at ATQ has been the most talented team on the ice. The first game did not disappoint, as the Ducks absolutely handled the Buffaloes in a 7-0 victory. Here were my charting stats up until the Ducks went up 4-0 and put the game into garbage time just over half way through the game
Shots for: 61% Oregon
Total High Danger Chances: 72% Oregon
High Danger Chances 5 on 5: 75% Oregon
Power-play: 50% (1/2)
Penalty Kill: 100% (3/3)
The Ducks significantly controlled this game as evidenced by having over 60% of the shots on goal between the two teams and over 70% of the total high danger chances between the two teams. Any margin above 60% is significantly out-playing the opponent. What is juicing these stats though was that Colorado was getting to the dangerous areas of the ice when they had the puck but consistently kept missing the net at a higher than normal rate.
When the enemy is making mistakes though don’t get in their way and the Ducks did a great job getting their quality looks on net, and into the back of the net.
Both special teams looked great for Oregon. The powerplay scored on 1 of their 2 opportunities before garbage time and looked dangerous on the opportunity they couldn’t score on, while the penalty kill went a perfect 3 for 3.
Some individual shout-outs from this game. I want to highlight the goalie Thomas Cafarelli for picking up the shut-out. No matter how many goals your own team scores when your goalie is perfect that is always worth celebrating. Especially considering that before garbage time Colorado was able to generate 5 high danger chances as well as a handful of chances into garbage time as well. Turning every one of them aside is very impressive.
Additionally freshman forward Lewis Majkozak really stood out with his puck handling and skating. Every time he touched the puck he was creating something dangerous, his night was punctuated by the early clubhouse leader for Ducks goal of the year
Saturday
The 2nd game was looking early like it would be a repeat of Friday but the game turned in the 2nd period. The Ducks got started early scoring less than a minute into the game and then took advantage of a gift from the ref being in the way of a CU breakout to go up 2-0.
A nice rush chance at the end of the 1st put the Ducks up 3-0 and 40 minutes away from a perfect start to the weekend. But in the 2nd a string of Ducks penalties opened the door for Colorado who stormed back with 3 goals themselves. 2 on the power-play and 1 at 4 on 4.
Here were the team stats in the 2nd period:
- Shots: Oregon 5 – Colorado 17
- Total HD Chances: Oregon 3 – Colorado 9
Only 1 of Colorado’s 9 high danger chances came at 5 on 5 but the biggest reason for that was there was very little 5 on 5 time due to the aforementioned Duck penalties.
The Ducks were able to stop the bleeding in the 3rd, but with some newfound hope Colorado was not going to roll over. The 3rd period was pretty even in terms of chances and it looked like Colorado had completed the comeback when they scored late to go up 4-3.
But with the goalie pulled and the Ducks literally down to their last chance the Ducks miraculously tied it to send the game to O.T
In O.T the Ducks couldn’t get possession of the puck and whenever they did they seemed to be in a hurry to generate something quickly. Colorado would end up scoring the game winner on the only 1 of 5 goals I think Thomas Cafarelli would like back, despite giving up 5 goals I thought he played adequately giving the amount of quality chances the Ducks surrendered.
Here are my team stats from the Saturday Game:
Shots for: 38% Oregon
Total High Danger Chances: 44% Oregon
High Danger Chances 5 on 5: 60% Oregon
Power-play: 33% (1/3)
Penalty Kill: 71% (5/7)
The Ducks learned a tough lesson the hard way. They had Colorado completely on the ropes heading into the 2nd period and not only let them get off the mat but basically helped them do so with all of their penalties. It’s unfamiliar territory to be in, but as this team gets better there will be more occurrences where they need to finish games, so I’m hoping they can learn from this going forward.
Takeaways from the entire weekend
Here are the team stats from the entire weekend, excluding garbage time on Friday:
Shots for: 46% Oregon
Total High Danger Chances: 54% Oregon
High Danger Chances 5 on 5: 66% Oregon
Power-play: 40% (2/5)
Penalty Kill: 80% (8/10)
Outside of one period the Ducks let off the gas they pretty handily controlled both games. To not pick up 2 wins is disappointing, especially considering that what allowed Colorado to get back into the Saturday game were self-inflicted errors.
For documentation purposes here were the lines and pairing I saw for the majority of the weekend:
Forwards
Anselmo – Orwig – Kerr
Easterson – Ebbott – Abersch
Bruns – Kaunas – Chapman
Majkozak – Weber – Cardenas Aston
Defensemen
Kluksdahl – Gabriel (Fri)/Collier (Sat)
Wyatt – Streich
Friday and Saturday had two different 3rd defensive pairs
Friday: Collier – Hebert
Saturday: Samoila – Machoian
Up next the Ducks take on Grand Canyon at the Rink exchange this Friday and Saturday
