It might not have been quite a "Miracle on Ice," but a late-October contest certainly marked a turning point for the Washington State University men’s hockey club.
The Eagles Ice-A-Rena in Spokane saw the 0-6 Cougars taking on the University of Washington Huskies. UW had beaten WSU twice earlier in the season in Seattle, and the Cougars hadn’t recorded a win against their cross-state rivals in more than five years.
That all changed on Oct. 23, when Washington State put aside their recent history of losing and knocked off the Huskies 7-4.
“We didn’t just beat them; we really dominated all aspects of the game,” coach Chris Soriano said in a phone interview with me last Wednesday. “There’s some seniors who have never beaten UW, and to see how happy they were about that, it’s a memory that’s special, because I think it marked a turning point for our program. It’s a good milestone in the story of this team of how far they’ve come along.”
The Cougars would go 6-4-1 down the stretch of the season, but the momentum from that one win over the Huskies helped propel them to their first playoff appearance in eight years and a 5th place finish in the Pac-8 Conference.
As a club sport, the WSU men’s ice hockey team is not sponsored by the University as an NCAA classified sport. A member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association, WSU’s club is one of more than 100 Division II teams.
Because the team lacks the funding to compensate a coach, Soriano donates a lot of his resources into helping the Cougars be successful. The WSU-alum lives in downtown Bellevue, where his day job title is the director of procurement for Concur Technology, and generally drives but sometimes flies to meet the team for games on the weekends.
“I volunteer my time and money, and I’ve been doing it for a long time, and I really love doing it,” Soriano said. “You could argue that if I didn’t do it, would there still be a team? I like to think that I’m giving these guys an experience that I got to have when I was at WSU.”
But the 2015-16 season didn’t just happen because of the coaching genius of Soriano or because of a few lucky breaks. The one-year turnaround of the program could be credited to perhaps four specific players on a team that Soriano describes as “self-guided,” he said.
Seniors Andrew Efronson, Ryan Maul, and Zach Sonnichsen, and sophomore John “JD” Dunn IV were the driving forces behind making this team successful once again.
Maul, the now lone senior since Efronson and Sonnichsen both graduated in December, is double majoring in accounting and administrative information systems. The captain and center on the team helped lead practices in Lewiston each Thursday night without Soriano’s presence. Maul said he feels good knowing that he’s leaving the team in a better position than when he got here two years ago.
“It’s actually really gratifying,” Maul said. “Me and the former president Andrew (Efronson) put a lot of work in over the summer to make sure that it’s still running because the previous few years it was really struggling to get enough guys, and money was always an issue. I think this year we’ve done a lot better. It’s cool to see all the young guys coming in that are excited for the program because it feels like we started it, and now it’s going to continue to grow and improve.”
Dunn, who will be the team’s president next year, said the difference between last season and this season was almost palpable.
“Last year we had like ten guys – not a lot of team - and most of them were older, and they’ve been losing for a couple years, and there wasn’t a lot of hope and passion in the team,” JD said. “But this year, we got a full roster, and we were able to develop a connection between everyone and it definitely feels like a family this year, whereas last year it was just kind of like, not feeling it.”
The Cougars certainly were feeling it after their win over the Huskies back in October, and that’s led to much more optimism now that the season has concluded.
“This is the most excited I have been in February for the following season,” Soriano said. “We get the vast majority of the players back that we have. From what I understand, we have a couple of excellent players that are coming into Pullman next year… With the right attitude and the right work ethic and a good, strong incoming class, that this team really has a chance to do something that no other WSU team has been able to do in the past.”
Even with that opportunity in front of them, the coach reiterated that there’s a bigger reason why he does what he does for WSU.
“I’m a hockey coach second, and I’m really more interested in their development as young men,” Soriano said. “I’m really close to a lot of these guys. I get text messages and emails all the time. I guess the real reason why I do it is because I really enjoy seeing these guys turn into young men and going to their weddings and seeing them have kids and watching their careers.”
It took the Cougars seven seasons to make it to the playoffs under Soriano, but now that they have a taste of that opportunity. It’s hard to imagine them slowing down before they’ve realized their full potential.
Look out, Pac-8 Conference. And look out, UW.
