NC State’s varsity sports are receiving tons of attention lately. The Wolfpack’s swimming and diving teams are ranked in the top 10, with the men at third and the women at ninth as of Wednesday. The wrestling team is a perennial powerhouse, currently sitting ninth in the NCAA. The women’s basketball team is performing well at 21st in the nation and while the men’s team is struggling, eyes are always on the talented team led by freshman phenom Dennis Smith Jr.
However, there is one Wolfpack team that should be thrown into the mix: the NC State club hockey team. While it isn’t a varsity sport, the high-scoring hockey team is one of the most exciting teams NC State has to offer.
In case you missed the past couple of years, the Pack has won four-straight ACCHL regular season titles. While NC State does not have an NCAA D1 squad, it boasts a successful ACHA men’s D2 team.
Led by junior Sam Banasiewicz, the Pack is looking to bounce back after a rough first semester of play and claim something they haven’t achieved since the 2011 season: an ACCHL championship. After four dominant seasons ending in a failure to raise the Admiral’s cup, expectations were high coming into the season regardless of losing members to graduation.
“I expected to come into this season winning a championship as I do every year,” Banasiewicz said. “I understood that we were losing our top five defenseman from graduation, but I still think with the guys that are on this team now, we are fully capable of winning an ACCHL championship.”
The Raleigh native is a leader in the locker room and on the ice; in fact, he earned co-ACCHL Player of the Year honors last year. The first semester got off to a rocky start as the Wolfpack caught the injury bug; Banasiewicz went down with a knee injury, sidelining him for over two months.
“I felt a pop, and I immediately thought my season was done,” Banasiewicz said. “I went to the doctor and they said it should only be eight weeks and you should be back.”
With Banasiewicz out and fellow first line forward Will Bieberdorf injured, the Pack looked toward the younger players to step up, one of them being freshman forward Owen Drugan.
“Injuries are always hard, especially when you have a lot of freshmen on your team that you’ve never seen play,” Drugan said. “It was awesome to get to step up and I feel like I have found my role and finally have my feet under me.”
With the youth movement in Raleigh, NC State was able to develop its younger players, but they struggled during the first semester of play. After beginning the season at 5-1, the Wolfpack went 0-6-1 in its next seven, entering the second semester winless since Oct. 14.
The first contest of the spring semester was the Liberty Showcase in Liberty, Virginia. NC State faced off against the D2 southeast No. 7 Louisville Cardinals, No. 17 Virginia Tech Hokies and No. 2 Liberty Flames. The Wolfpack had a tall order ahead of it, as it had already fallen to the Hokies 8-2 on Nov. 6.
NC State pulled off the improbable, winning two of three on the weekend by upsetting the Cardinals and the Hokies. The players fought back in a game where they found themselves down 5-1 after the first period to win 8-7 in a thrilling finish, capped off by a game-winning goal from junior Andrew Kristof in a shootout.
The Wolfpack played its most complete game of the weekend, defeating the Hokies 8-4. That game felt like a testament to how far they had come over the season.
“We proved last weekend that we can come out and skate with anybody,” Drugan said.
While the Liberty showcase had no meaning in terms of ACCHL points standings, head coach Mike Gazillo believes the team’s performance during the tournament is a huge confidence booster.
“The way the guys stepped up, for morale, it was huge,” Gazillo said. “You start to believe in yourself a little bit more.”
While the Pack has not dominated the ACCHL like it has the past four years, NC State has kept a level head, building chemistry and camaraderie as the season progressed.
“As we were losing game after game, the chemistry on the bench and in the locker room was good,” Gazillo said. “There was no blaming or arguing, none of it. There is no pressure on them.”
No pressure might be the best thing this team needs to make a push for postseason play. Crunch time begins now for the Pack as its next five contests are league matchups. It looks like NC State could be about to peak at the right time.
The Wolfpack has three huge matchups over the next two weeks. The team faces off against UNC-Charlotte this Friday at the Raleigh IcePlex and in Winston-Salem against Wake Forest. The season series with UNC-Chapel Hill, called the “Backyard Brawl,” will end in PNC Arena on Feb. 2.
