The Long Beach State ice hockey team will play its last preseason game against Loyola Marymount at the Staples Center Thursday night – right after the Los Angeles Kings vs. Anaheim Ducks match.
This game will be the first time LBSU will share the same ice as the Kings –the 2014 NHL champions – making it a rare opportunity for college teams to experience.
The Kings created “College Series” to pit some of the top L.A. college hockey teams to hold matches after their home games in order to promote college hockey in the community, according to LMU’s hockey website.
Head coach Frank Mitrano and senior goalkeeper Steven Strother said they understand the difficulty of gaining awareness for college hockey teams in Southern California, and think it’s nice for professional teams to try and build popularity for the sport.
“We’ve been trying to make the team more professional by posterizing and making the tryout process like a Division I school rather than intramural,” Strother said. “[We’re] trying to get people to go from, ‘We have a hockey team?’ to ‘Oh yea, we just went to a game last week’.”
Strother said that Mitrano has been doing a lot to make his program more “official” by holding off-ice preseason practices, training programs, and track and weightlifting workouts. Now Strother said believes that the team is ready to face LMU.
“When I first came to [LBSU], their [Lions] program was still developing,” Strother said. “Last year, they made a complete 180…” Now LMU is a team he looks forward to playing.
The Lions’ program is only eight years old, and although the 49ers defeated them in all four matches they had together last season, the Lions advanced to playoffs while the Beach finished with a 13-15-1 record.
There are no current statistics updated for the ‘Niners, but Mitrano emphasized that he will rely on his veteran players like captain Taylor Abramson and forward Ian Hoang to carry the weight heading into the start of the season.
The Lions are led by Kyle Martins and Jack Hyman, who made 27 and 20 goals respectively.