Polar Bears look for revenge as CSU Long Beach heads to Snoopy’s in 2017.

It’s no secret that the SRJC Hockey team plays better in the comfy confines of its own barn, Snoopy’s Home Ice. So what better way to get revenge on one of its most disappointing games of last season than to do it at home?

Cal State University, Long Beach comes to Snoopy’s Home Ice for the first time in club history on Oct. 13. The game comes a little more than a year after the Southern California club handed SRJC a disheartening 9-5 road loss in the Polar Bears’ second American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II game of the 2016-17 season.

“It’s going to be real fun to face them in our barn, in front of our fans,” said Team President Larry Hansen. “Playing the high-end teams in our barn always puts a good jump in our step. Personally, I’m looking forward to the game because I only got to play in half of the game against them last year.”
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Despite only a four-goal deficit— which would prove to be one of the better SRJC’s losses last year— the Polar Bears were almost nearly wiped out of the game. The team skated without then-Alternate captain David Lundgren (suspension), and had to cover the loss of Hansen (game disqualification) and rookie goalie Matthew Colgrove (concussion). 

The game demonstrated the early flaws of the Polar Bears’ game, with SRJC giving up four power play goals and only registering 28 shots on goals.

But the SRJC Hockey team has come a long way from that game, adding a little more credibility to their DII name— which played a big role in getting Long Beach to travel north to Snoopy’s. 

CSU Long Beach is one of California’s most prominent DII organizations. Despite a less than stellar 9-16 record last season, Long Beach is a leading squad in the ACHA subdivision, the West Coast Hockey Conference. The WCHC is a Southern California league operating within the ACHA— like SRJC’s Pacific Collegiate Hockey Association— and includes top university teams such as San Diego State Univeristy, Cal State Fullerton, Loyola Marymount University, CSU Northridge and Chapman University. Long Beach finished third in the regular season.  

The Southern California team was previously ranked within the ACHA DII. A good outing against Long Beach good prove fruitful for SRJC as ACHA’s first round of rankings for the 2017-18 season should be released shortly after the Oct. 13 game.
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Exact details are still being finalized and are expected closer to the start of the season.