SEP 28 – As is tradition, the Spartans hockey team opened the 2025-26 season against the Cal Golden Bears at Sharks Ice in San Jose. The Spartans had dropped the past three contests against the Golden Bears, and were looking to provide the home crowd with a strong performance against arguably the best team in the conference.
The first contest on Friday ended up being the more competitive game of the weekend. This game ended in a 7-3 loss for the Spartans, with the Golden Bears pulling away in the last thirty minutes. Kirill Konoplianko scored the first SJSU goal of the season to tie the game up at 1-1 halfway through the first. Later on, the Brehm twins Brian and Blake each scored one of their own. Konoplianko was credited with assists on both scoring plays, ending his night with a team-leading 3 points. Cam Morris trailed him with 2 assists. Veteran goaltender Caymus Stevens had one of the busiest nights of his career, stopping 52 of 59 shots, equaling a 0.881 save percentage.
The second and final game of the series on Saturday night ended in blowout fashion, 14-3 in favor of the Golden Bears. Antonio Minisci started in between the iron before being taken out with seven minutes left in the third period. Kenny Brown and the Brehm twins each had a goal and an assist on the night.
Ultimately, the rivalry series was as advertised. It was a physical series throughout, but it was the Golden Bears who were the better team. Cal Berkeley fielded bigger and stronger lines, featuring skaters who were disciplined with the puck and executing offensive possessions to perfection. Also, both games produced a combined 28 penalties, with each team accounting for half. The last contest on Saturday night saw 18 combined penalties, the result of various misconducts and even an ejection. SJSU will look to continue the physicality when they meet Cal again in late January for the Battle of the Bay.
The next contest for the Spartans hockey squad will take place Thursday, October 2nd at 9:00 PM when they battle Grand Canyon University.
I am new to the hockey world as of the past two years and these numbers are brutal!! I didn’t know that Cal was so good in the league. What was the ejecton for? Who did it?
This is so cool! I had no idea that we have a hockey team here at SJSU. In the future I’ll make sure to keep my ears open and try to find time to attend a game!
Nice short read Pio on a pretty brutal series. I appreciate the highlighting of some of the Spartan players in an otherwise abysmal 2-game stint. Hopefully, the rest of the season is a bit better against less adversarial competition.