DePaul’s hockey team returned to Johnny’s Ice House West this past weekend after nearly a month on the road. After what initially seemed like a promising matchup, the Blue Demons were swept by the Marian University Sabres.

On Friday, the stands at Johnny’s Ice House West saw a crowd of students from Lincoln Park taking in the team’s first home game in over a month. DePaul had just come off a perfect weekend away at Saint Mary’s University, defeating them in both games 10-5 and 7-3.

After a back-and-forth battle at home against the Sabres, forward Marco Presta scored with just under six minutes to play in the first period, but it would prove to be the team’s lone goal for the game. Marian came flying out on the ice, scoring a total of eight goals by the end of the game, while outshooting the Blue Demons 44 to 33.

“I think we came out of the first period too comfy with ourselves,” goaltender AJ Grzbek said. “We were just not in the right state of mind going into that second period.”

Playing against Marian proved to be an emotionally intense and physical game, which resulted in a total of 20 penalties between the two teams on Friday. All but two penalties came after the first period, in which the Sabres capitalized on four powerplay goals along with two coming shorthanded.

Saturday’s matchup saw an optimistic look for DePaul before the game, but the Blue Demons once again came up short in the end.

The first period saw forward Brandon Guzzi score his first collegiate goal just three minutes in. However, the story remained the same as the Sabres eventually took the lead in the second period and won the game 6-3. Marian outshot the Blue Demons 45 to 53.

“We thought we had won the game already and that’s something you should never do,” forward Konrad Wujkowski said. “The difference of today was that we kept the intensity and physicality coming and we played a hell of a game.”

This weekend featured the second pair of conference games the Blue Demons played this season. Of the four conference games DePaul has played, the team has dropped three of them.

DePaul’s remaining schedule carries into February and includes nothing but conference games against teams throughout Illinois and Wisconsin in the Northern Collegiate Hockey League’s central division. 

The Blue Demons next pair of games comes during winter break on Friday, Dec. 6 and Saturday, Dec. 7 against Concordia University of Wisconsin. Puck drop is at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at Johnny’s Ice House West.