I went to a fight, and a hockey game broke out. Santa Rosa Junior College’s Hockey team, the Polar Bears, skated to victory against UC Berkley’s Bears in the season home opener at Snoopy’s Home Ice Sept. 20.

Despite Cal drawing first blood six minutes into the first period, the Polar Bears John Keshishian answered 40 seconds later to tie it right back up.

Keshishian finished the game with a hat trick. “It was a good start to the rest of the season. It was just hard work from the whole line,” Keshishian said.

Head coach Mike Kovanis is confident in his team’s ability this year though The Polar Bears came out a little slow in the first falling victim to early season rust and penalties which disrupted the flow of the lines. After the second intermission, the Polar Bears responded to the raucous packed crowd and rewarded the fans with a win.

“I feel really good, pretty optimistic. I hope we can make another run at the PCHA. If we do well against the opponents we have on our schedule, we have a very legitimate chance of being ranked very high,” Kovanis said.

PCHA, Regionals and Nationals are on the Polar Bear’s radar again this year and Kovanis feels their chances of returning are high.

The next home game is 8:30 p.m. Oct. 3 against San Francisco State.