Hockey starts new win streak
USU 9, Idaho 2
USU’s speed confounded the Vandals from the drop of the puck as Head Coach Jerry Crossley started USU’s three fastest skaters, Robert Hashimoto, Will Winsa and Michael Filander, on a line together, and they set the tone early by keeping the puck in Idaho’s zone for their entire shift. Idaho seemed to be trying to compensate for their lack of skating and puck-handling ability by turning the game into a slugfest a la Brigham Young University, but the tactic didn’t have a snowflake’s chance in hell of working against the fired-up Ags.
Assistant Captain Jordan Francom sat the game out, disqualified due to fighting in the last game against BYU.
Kent Arsenault added to his resume of spectacular goals with 16:13 to go in the first period. With USU on the power play, Arsenault took a pass from Filander and wheeled around Idaho’s zone unchallenged, finally releasing a wrister from well above the circles that hit the back of the net cleanly.
“The guys were all looking in and left me to skate right around, so I saw the wide-open corner and just shot it, and I knew it was going in,” Arsenault said. “Coach told me to shoot. Coming into the break he just said shoot, shoot, shoot. I went home for the holidays and watched a lot of the world juniors tournament and all Team Canada was doing was shooting, so I took a pointer from them and just kept going.”
The first period was similar to a marathon in terms of its duration, ending with the score 4-2 for USU and 29 penalty minutes assessed on the teams. Idaho scored twice in the 10th minute while Winsa and Matt Ferris sat in the box. Ferris incurred his roughing penalty while defending USU goalie Greg Finatti from the unsportsmanlike conduct of Idaho defender Rhen Stevens. Stevens was ejected from the game for grabbing Ferris’ cage.
“The goalie [Finatti] covered the puck, their guy went after the goalie, I tried to get the guy out, then another guy came sliding in from behind and I lost my head then. I went after him and just kind of broke it up a little bit,” Ferris said.
Ferris also scored for the first time this year, opening the second period’s scoring on another nice assist from Filander, who would finish tied with Roberto Leo for the lead in assists with three.
“I was in front of the net and Micha was behind the net. I haven’t scored all year so it was good. I snuck in there, he gave me a good pass and I stuck it in. It was pretty much a gift,” the 235-pound defenseman said.
Although Arsenault would watch the third period in a shirt and tie from the stands due to a hip pointer, USU’s swarming defense put the lid on Idaho and ensured the Ags wouldn’t miss their top goal-scoring threat. “Right before I got my penalty there [in the first period], I got a little hip pointer from a stick. It’s not bad walking, but when skating it’s just so painful that I couldn’t go on,” Arsenault, who also got two assists in his limited time on ice, said.
USU’s skaters went down to the ice to block Idaho’s shots repeatedly and limited Idaho’s remaining power-play opportunities. Ferris said this was due to an increased focus on penalty killing in practice.
“We were working a lot in practice on penalty kill. You’ve got to lay down and block the shots to prevent them from going in,” Ferris said.
USU’s scoring was balanced after Arsenault left. In addition to Ferris’ goal, Walter Voisard, Hashimoto and Alex Lund all scored once while Jay McFadden and Matt Geer each scored twice. McFadden got his work in before getting kicked out of the game with two minutes to go in the second period. Initially he was charged with checking from behind and sent to the box, but referee Ryan Kemp apparently reconsidered and decided to eject McFadden, sending him to sit in the stands with Arsenault.
Geer, who also assisted a McFadden goal, said, “It was nice to hop back into it. I think this was a nice team to play. We were switching a lot of lines today with Kent getting hurt and Jay getting kicked out, so we had to switch it up and everything worked out for the better. I think it’s good, not a warm-up game, but a game where we could focus on our fundamentals, not like playing a Weber D1 team.”
Penalties declined after the first period but remained a major feature of the game. With 34 seconds left in the second period, Brett Fryslie and Matt Legree were hit with slashing and boarding penalties simultaneously. Idaho began the second period with a two-man advantage for a minute and a half but couldn’t capitalize against the PK unit of Hashimoto, Ferris and Josh Groves. Then in the third period, USU’s Alex Lund and Tom Hammonds and Idaho’s Seth Yannes and Chad Connaughty were all penalized for roughing and sent to the box with 11:54 to go.
Lund had probably his best game yet as an Aggie, scoring a goal and notching an assist in his belt. The following players also had assists for USU: Hashimoto, Groves, Fryslie, Legree and Scotty John.
Legree and Jonah Nelson are the new players who join the skatin’ Aggies this semester. Legree wears the 84 jersey of Brandon Holthaus, with the name covered up. Holthaus left the team due to complications with his injured vertebrae. Nelson skates for USU in the number 27 jersey with the unfortunate name ‘Hacking’ on the back.
Nelson is an undeclared freshman who went to Sky View. “I always watched the Utah State hockey players and wanted to be one, so now I am,” he said. Nelson is joining the team late because last semester he travelled to Texas to try out for a team.
Legree is an elementary education major who immediately endeared himself to the fans in the Eccles Ice Arena by laying some big hits on the Vandals.
“I enjoy hitting. I enjoy taking the body. I think that’s what hockey is all about, being physical,” Legree said.
Legree came to USU in 2003 and played hockey before taking some time off from sports to focus on his studies.
“This semester is kind of a laid-back semester for me, so I thought why not come out and play and have some fun,” Legree said.
USU 4, Oregon 2
On Saturday night USU faced a big challenge in the form of the Oregon Ducks, who came into the game 12-1 and ranked ninth in the ACHA rankings. They skated fast, hit hard and looked great in their brand-new Nike uniforms. But it wasn’t enough for the visitors, and USU triumphed again, starting the new semester with a two-game winning streak.
Less than half as many penalties were called as the previous night, perhaps due to Ryan Kemp serving as a linesman instead of referee. In any event, the officials let the guys play, and not a single goal was scored on the power play for either side.
“I think we seemed a little flat tonight. I know we can play better than that. It’s just our second game back and we seemed a little slow. They’re a fast team and they out-shot us. They’re a really talented team and I can see why they beat University of Utah 15-nothing,” USU Captain Robert Hashimoto said.
Utah State got on the board first. Jordan Francom, back from his one-game suspension, stole the puck and snapped off a wrist shot before the Ducks could get back into their zone to defend, leaving Oregon goalie Wren Arbuthnot standing there, looking mystified with the puck laying behind him in the goal.
Moments later USU created their offense by playing tough defense again. This time William Winsa was swarming the ice, pressuring the puck, and knocked it free. The puck moved from Josh Groves to Jay McFadden before cycling back to Winsa, and the Swede put USU up 2-0.
“I can’t even remember the goal. I hit my head in there and I can’t even remember it,” Winsa said. After a reporter jogged his memory, Winsa said, “Jay passed it. I just got the puck and took a shot. I didn’t think about anything.”
Winsa was not the only Aggie to get his bell rung against Oregon. “Oregon was a fast team, but it seemed like they had a lot of individuals out there, and I think that’s the difference between us is we pass the puck more. They forechecked hard, so of course there’s going to be injuries and again, it’s the second game back,” Hashimoto said.
In the first period alone Kent Arsenault and Tom Hammonds had to be helped from the ice after taking big hits. Arsenault’s hip pointer was acting up again and had him in serious agony.
“[The hip] is not too good at all. I got hit there in the first period, my second shift out, and it felt like I was paralyzed. I had to get helped off the ice and I couldn’t feel my legs at all. I took a period off and it started to come around so I got out there to help the team,” Arsenault said. “I couldn’t throw my body. In warmup I was trying to take slap-shots and I could even do that, so I had to stick to snap-shots and I couldn’t touch the body or else every time it would just pin-point right on my hip, so I didn’t bother.”
With 3:23 to go in the first, Hashimoto put USU up 3-0 off a Winsa assist. Oregon’s Arbuthnot was pulled by the coaches and replaced with Elliot Harvey, a substitution which helped Oregon take the initiative in the second period.
Scotty Beard, who manned the goal for USU this time and had 37 saves, said, “We knew that this team could beat us. We didn’t think that they were going to be that good, but then they showed up in the first period and we were like ‘Whoa.’ Second semester is all about going to nationals, and we have to win every game if we want to go to nationals this year.”
Hashimoto said USU didn’t think they had the game won after the first period.
“I sure didn’t, and I hope none of the guys thought we had it in the bag. Oregon is a fast team! They’re talented, and I hope no one thought we had the game after the first period,” he said.
After Joel Dunham and Tom Stocklin scored on Beard to make it 3-2, Arsenault and Matt Legree were called for penalties within 15 seconds of one another, and Oregon had a golden chance to tie the game with five skaters on the ice to USU’s three for 1:50. But Beard frustrated the Ducks with his blocker and glove while getting plenty of help from the Aggie PK squad.
“We were outmanned the whole game, and a lot of our talented players are sitting there just getting cold. It sucks to see that,” Hashimoto said. Oregon was only called for four penalties all night while USU had twice that many.
After seemingly weathering the storm of the second period, USU came out in the third to try and solve Oregon’s new goalie, Harvey.
Both sides had power play chances in the third, but Harvey and Beard kept the score where it was. Then came the play that ended the game: with both teams at full strength, Arsenault had a breakaway chance and buried it behind Harvey, showing no ill effects from the hip injury.
“Our line was in our end, and we were getting killed down low. Jay McFadden threw it out just to get it down so we could get changed. I saw two D-men pinching so I knew it was going off the boards, so I decided to sprint for it, and I knew I was going to get that breakaway,” Arsenault said. “I lost time to decide, so I got the puck under control and I looked at the goalie, and he gave me that little gap up top so I decided to go for it. I’ve been practicing that all week. So I shot it up and saw the water bottle go off, and I knew it was in and I was pretty happy about it.”
Arsenault said he was in pain the entire game. “I was icing it between shifts, and I just dug down deep and did the thing I like to do. It’s better to win at hockey. I knew what we had to do, and I knew we needed that extra goal to secure the win.”
Winsa agreed that Oregon was a good team.
“I think these guys were a lot better than Idaho were. They hit us so we had to step it up too,” he said.
Winsa, Matt Geer and Groves all had one assist, and McFadden led the Ags with two.
Arsenault said the Aggies will hopefully be able to recover from their lumps. “We’ve got a week to regroup and head to California for another two Ws,” Arsenault said.