Aggies knock off Division II Wildcats
The Utah State club hockey team edged out the Weber State Wildcat’s Division II team 5-4 Friday night in a very intense and emotional game for both teams at the Eccles Ice Center.
Weber State jumped out early, scoring two goals in the first eight minutes, but the Aggies rebounded by scoring four goals in four minutes to bury the Wildcats.
“Some of the guys confessed that they had a little bit of jitters to start the game tonight,” said USU Head Coach Jerry Crossley. “And I guess that’s understandable. They just rallied up and answered.”
After a couple breakaway goals by the Wildcats, Jacob Guttormsen put a rebound past Weber State goalie Chris Jones to make the score 2-1. Two minutes later, Aaron Burrell split two defenders to give Utah State a 3-2 lead and the Aggies never looked back.
“We had a little more intensity,” said Aggie Matthew Lagree. “Last week we had two games, versus BYU the first game and then we played Weber. We didn’t have as much intensity in that Weber game. But this game we came out and we had a little more intensity and we showed a little more encouragement effort.
“The fans were a lot louder,” he said.
Weber State made it interesting late in the third period after Craig Lindgren scored to make the score 5-4 with 2:11 remaining. But nearly all of the final two minutes was played on the Wildcat end of the ice to seal the victory for the Aggies. “The first thing I told them when we got in [the locker room] was that last minute, minute 15 seconds they played the kind of game they want to play the whole game,” Crossley said. “The puck never leaves the zone. We’re down there with the intent of simply keeping that puck in that offensive zone and not giving them an opportunity.”
The game was very physical from start to finish as both teams combined for 56 penalty minutes.
“Our penalty situation, we got to get a grip on that,” Crossley said. “That’s two games, two wins we’ve had that we’ve tried to give away late in the game by taking penalties that aren’t necessary.”
After giving up eight goals in his outing last Saturday against Weber State’s Division I team, Chris Webber started in goal again for the Aggies and was brilliant, giving up only two goals.
“I was so nervous because I want to please the crowd,” Webber said. “I finally calmed down after we got our first goal. Everything was clicking.”
Crossley said, “We wanted to make sure he knows that we have confidence in him and we’re going to play through it. And he showed he can do the job.”
Webber is a transfer from San Jose State and is one of a dozen new players for the Aggies that are new to the USU-Weber State rivalry.
“I like it, I like it a lot,” Webber said. “At San Jose State, we always played Weber State, too. We never liked them because they were cheap. I like [USU] because it’s a much closer rivalry.”
Lagree also transferred to USU over the offseason. He played for the University of Utah last season.
“I like [the rivalry],” he said. “I like the grittiness and I like how you get the fans into it. The team really gets pumped up when we play a big team like Weber. It really shows.”
USU will officially start its season next Thursday against the Colorado State Rams.
“It’s coming together, slowly but surely,” Webber said. “I think by this next week through practice we should be solid. We’ll be ready for Colorado State.”
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu