Utah State, Weber take to the ice
After getting beat by BYU for only the third time last weekend, the Utah State hockey club is looking to rebound with its first-ever win over the Weber State Division-I squad this weekend.
The teams will play in at 7:30 p.m. Friday, in Logan, at the Eccles Ice Center and will play again on Saturday in Ogden.
The Aggies have lost all three meetings with the Wildcat’s D-I team this year and have been outscored 23-4.
“We just want to go out and play well,” Aggie Nick Thiros said. “Just because we’ve lost to them every time this year and last year doesn’t mean we’re going to go out and expect to lose this weekend.”
Despite losing every game to the upper-division squad since it was created in 2003, USU said it has a great chance at beating them this weekend.
“If we come with the right mindset and give them something they haven’t seen, then I think we could upset them,” Aggie Scotty John said.
Robert Hashimoto said the Aggies need to create more scoring opportunities.
“I believe that we just need to shoot more and cause a little more traffic in front of the net,” he said.
USU is expecting the home game on Friday to be its best chance at pulling out the upset.
“I don’t want to say it’s our only chance, but it’s definitely our best chance,” John said. “I want to take it one game at a time.”
“The fans help out a lot,” Hashimoto said. “I think we have a better chance of winning at home, but it’s always a good game..”
John said if the Aggies play at the top of their game then they will beat the Wildcats.
“If we’re both playing at the top of our games, then I think our goaltenders are better than theirs so we’d beat them,” he said. “But it’s a totally different mindset playing against Weber D-I.”
The Aggies acknowledged that they were not prepared to play in Provo last Saturday, where they lost 4-2 to BYU on an empty net goal.
“Obviously that it was a different team we played,” John said. “We underestimated BYU.”
“We’re upset,” Thiros said. “It’s a big letdown anytime you lose to an in-state rival, especially a rival that we’ve handled easily all year long.”
Thiros said the loss to BYU might actually help the Aggies this weekend because it will help them stay focused.
While no USU players think the loss to BYU will hurt them in the standings, they do think that they will be under the microscope for the next few weeks.
“I think a lot of teams are going to watch to see how we do,” Hashimoto said. “Losing to BYU hurts, but beating Weber D-I would help us a lot in the rankings.”
Thiros also said that beating a D-I school would erase the loss to BYU.
The Aggies will close out the 2004 portion of their schedule with a home-and-home against the WSU D-II team on Dec. 17 and Dec. 18.
USU has won both games against the lower-division WSU team, outscoring them 28-2.
Hashimoto said he is confident that after this weekend, the Aggies can get on a winning streak with games against WSU D-II, Cal-Berkelely, San Jose State, Southern California and Washington.
“It’s always good to have a good winning streak,” he said. “I don’t see San Jose State as being that good [of a] team, but it was a close game. I think that winning streak they had helped them and hopefully it will help us.”
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu
USU´s Nick Haase gets a punch to the face by a BYU player Dec. 10. The Ags won the game 10-3. (Photo by John Zsiray)