Club hockey brings home tourny title
The Utah State University hockey team dominated this weekend, bringing home the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Hockey Association Tournament title.
The Aggies didn’t lose a game all weekend in what team manager Keith Bleazard called “a Cinderella weekend.”
The Aggies opened against the University of Southern California Trojans on Thursday. The Trojans were outmatched as the Aggies picked up a 6-3 victory against the team. Adam Lain played goalie and had 29 saves on 32 shots.
Greg Howard scored the first goal, followed by Deryk Anderson (unassisted), Dave Moore, Ian Tracy (two goals) and Nick Thiros.
Aaron Burrell picked up two assists.
Friday night the Aggies found a little more competition in the University of Utah Utes.
The Aggies however came out skating and threw in their first goal by Moore with only 29 seconds off the clock.
Moore knocked another goal in before he was checked into the glass at the beginning of the third period.
Moore headed off to the hospital with torn muscles and a broken rib.
The Aggies held a 6-3 lead with 12 minutes remaining.
The Utes slapped the puck in the goal twice with only 1:52 remaining in the game.
The Utes then pulled their goalie out of the game to bring another player down the ice and try to win the game.
Deryk Anderson had a different plan breaking away with 45 seconds left. He backhanded a goal into an empty net, his third of the night.
Mike Lewandowski then brought the crowd to their feet with two seconds remaining when he threw in the final goal making the score, 8-5.
Lain employed the goalie spot once again and had 36 saves.
Other Aggie scorers were Rad Anderson and Kelly Froerer.
Saturday at 7:30 a.m., the Aggies went up against the No. 1 ranked Weber State Wildcats.
Weber took control early with two goals in the first period.
Tracy put in the Aggies first goal with 1:32 into the second period. Weber then slapped in their third and final goal to make the score 3-1 after the second period.
Halfway through the third period, the momentum shifted and freshman Howard took control of the game.
He shot the puck by Weber’s goalie twice to tie the game at 3-3.
Deryk Anderson helped with an assist.
The game went into sudden-death overtime with a five-minute period.
Neither team was able to score ending the game in a tie.
Earlier in the tournament the Wildcats lost to University of Utah 13-3, which gave Utah State a better record, thus Utah State played the University of Utah for the tournament title.
Utah slapped the first score on the board early with a short-handed goal which gave them the lead through the first period.
Thirteen seconds into the second, Thiros threw in a goal.
Howard and Deryk Anderson also were able to help the puck find the back of the net later in the period.
The Utes were able to keep pace with a pair of goals of their own.
During the third period Tracy scored a goal in the first 20 seconds. The Utes made a rush for a score toward the end of the game and ricocheted the puck off the crossbar of the goal.
This close call for the Aggies was as close as it would come, giving the victory and tournament title to Utah State.
Lain had an excellent show between the pipes by saving 20-plus shots, Howard said.
“The key to both of Saturday’s games was the awesome goal tending of Lain,” Bleazard said.
Head coach Jerry Crossley said, “Sometimes you run into one of the critical times when you decide to gel and become as one or unravel and focus on individuals. This weekend was the perfect test for our team and we didn’t lose focus.”
The Aggies improved their record to 8-1-1 on the season and may move to No. 1 in the West when the rankings come out in November.
The team will travel to California this weekend to take on the Univesrity of California, Berkely.