Weber D-II could challenge Ags
the Utah State hockey club is surprisingly tense.
USU will face the Weber State Division-II squad for a home-and-home this weekend, playing in Logan Friday night and Ogden Saturday.
The Aggies aren’t expecting the Wildcats to be as tame as last year, perhaps picking up some players that played for the WSU D-I team last season.
“It wouldn’t be surprised if they were a lot more legit,” defenseman Scotty John said. “Weber D-I had a couple guys missing that surprised me.”
Last weekend, USU was crushed by the WSU D-I squad 10-2 at home, but rebounded to shutout BYU 3-0 in Provo the next night. Despite the win, the Aggies were upset with their poor performance.
“A win is a win and we’re glad to have it,” John said. “But everyone was disappointed with the lackluster effort.”
A lack of talent is not the issue, but working together as a team, goalie Adam Lain said.
“We just need to pull a lot of lose ends together,” he said.
John said USU needs to work harder because its competition in the league will be better than it was last year.
“We’ve heard rumors from all over the league about Weber State, Colorado State, San Jose State and even Eastern Washington,” John said. “We haven’t been tested yet. We need to prove ourselves.”
John said no one outside of Logan thinks the Aggies will do as well as last season’s sixth place finish in the nation.
“I think we’re going to be a sleeper,” he said. “Teams don’t think we’re as good. We have just as much talent, if not more than last year. Once we put it together, we’ll have an even better year.”
This weekend’s games will be the first and second of six meetings between USU and the WSU D-II team this year. The Aggies won all six meetings last year.
The Wildcats have only played one game thus far this season, beating the new UVSC team 7-2 in the Bruins first ever game.
Friday’s game will be at the Eccles Ice Arena in North Logan and will start at 8 p.m. Saturday’s game will be at the Weber County Ice Sheet and will also start at 8 p.m.
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu