Hockey team ready to move on without go-to player Burrell

Trailing 5-3 to Siena College in last season’s final game, things looked bleak for the Utah State hockey club.

Its season had virtually ended the game before with an 8-3 loss to defending national champion Oakland and the team was dragging in apathy.

But Aaron Burrell stepped up and led his team to a 6-5 win, scoring the game winner in overtime in his final game as an Aggie.

That’s the kind of insurance USU had with Burrell on the team. But after six years, his eligibility is up and he is going on to play in Belgium for the Turnhout White Caps, a low-level professional team, which means the Aggies no longer have that insurance policy.

Head Coach Jerry Crossley said it is kind of bittersweet to see such a dominant player leave the team.

“On one hand, you hate to lose your top scorer,” he said. “But now there’s no one to lean on. Everyone has to play.”

Forward Robert Hashimoto, who has been the team’s second leading scorer over the last three years, said the team is ready to move on.

“Burrell’s a great player,” he said. “He has big shoes to fill. But we’ll step up, work hard and pull something out.”

Both Hashimoto and Crossley spoke very carefully about Burrell. They did not want to sound as though they were disrespecting him in any way. After all, he is USU’s all-time leading goal scorer.

But they also wanted to make it clear that the team is not going to unravel without him, as it appeared they were poised to do after the Siena game.

That certainly wasn’t the only game in which Captain Burrell came to the rescue. In some ways, Burrell’s outstanding talent made the rest of the team underachieve. Occasionally, they would simply bide their time and do just enough so they could give Burrell the opportunity to score. Otherwise, they could have made the big play themselves if they didn’t have him to fall back on.

But you won’t see that happen this season.

The Aggies have the talent to win nationals this year if they can come together and play as one team. That’s their plan.

Aaron Burrell was an amazing player that took the USU hockey team to new heights. This season may see Hashimoto, Roberto Leo, Jordan Francom or anyone else assume the duties of go-to scorer.

But the team isn’t going to sit around and wait for that to happen.

Bryan Hinton is a senior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to bhhinton@cc.usu.edu.