Hockey team picks up two more wins

Chalk up two more wins for the Utah State hockey club, which beat the Weber State Division-II squad 8-0 Friday in Logan and 5-3 Saturday in Ogden.

“We are just on fire,” head coach Jerry Crossley said. “We’re having fun and we want to keep it that way.”

The Aggies are now 5-1 this semester and have out-scored their opponents 46-11.

Aggie Maciej Michalik said USU made a statement by sweeping the Wildcats.

“We’re the top team in Utah,” he said. “We’ve been working hard. There’s been a big improvement since last semester. We just got to keep working.”

Saturday’s game featured 105 penalty minutes.

“It was a good weekend, but an ugly game,” Crossley said. “There was no flow. There were a lot of stoppages.”

Defenseman Brett Fryslie said the only way that the Wildcats could keep pace with the Aggies was with dirty play.

“There was a lot of dirty stuff,” he said. “The refs didn’t have control of the game.”

The Aggies led 3-2 after the second period when they scored two goals at the beginning of the third to take a three-goal advantage.

Fryslie, who scored a goal in the third period, said winning wasn’t the only good thing for him Saturday.

“I’m just happy I scored,” he said. “I’m a fat defenseman. I don’t get to do that very often.”

Crossley said he was happy his team was able to win despite not being at the top of its game.

“It’s that intangible thing that teams learn how to win,” he said. “We’re clicking away. We’re improving each game.”

Utah State 8, Weber State D-II 0

Friday, the Aggies’ top line of Robert Hashimoto, William Winsa and Mikel Roy combined for seven goals and seven assists in the teams 8-0 win.

“You always expect Weber to be good,” Roy said. “This was a little surprising. I thought it would be a closer game than this.”

Roy said even though his line gets a lot of credit, the whole team has been stepping it up this semester.

“We’re all contributing,” he said. “We’re all coming together. Everyone brought it tonight.”

The shutout was the second in three games for goalie Greg Finatti.

He said this one felt better than the team’s 15-0 win over Utah Valley State College on Jan. 20.

“This was a better team,” he said. “It makes you feel good.”

Finatti said the defense in front of him deserves just as much credit for a good game as he does.

“The few rebounds I let out our guys cleared out,” he said. “I was seeing all the shots. Our guys were blocking guys.”

Finatti said he can only think of one team he’d rather shut out.

“If it was BYU, it would be better,” he said.

The American Collegiate Hockey Association released new rankings Friday, but they did not include last weekend’s games.

In the new poll, USU climbed one spot to be ranked No. 9. WSU was at No. 7 and BYU jumped ahead of the Aggies at No. 8.

Crossley said he expects his team to be higher in the next and final poll.

“The goal is to move up in the ranking and get a good seed for regionals,” he said. “Realistically, we could get as high as fifth, but that depends how strong we win out.”

Fryslie said the rankings weren’t the reason for Utah State to get up for its two games against Weber State.

“We wanted to show everyone that we’re the best in Utah,” Fryslie said. “It was about proving we belong.

“Beating them will propel us up the charts.”

-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu