Hockey club confident heading to Colorado
After playing its first two games in the state of Utah, the Utah State University hockey club will take its game to Colorado as the Aggies will play the University of Colorado and Colorado State University.
USU will play CU Friday in Boulder and CSU Saturday in Fort Collins.
When asked how USU felt about its chances against Colorado and Colorado State, team manager Keith Bleazard said confident.
“We’re pretty confident we can go to Colorado and come out with two wins,” he said.
He said the two wins last weekend against Weber State and Utah will give the Aggies a big boost for the trip.
Junior defenseman Aaron Sutliff said all he feels is confidence right now, because there’s a lot more dedication and willingness from the team to play a controlled game than last year.
Another defenseman, senior Colby Thurston, expressed the same confidence in his coaches and teammates.
“We’re more confident with the coaches and each other this year,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve felt comfortable early in the season since I’ve been on the team.”
A disadvantage the team has to face is the smaller, standard-size rinks Colorado and Colorado State both have. USU is used to practicing and playing on an Olympic-size rink.
Assistant coach Ty Newberry said these smaller rinks will give USU’s faster guys a harder time moving around other players.
But perhaps the biggest challenge to the team is themselves. Newberry said the young team has played sporadically in its three exhibition games and two regular season games, and yet lacks to put together a complete 60-minute game.
He said if the team can put together back-to-back 60-minute games, which will be tough, he is confident it will steal both games and be ranked in the top four in its division.
When asked about playing CU and CSU, Newberry said he doesn’t know too much about them, but if USU focuses on its strengths, then it will be in control of the games.
The Aggies will once again be without the services of sophomore defenseman Brandon Lang, who is out for another month due to a torn ACL suffered the first exhibition game against Weber.
Other than Lang, Newberry said, “There are guys with chronic injuries that rehabilitation, rest and things like that can take care of.”
Newberry and Sutliff expressed the importance and the optimism of this road trip. Newberry said this trip is probably the toughest on the schedule, but he’s excited about the accelerated learning that will take place.
“There will be a lot of necessary bonding and camaraderie going on between the players and quality time spent with us,” he said.
Sutliff said the team has a nothing-to-lose, but everything-to-gain type attitude, and these games will be a measuring stick or a “gut check” against two teams that may be the top two teams in the division.
The team will return Sunday morning and begin preparing for next week’s game against San Jose State University on Thursday at the Eccles Ice Center.
-noisi@cc.usu.edu