USU Hockey whomps Wildcats
Utah State’s club hockey team took to the Ice Sheet in Ogden on Friday night, beating the Weber State Wildcats by a score of 3-1.
Aggie forward Chris Videto scored the first goal of the game and of his college hockey career in the first period, assisted by defender Ty Johns and forward Matt Hamilton. — sean.osullivan@aggiemail.usu.edu
“Ty Johns got the puck up to Matt Hamilton pretty quick, and he somehow sent a pass through to me,” Videto said. “I just put it on net and got lucky.”
Then in the second period, two fights broke out simultaneously when Cooper Limb of the Aggies laid a hit on the Wildcat goalie. These fights led to a period of three-on-three play where the Aggies were able to take advantage.
With all the open ice, the Aggies kept a lot of the possession, and finally, Gary Higgs put the puck past the Wildcat goalie off a rebound.
Following the penalty, the Aggies successfully killed off a four-on-three and then a five-on-three penalty kill to keep momentum on their side.
“When you’re down a couple of men, it’s all about outworking the other team, and we did that,” said USU goalie Bryce Scherschel, who had 35 saves on the night.
Scherschel had a big game for the Aggies, earning the praise of Head Coach Jon Eccles.
“I thought he was a real big reason why we won the game,” Eccles said.
While Scherschel played a large role in the win, he acknowledged the effort of the whole team.
“The team made it easy for me to make a lot of saves,” Scherschel said. “A lot of the shots were from the outside on the perimeter, so the team made my job easy.”
Even though USU took the lead into the second intermission, Eccles said he noticed a period of sluggishness.
“Some of these teams have been skating a bit longer than us,” Eccles said, noting that there may have been a level of fatigue in the middle of the game.
“We need to make sure we don’t go flat during the middle of the game and just keep going and working hard all the way through,” Videto said.
Near the end of the third period, the Wildcats amped up the pressure by pulling their goalie. This gave them an extra attacker, but left their net undefended.
The wildcats used the extra attacker to their advantage, getting a great scoring opportunity that Scherschel saved. The Aggies picked the puck up and scored easily on the empty net.
“We’re really excited with the way our team played and the effort we got,” Eccles said. “There’s a lot of things we need to work on and improve in, but for the most part, we were really pleased with the way the guys played.”
With the first-game nerves out of the way, the Aggies can focus on the rest of their season.
“I think everyone was kind of excited to get back on the ice,” Scherschel said.
The Aggies’ next game is on Thursday, Sept. 27 against the Wildcats in Ogden.
Twitter: @Seansy89