USU picks up two wins on hostile ice
A feeling of optimism surrounded Utah State hockey after the Aggies kicked off second semester play with a suspenseful road win over Brigham Young University. USU scraped through the first semester with a thin bench, but now a huge influx of talent has the team awash in scorers, defenders and playmakers.
Matt Geer, back in action after a two-semester hiatus, is the latest skater to team with Kent Arsenault and Jay McFadden on USU’s top scoring line, and he didn’t wait long to make his presence felt. USU fell behind 1-0 early, but then Geer took a no-look feed from Arsenault and buried the puck behind BYU’s Ben Shapiro to tie things up.
“He’s by far, out of everybody, my favorite,” Arsenault said of Geer. “We definitely feed off each other.”
The Aggies opened up the second period with a scoring burst initiated by newcomer Brendan MacDonald’s top-shelf goal, which Arsenault called, “a beauty, a really nice one.” The 5-foot-8-inch MacDonald, who said he wasn’t getting any ice time at the University of Manitoba because of his size, has his teammates excited with his potential. Greg Finatti, who picked up the win as starting goalie, said MacDonald and another Canuck, defenseman Mackenzie York, “are going to step right in and get the job done for us.”
Arsenault scored next for USU, then Ben Tikka rifled a puck from just inside the blue line that went top shelf and in, and USU was sitting on a 4-1 lead.
MacDonald said BYU never quit working, however.
“They keep skating the whole game, especially with the crowd behind them,” he said.
Finatti also mentioned the crowd, saying it was the best turnout he remembered seeing at a BYU game.
BYU scored a couple of goals on the power play to make the score 4-3 late in the third period, but then Arsenault said Jeremy Madigan “busted his balls down the ice” to pop in an empty-netter.
“The only way BYU has scored goals on us all year is on the power play,” Finatti said. “We had to kill off a couple of five-on-threes to end the game.”
Arsenault concurred with his goalie’s view and heaped him with credit for the win, saying, “The main factor was our penalty kill. We were up 4-1 at one point. Finatti was standing on his head making saves I have never even seen before.”
The other new player for USU this semester is Chris Quinn, who Finatti said will be a solid contributor. Jordan Francom and Paul Reinhardt are both back on defense. Three Aggies who played in the past and are back on the team are Mike Walker, Justin Lupton and Brett Fryslie.
“You definitely have to earn your ice time,” Arsenault said. “We’ve got eight or nine deep on our top line forwards, so we’ve got five or six guys sitting every game.”
One notable Aggie was out of the lineup this weekend. Team Captain Scottie John said he did not travel with the team. John left the door open for himself to return to the ice later in the semester.
Close, but not too close
The University of Utah has never come so close to beating Utah State before. Behind an amazing performance by goalie AJ Boldan, the Utes took another halting step toward maybe someday actually winning a game against the Aggies.
“Nobody wanted to play,” said Arsenault, who led USU with a routine hat trick. “We’re just getting sick of those games at this point. That goalie, I don’t know how he did it, but he made saves he shouldn’t have made.”
Finatti watched from the bench as Dan Cornelius got the win in goal.
“Everybody was just having fun and didn’t put much effort out,” Finatti said. “We got it done when we needed to.”
Finatti said Boldan “had the game of his life” to keep his team within single digits of the Aggies.
Quinn got his first goal as an Aggie, and Willam Winsa and Lupton also scored. Arsenault said the Aggies had plenty of looks at the Utah goal but were unable to push the score up into the teens the way they usually do.
“We had plenty of shots, but guys are just getting snakebit,” Arsenault said.
Next weekend, the Ags will be on the road in Washington, where they will play Gonzaga Friday night as a warmup for a showdown with No. 2-ranked Eastern Washington on Saturday. The remaining schedule is rife with opportunities for the reinforced Aggies to make a big move in the rankings. Besides two games against Eastern Washington, USU also hosts top western teams Colorado, Colorado State and Utah Valley.
“It all just depends on the next few weekends,” Finatti said. “We’ve got Eastern Washington twice, Colorado and Colorado State. If we take care of that, then we’re good. If not, we’re still looking up from the bottom.”
-graham.terry@aggiemail.usu.edu