Utah State splits with BYU on the ice
The BYU Icecats outworked Utah State for a 4-2 win decided in the second period.
The loss in the Peaks Ice Arena wasn’t the only bad news of the night for Aggie coach Jerry Crossley-Ryan Osterheldt’s separated shoulder forced Crossley to again shuffle the lines. The Aggies will be without the services of the aggressive Osterheldt until the second semester.
Aaron Shimmel scored both goals for USU, proving once again that skating alongside sophomores Kent Arsenault and Jay McFadden is good for a player’s bottom line. Freshman Ben Tikka, who has been one half of USU’s best defensive pair along with Maciej Michalik since moving back, admitted that although he has played defense all his life, he would love to be playing forward with Arsenault and McFadden again.
“They moved me up to first line with Kent and Jay and they got me the puck at the right time,” Shimmel said. “Unfortunately it wasn’t enough. The team could have stepped up a little more and maybe we would have won the game.”
Dan Cornelius continued to split playing time at goalie with Greg Finatti and stopped 38 pucks but got another loss on his record.
“We definitely played down to their level, maybe a bit lower,” Cornelius said. “I don’t want to sound cocky or anything, but they’re not a good team.”
Brigham Young defenseman Gage Rasmussen opened the scoring in the first period with a power play goal assisted by his brother Case and center Brandon Holmes. USU just avoided going into the first intermission down 1-0 thanks to Shimmel, who got assists from Arsenault and McFadden on his own power-play goal with 16 seconds to go.
The Icecats were in business early in the second period again, with a goal from Ben Shugart and another power-play goal scored by Josh Burkart after Michalik was hauled off to the penalty box on a slashing rap. Shimmel combined with McFadden and Arsenault to get the Ags within 3-2, but then Arsenault was hit with a rarely called diving penalty, and BYU’s Jimmy Burkart converted the Icecat’s third man-advantage opportunity of the night.
USU 6, BYU 2
The Aggies continued to play .500 hockey as they enter the backstretch of the first semester, evening up their record at 9-9-1 with a decisive 6-2 win in the packed Eccles Ice Arena on Saturday night.
After going down 4-0, the Icecats got onto the scoreboard in the final minute of the second period when they pulled Ben Shapiro from the goal while already on the power play for a 6-on-4 situation. Ben Shugart tipped the puck past Greg Finatti, who finished with 42 saves and spent most of the third period flat on his back.
The golden opportunity for BYU came when Robert Sutherland and Matt Ferris were both hit with penalties during the action surrounding Shugart’s goal. The dual penalties meant USU opened the third period playing 5-on-3 hockey. The Aggies had only just killed off that penalty, thanks to some solid work between the pipes by Finatti, when Michalik got popped for boarding and went away to give BYU another two-minute opportunity to close the gap. Finatti, however, baffled every BYU shooter and his team passed the test.
“We played pretty good,” Finatti said. “We shortened up our bench and came out and performed just like we did against San Jose State.”
It was a balanced scoring effort for the Aggies, and more than one player used terms like ‘all three periods’ or ‘all 60 minutes’ to describe the team’s encouraging play. Nine players scored points, led by McFadden’s four. McFadden tied with Michalik for the team lead in assists with three and was named co-player of the game along with Finatti by the Valley Channel broadcasting crew.
William Winsa was the only Aggie to score more than one goal. He beat Shapiro for the first time in the second period while on the power play, then got his second by prowling in the slot area while McFadden and Shimmel cycled the puck behind the net, then one-timing it into the twine at a crazy angle to make it 6-1 late in the third.
The loss the previous night “got everybody mad, so we just wanted to get them here and kick their ass,” Winsa said.
After losses earlier in the year, Winsa has called out his teammates for not matching his own all-out effort, but this time he was pleased.
“We showed that we’re not screwing around anymore,” he said. “We’re here to play this game, we’re here to win, we’re here to beat you, and we did. We kept that attitude the whole game. White line rules.”
Team captain Scotty John had a big night statistically, with a goal and an assist, but gave up the second BYU goal with 2:57 remaining in the game when he attempted a backhand pass across the slot to Tikka that never arrived. The biscuit was not fired with the appropriate level of urgency, allowing a streaking Jason Griffiths to intercept it and beat a surprised Finatti to the post. However, his goal was a thing of beauty: an off-speed wrist shot from just inside the blue line that fluttered like a Major League change-up, and it was tumbling around behind Shapiro before he knew it.
Fans exiting the game from the south bleachers got an unexpected bonus as time expired when Walter Voisard got involved with a skirmish with two BYU skaters.
“I was skating into the sideboards to try and get the puck and dish to J-Mac so he could possibly get a goal right at the end of the game,” Voisard said. “I went to turn and a guy hit me into the boards from behind, just like I said BYU does all the time because they’re a cheap team. I wasn’t going to take it from them, so I turned around and socked him in the face.”
Another Icecat skater arrived, and Voisard gamely traded gloved blows to the cage with both players until referees arrived to break things up. The small fight seemed inevitable after a third period in which both teams skated fast and hit hard while the BYU side was repeatedly frustrated by Finatti.
Voisard had more words for the visitors: “I’m not a fan of BYU, I don’t like them. I think they’re a cheap team and they could play a little more sportsmanlike.”
-graham.terry@aggiemail.usu.edu